Joseph Ioppolo

University of Western Australia Facility Fellow (Radiochemistry)

Dr Joseph Ioppolo completed his PhD at The University of Sydney in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. Lou Rendina and Prof. Michael Kassiou (Thesis “Boron-Containing Phosphonium Salts for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy and Imaging”). His post-doctoral work with Prof. John Valliant at McMaster University was to explore new gallium-67/68 tracers for imaging infection. After returning to Australia, as lead quality control chemist he played an integral role in the establishment and GMP licensing of the Molecular Imaging and Therapy Research Unit (MITRU) at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), the first cyclotron facility for that state.

In 2016 he joined the RAPID team at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, taking part in the production and quality control of clinical 11C, 18F, 68Ga, 89Zr and 177Lu radiopharmaceuticals. Key projects included the production and test method validation of new tracers such as [18F]PSMA-1007, leading pre-clinical imaging and biodistribution projects, and introducing aluminium-fluoride labelling of novel peptides. Joseph is a certified radiopharmaceutical scientist registered with the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM). His interests are in developing new radiopharmaceuticals for imaging infection and inflammation, imaging and treating cancer, and for studying neurodegenerative/neuroinflammatory disorders.