Using AI to optimize Tau PET Imaging for Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Development
In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on investigating the role of Tau in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and in other neurodegenerative diseases associated with the accumulation of pathological misfolded Tau, such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Studies using recently introduced second-generation Tau tracers suggests that these tracers are binding to Tau with higher specificity compared to previous tracers, leading to increased interest in Tau within clinical studies. However, it’s still unclear what role Tau imaging will play in clinical trials: should Tau be used as a clinical endpoint; and how does it link to other biomarkers such as amyloid-beta, with some studies suggesting that amyloid-beta triggers the spread of Tau beyond the MTL region.
Given that the majority of Tau studies have been conducted using first-generation PET tracers, which had shown high incidences of off-site binding, it will be important to review the current data to understand what we know about Tau in AD and how second-generation tracers are being applied in clinical studies. Additionally, this webinar will cover the steps being taken to advance Tau PET operational and analytical methodologies in AD clinical studies and other Tau-related neurodegenerative diseases.
Presenters: Victor L. Villemagne, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Department of Molecular Imaging and Therapy, Centre for PET, Austin Health, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne Richard Manber, Biomarker Scientist, IXICO
Victor L. Villemagne, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Department of Molecular Imaging and Therapy, Centre for PET, Austin Health, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne
Dr. Villemagne graduated Cum Laude in 1983 from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina and was awarded a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Nuclear Medicine in 1984, where he continued his post-graduate studies at the Division of Nuclear Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Since 2003, when he joined the Neurodegeneration group in Melbourne, he has performed several preclinical and clinical studies of new tracers for Aβ and Tau imaging in animal transgenic models and humans. He has authored and co-authored several book chapters and requested reviews on molecular imaging and more than 300 original research publications. Among other honors, he has received the de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging (Boston, USA, 2013), the Christopher Clark Award for the Continuing Advancement in the Field of Human Amyloid Imaging, (Miami, USA, 2014), and the Kuhl-Lassen award by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (Philadelphia, USA, 2018). Since 2016, he has been recognized as one of The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds based on his citations being in the top one percent in the world in the field of neuroscience.
Richard Manber, Biomarker Scientist, IXICO
Dr. Richard Manber graduated from the University of Bristol with a Master’s degree in Engineering Mathematics, and holds a PhD from University College London in Medical Physics, specializing in PET and MRI image acquisition, motion correction and image reconstruction. He has published several scientific papers in a number of leading medical imaging journals, including the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, where he was awarded the Alavi-Mandell Award. He also won a Young Investigator Award at SNMMI and received the University College London Translational Research Grant in 2016.
Richard currently works at IXICO as a Biomarker Scientist, across a wide range of therapeutic areas including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Multiple System Atrophy. He acts as the scientific lead in a number of clinical trials at different phases; setting up imaging protocols, defining study endpoints, ensuring image processing and resulting endpoints are computed as required, and taking scientific responsibility for data transfers.
Learning outcomes:
- Overview: The role of Tau in disease progression
- Importance of Tau PET imaging and analysis in clinical trials
- Comparison of the various Tau PET tracers available
- Challenges of implementing Tau PET imaging into clinical studies (incl. CenTauRz scale)
- Understanding the advances in the operational delivery of Tau PET capabilities
- Recent research addressing the optimization of Tau PET image analysis methodologies
