9505394 Bonasera The International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will provide partial support for a postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Thomas A. Bonasera to work with Professor Bengt Roland Langstrom of Uppsala University PET Centre in Sweden. The initial ten months of research will be supported by a Fulbright grant. This award will allow Dr. Bonasera to do a full year of research. The purpose of this research project is to study the radiochemical synthesis of carbon-11 labeled steroidal androgen receptor ligands as potential imaging agents for positron emission tomographic (PET) assessment of the androgen receptor protein in men with prostate cancer. Several androgen receptor ligands (steroids with high affinity for the androgen receptor protein) will be synthesized in the carbon-11 labeled form. Some of them will be labeled at two different positions with carbon-11. The main objective is to develop efficient reaction conditions for the carbon-11 radiolabeling of these steroids, to optimize the reaction yields in each step of the synthesis, and to select one or more of the ligands for further future study as a PET imaging agent. ***
