John Prior, Yann Seimbille, Olivier Michielin et Curzio Rüegg are recipients of the 2008 Leenaards Prize for scientific research

A multidisciplinary team lead by Dr John Prior (Nuclear medicine, CHUV, Lausanne) and including Dr Yann Seimbille (Nuclear medicine, HUG, Geneva), Prof. Michielin (SIB, LICR and DEO, Lausanne) and Prof. Rüegg (DEO, Lausanne) has received one of the three 2008 Leenaards prizes for scientific research. Prof. Michielin and Prof Rüegg are members of the NCCR Molecular Oncology program of ISREC. The awarded project aims at developing new peptides targeting vascular integrins (a class of adhesion molecules) through an in silico molecular-design approach and use them to detect the expression of the receptor on tumor vessels in cancer patients by Position Emission Tomography (PET). Once validated, the tested peptides may also contribute to develop new anti-angiogenic drugs for cancer treatment. This approach will allow to rapidly generate new tumor vasculature-targeting drugs that may be used to identify patients expressing the target and who may benefit from an anti-integrin-based treatment. It also makes possible to directly monitoring the therapeutic effect of the treatment in patients. This prestigious prize confirms the excellence in research in molecular modeling, tumor angiogenesis and biomedical imaging in the Lausanne - Geneva area. More information available at : Fondation Leenaards