MCN AA-1105
Nashville, TN 37232-2310
Dr. Pham is presently investigating cell therapy using a transgenic and preclinical mouse model. To this point, he has used integrated, nanotechnology-based platforms to develop a multifunctional, multiplexed nanovaccine delivery system for use in cancer therapy. Aside from highlighting the contrast properties and carrier features available in nanotechnology, the overall goals of Dr. Pham's efforts are to (i) provide microanatomical and functional imaging feedback of the therapeutic process and (ii) realize an approach for longitudinal treatment and monitoring.
The Pham Laboratory has also integrated combinatorial methods to identify novel Abeta binding molecules for the treatment of AD. These use a high-throughput screening approach combined with MALDI-IMS to assess the specificity of those drugs on a transgenic mouse model of AD. The laboratory is currently testing the drugs' ability to clear Abeta and improve cognitive functions among the transgenic mice.
Section: Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science
VUMC email: wellington.pham@vumc.org
Kolanjiyil AV, Kleinstreuer C, Kleinstreuer NC, Pham W, Sadikot RT, et al. Mice-to-men comparison of inhaled drug-aerosol deposition and clearance. Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2019; 260: 82-94.
Kumagai H, Yamada K, Nakai K, Kitamura T, Mohri K, Ukawa M, Tomono T, Eguchi T, Yoshizaki T, Fukuchi T, Yoshino T, Matsuura M, Tobita E, Nakase H, Sakuma S, et al. Tumor recognition of peanut agglutinin-immobilized fluorescent nanospheres in biopsied human tissues. Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2019; 136: 29-37.
Shchepin RV, Birchall JR, Chukanov NV, Kovtunov KV, Koptyug IV, Theis T, Warren WS, Gelovani JG, Goodson BM, Shokouhi S, Rosen MS, Yen YF, Pham W, Chekmenev EY, et al. Hyperpolarizing concentrated metronidazole 15NO2 group over six chemical bonds with more than 15% polarization and a 20 minute lifetime. Chemistry. 2019.
McClure R, Redha R, Vinson P, Pham W, et al. A robust and scalable high-throughput compatible assay for screening amyloid beta-binding compounds. J Alzheimer Dis. 2019; 187-97.
Salnikov Oleg, Shchepin Roman, Chukanov Nikita, Jaigirdar Lamya, Pham Wellington, Kovtunov Kirill, Koptyug Igor, Chekmenev Eduard. Effects of deuteration of 13C-enriched phospholactate on efficiency of parahydrogen-induced polarization by magnetic field cycling. J Physical Chemistry. 2018; in press.
Barton Shawn, Li Bo, Siuta Michael, Janve Vaibhav, Song Jessica, Holt Clinton, Tomono Takumi, Ukawa Masami, Kumagai Hironori, Tobita Etsuo, Wilson Kevin, Sakuma Shinji, Pham Wellington, et al. Specific molecular recognition as a strategy to delineate tumor margin using topically applied fluorescence embedded nanoparticles. J Precision Nanomedicine. 2018; in press.
Coffey A, Feldman A, Shchepin RV, Barskiy D, Truong ML, Pham W, Chekmenev EY. High-resoluiton hyperpolarized in vivo metabolic 13C spectroscopy at low magnetic field (48.7mT) following murine tail-vein injection. J Magnetic Resonance. 2017; 281: 246-52.
Coffey AM, Shchepin RV, Truong ML, Wilkens K, Pham W, Chekmenev EY, et al. Open-Source Automated Parahydrogen Hyperpolarizer for Molecular Imaging Using 13C Metablic Contrast Agents. Anal chem. 2016; 88(16): 8279-88.
McClure Richard, Ong Henry, Janve Vaibhab, Barton Shawn, Zhu Meiying, Li Bo, Dawes Mary, Jerome Gray, Anderson Adam, Massion Pierre, Gore John, Pham Wellington, et al. Aerosol delivery of curcumin reduced abeta deposition and improved cognitive performance in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. JAD. 2016; (in press).
Li Bo, Siuta Michael, Bright Vanessa, Koktysh Dmitry, Matlock Brittany, Dumas Megan, Zhu Meiying, Holt Alex, Stec Donald, Deng Shenglou, Savage Paul, Joyce Sebastian, Pham Wellington. Improved proliferation of antigen-specific cytolytic T lymphocytes using a multimodal nanovaccine. Int J Nanomedicine. 2016; in press.
Nakase Hiroshi, Sakuma Shinji, Fukuchi Takumi, Yoshino Takuya, Mohri Kohta, Miyata Kohei, Kumagai Hironori, Hiwatari Ken-ichiro, Tsubaki Kazufumi, Ikejima Tetsuya, Tobita Etsuo, Zhu Meiying, Wilson Kelvin, Washington Kay, Gore John C., Pham Wellington, et al. Evaluation of a novel fluorescent nanobeacon for targeted imaging of Thomsen-Friedenreich associated colorectal cancer. Int J Nanomedicine. 2016; in press.
Prabhakaran Jaya, Dewey SL, McClure R, Simpson NR, Tantawy MN, Mann J, Pham W, Kumar JSD, et al. In vivo evaluation of IGF-1R/IR PET ligand[18F]BMS-754807 in rodens. Bioorg & Med Chem Let. 2016; in press.
Shinji Sakuma, James Yu, Timothy Quang, Ken-ichiro Hiwatari, Hironori Kumagai, Stephanie Kao, Alex Holt, Jalysa Erskind, Richard McClure, Michael Siuta, Tokio Kitamura, Seiji Koike, Kevin Wilson, Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Kay Washington, Reed Omary, John Gore and Wellington Pham. Fluorescence-based endoscopic imaging of Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen to improve early detection of colorectal cancer. 2015.
Richard McClure, Daijiro Yanagisawa, Donald Stec, Dave Abdollahian, Dmitry Koktysh, Dritan Xhillari, Rudolph Jaeger, Gregg Stanwood, Eduard Chekmenev, Ikuo Tooyama, John C. Gore and Wellington Pham. Inhalable Curcumin: Offering the potential for translation to imaging and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. 2015.
Sakuma S, Kumagai H, Shimosato M, Kitamura T, Mohri K, Ikejima T, Hiwatari KI, Koike S, Tobita E, McClure R, Gore JC and Pham W. Toxicity studies of coumarin 6-encapsulated polystyrene nanosphere conjugated with peanut agglutinin and poly(N-vinylacetamide) as a colonoscopic imaging agent in rats. 2015.
Tokio Kitamura, Shinji Sakuma, Haruki Higashino, Yoshie Masaoka, Makoto Kataoka, Shinji Yamashita, Ken-ichiro Hiwatari, Hironori Kumagai, Naoki Morimoto, Seiji Koike, Etsuo Tobita, Robert M. Hoffman, John C. Gore and Wellington Pham. In vivo imaging of colorectal tumors on the roden instestinal mucosa by lectin-immobilized fluorescent nanospheres. 2014.
Roman V. Shchepin, Wellington Pham, Eduard Y. Chekmenev. Dephosphorylation and biodistribution of 1-13C-phospholactate in vivo. 2014.
Richard A McClure, Chad W Chumbley, Michelle Reyzer, Kevin Wilson, Richard M Caprioli, John C Gore and Wellington Pham. Identification of promethazine as an amyloid-binding molecule using a fluorescence high-throughput assay and MALDI imaging mass spectrometry. 2013.
Shinji Toki, Reed A. Omary, Kevin Wilson, John C. Gore, R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., Wellington Pham. A comprehensive analysis of transfection-assisted delivery of iron oxide nanoparticles to dendritic cells. 2013.
Xie J, Wang C, Virostko J, Manning HC, Pham W, Bauer J, Gore JC. A novel reporter system for molecular imaging and high-througput screening of anticancer drugs. 2013.
Friedman H, Holt AT, Pham W. Research Highlights: Highlights from the latest articles in nanomedicine. 2013.
Kumagai H, Pham W, Kataoka M, Hiwatari KI, McBride J, Wilson K, Tachikawa H, Kimura R, Nakamura K, Liu E, Gore J, Sakuma S. Multifunctional Nanobeacon for Imaging Thomsen-Friedenreich Antigen-Associated Colorectal Cancer. International Journal of Cancer. 2013; 132: 2107-17.
Nolting D, Nickels M, Tantawy MN, Yu JYH, Xie JP, Peterson TE, Crews BA, Marnett L, Gore JC and Pham W. Convergent synthesis and evaluation of 18F-labeled azulene COX2 probes for cancer imaging. 2012.
Nolting DD, Nickels ML, Guo N, Pham W. Molecular Imaging Probe Development: A Chemistry Perspective. Am J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2012; 2: 273-311.
Wellington Pham. Quantitative Analysis and Safety Issues of Nanotechnology in Healthcare Research. J Mol Biomark Diagn. 2012; 3((5)): 1000e111.
Nolting DD, Gore JC and Pham W. Near-Infrared Dyes: Probe Development and Applications in Optical Molecular Imaging. Curr Org Synth. 2011; 8: 521-34.
Kobuka S, Kremers GJ, Cobb JG, Baheza R, Xie JP, Kuley A, Zhu M, Pham W. Induction of Antitumor Immunity by Dendritic Cells Loaded with Membrane Translocating MUCIN-1 Peptide Antigen. Translational Oncology. 2011; 4((1)): 1-8.
Mackay, PS, Kremers GJ, Kobukai S, Cobb JG, Kuley A, Rosenthal SJ, Koktysh DS, Gore JC, Pham W. MULTIMODAL IMAGING OF DENDRITIC CELLS USING A NOVEL HYBRID MAGNETO-OPTICAL NANOPROBE. Nanomedicine:Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine. 2011; 7: 489-96.
Sakuma S, Kataoka M, Higashino H, Yano T, Masaoka Y, Yamashita S, Hiwatari K, Kimura R, Nakamura K, Kumagai H, Gore J, and Pham W. A Potential of Peanut Agglutinin-Immobilized Fluorescent Nanospheres as a Safe Candidate of Diagnostic Drugs for Colonoscopy. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2011; 42((4)): 340-7.
Sampson UK, Perati RR, Prins PA, Pham W, Liu Z, Harell F, Linton MF, Gore JC, Kon V, Fazio S. Quantitative estimates of variability of in vivo ultrasound imaging measurements of mouse aorta important for studies of abdominal aortic aneurysms and related arterial diseases. J Ultras Med. 2011; 30: 773-84.
Dmitry Koktysh, Vanessa Bright, Wellington Pham. Fluorescent Magnetic Hybrid Nanoprobe for Multimodal Bioimaging. Nanotechnology. 2011; 22: 275606.
Sakuma S, Higashino H, Oshitani H, Masaoka Y, Kataoka M, Yamashita S, Hiwatari KI, Tachikawa H, Kimura R, Nakamura K, Kumagai H, Gore JC, Pham w. Essence of affinity and specificity of peanut agglutinin-immobilized fluorescent nanospheres with surface poly(N-vinylacetamide) chains for colorectal cancer. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. 2011; 79: 537-43.
Sakuma S, Yamashita S, Hiwatari KI, Hoffman RM, Pham W. Lectin-immobilized fluorescent nanospheres for targeting to colorectal cancer from a physicochemical perspective. Curr Drug Discov Technol. 2011; 8: 367-78.
Kobukai S, Baheza R, Cobb J, Virostko J, Xie JP, Gillman A, Koktysh D, Kerns D, Does M, Gore JC and Pham W. Magnetic Nanoparticles for Imaging Dendritic Cells. Magn Reson Med. 2010; 63: 1383-90.
Nickels M, Xie JP, Cobb J, Gore JC and Pham W. Functionalization of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles With a Versatile Epoxy Amine Linker. J Mater Chem. 2010; 20: 4776-80.
Pham W, Kobukai S, Hotta C, Gore J. Dendritic Cells: Therapy and Imaging. Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2009; 9((5)): 539-64.
Nolting DD, Nickels M, Price R, Gore JC, Pham W. Synthesis of Bicyclo[5.3.0]Azulene Derivatives. Nat Protoc. 2009; 4: 1113-7.
Pham W, Cassell L, Gillman A, Koktysh D and Gore JC. A Near-Infrared Dye for Multichannel Imaging. Chem Commun. 2008; 16: 1895-7.
Medarova Z, Pham W, Farrar C, Petkova V, Moore A. In Vivo Imaging of siRNA Delivery and Silencing in Tumors. Nat Med. 2007; 13((3)): 372-7.
Pham W, Xie JP and Gore JC. Tracking The Migration of Dendritic Cells By In Vivo Optical Imaging. Neoplasia. 2007; 9((12)): 1130-7.
Medarova Z, Pham W, Kim Y, Dai G, Moore A. In Vivo Imaging of Tumor Response to Therapy Using a Dual-Modality Imaging Strategy. Int. J. Cancer. 2006; 118: 2796-802.
Pham W, Pantazopoulos P, Moore A. Imaging Farnesyl Protein Transferase Using a Topologically Activated Probe. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006; 128((36)): 11736-7.
Pham W, Medarova Z, Moore A.. Synthesis and application of a water-soluble near-infrared dye for cancer detection using optical imaging. Bioconjugate Chem. 2005; 16: 735-40.
Pham W, Zhao BQ, Lo EH, Medarova Z, Rosen B, Moore A.. Crossing the blood-brain barrier: a potential application of myristoylated polyarginine for in vivo neuroimaging. Neuroimage. 2005; 28: 287-92.
Pham W, Kircher MF, Weissleder R, Tung CH. Enhancing membrane permeability by fatty acylation of oligoarginine peptides. Chembiochem. 2004; 5: 1148-51.
Pham W, Choi Y, Weissleder R, Tung CH. Developing a peptide-based near-infrared molecular probe for protease sensing. Bioconjugate Chem. (Special feature on imaging chemistry). 2004; 15: 1403-7.
Chen JW, Pham W, Weissleder R, Bogdanov A, Jr. Human myeloperoxidase: a potential target for molecular MR imaging in atherosclerosis. Magn. Reson. Med. 2004; 52: 1021-8.
Pham W, Weissleder R, Tung C-H. A practical approach for the preparation of monofunctional azulenyl squaraine dye. Tetrahedron Lett. 2003; 44: 3975-8.
Pham W, Lai WF, Weissleder R, Tung CH. High efficiency synthesis of a bioconjugatable near-infrared fluorochrome. Bioconjugate Chem. 2003; 14: 1048-51.
Pham W, Weissleder R, Tung C-H. An azulene dimer as a near-infrared quencher. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2002; 41: 3659-62.
Pham W, Weissleder R, Tung C-H. Intermolecular [8+2] cycloaddition reactions of 2H-3-methoxycarbonylcyclohepta[b]furan-2-one with vinyl ethers. Tetrahedron Lett. 2001; 43: 19-20.
Krishnan V, Pham W, Messer WS, Jr., Peseckis SM. First fatty acylated dipeptides to affect muscarinic receptor ligand binding. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 1999; 9: 3363-8.
Kolanjiyil AV, Kleinstreuer C, Kleinstreuer NC, Pham W, Sadikot RT, et al. Mice-to-men comparison of inhaled drug-aerosol deposition and clearance. Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 260: 82-94.
Job description: We are seeking a highly motivated synthetic chemist to join Wellington Pham’s research group at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a postdoctoral fellow. This individual will be responsible for developing synthetic chemistry projects by identifying simple, effective and robust ways to achieve the designated products. The incumbent must be able to hypothesize reaction mechanisms and interpreting SAR, generating insights that influence the research strategies. The ideal candidate must demonstrate strong knowledge in organic chemistry, both synthetic methods and practical experience in the synthesis and characterization of small organic molecules using conventional and modern methods.
Key responsibilities:• Designs synthetic targets for lead discovery and optimization to improve specificity, pharmacokinetic properties• Develops novel and executable synthetic routes to achieve research objectives• Develops clear synthetic schemes using conventional and state-of-the-art synthetic methods• Communicates with team members clearly and succinctly the project plans and operations• Makes significant conceptual contributing to project activities
Qualifications:• Ph.D. (or equivalent) in organic chemistry/medicinal chemistry or related disciplines• At least 3 years of experience working in a synthetic organic chemistry laboratory• A track record of above mentioned experience via publications• Detail-oriented with good organizational and communication skills, both verbal and written• Highly self-motivated and being able to mingle with group members • Demonstrated capabilities in problem-solving in regard to synthetic methods
Contact information: wellington.pham@vumc.org