InFLAMES Group leader Xiang-Guo Li has been nominated as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in radiochemistry.

Dr. Li is a radiochemist and medicinal chemist at Turku PET Centre. His research focuses on the development of new radiopharmaceuticals for clinical imaging with positron emission tomography (PET), making molecules radioactive to see the invisible in man. PET is increasingly in use in the public healthcare so  the availability of new radioactive drugs has direct social impact.

Dr. Li’s expertise is at making molecules radioactive for imaging applications in animals and human.  The molecules are diverse in their chemical nature and therefore they can be used for many types of diseases. As a recent example, he has been the responsible radiochemist in the development of Siglec-9, which is the first radioactive drug totally developed in Finland, for PET imaging of inflammatory diseases. These types of radioactive drugs are used for identifying diseased tissues in human body, which helps physicians to make plans for treatment of patients.

Currently Li is leading a project for brain tumor PET imaging, aiming for new agents for patient care with high precision. In addition to radioactive drug research and development, Dr. Li is active in education and business collaboration.