Since 2006, I had been leading preclinical brain PET imaging at the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre. Over the year, I developped a strong interest in cross modalities brain (MR, US). In March 2023, I took a new position at the INSERM, U1253 iBrain (Tours, France), where I am leading preclinical PET and its translation to the clinic. My Honorary Senior Lecturship at the UoM will allow me to pursue existing and future collaboration within the University.

Over the years, I have developed a strong interest for neuropathological conditions and their mechanisms, and how we could manipulate these molecular mechanisms to develop therapies. I rapidly realised that to understand acute neuropathological conditions such as stroke or chronic brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, we must have the ability to study in vivo the mechanisms of such conditions, hence my interest in animal models and in vivo imaging. These neuropathologies are complex and multifactorial, but my interest has focused on inflammation/neuroinflammation due to infection and other comorbidities, as over the last 2 decades they have emerged as major players in brain damage/neuronal loss.

To answer the numerous scientific questions involved in these processes, I have acquired a strong experience in several domains such as pharmacology of various neurotransmission systems (e.g. opioidergic, cholinergic, benzodiazepine), neuroscience, and neuroinflammation and neuropathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or stroke. Over the years, I have become an expert in animal models of stroke and AD (transgenic mice and rats) and most importantly their respective strength and weaknesses (i.e. high reproducibility that translate poorly to clinical application, lack of comorbidities).

I had the opportunity to approach PET imaging during my PhD and I keenly grabbed the opportunity to return to PET imaging during my post-doc in Orsay (CEA, France) before bringing that expertise back to Manchester. This technique obviously requires theoretical and practical expertise in the biological field it is applied to, but also knowledge in pharmacology, physiology and neuroanatomy, and basic knowledge in radiochemistry to liaise with the radiochemists efficiently. Computing and programming are almost compulsory in this field to enable efficient image analysis, data management and processing which fit quite well with my taste for programming.

I have validated several neuroinflammation tracers ([¹¹C]DPA-713, [¹¹C]CLINME, [¹⁸F]DPA-714 and [¹⁸F]GE-180) that are used in approximately 20 labs worldwide and have generated over 200 publications, including over  80 clinical investigations. My expertise in the field is recognised internationally through my publications, presentations at international conferences with over 50 abstracts accepted as posters or oral presentations and my election as president of the European Society for Molecular Imaging in 2021.

Between 2012 and 2023, I led the preclinical brain PET imaging activity in the University at the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre and in particular the preclinical contribution of Manchester to the EU FP7 project INMiND, which started in March 2012 and ended in February 2018, leading to numerous publications. I am particularly interested in projects on i) developing new biomarkers, contrast agents and methods for both PET and MRI imaging, and ii) using these contrast agent and techniques to image neuroinflammation and investigate how peripheral inflammation or comorbidities influence neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. To achieve this, I have established industrial collaborations (GE, Roche, GSK) as well as numerous academic collaborations in Manchester, the UK and various academic labs in Europe. Over the years, I have supervised several other post-docs, PhD students and project students. I am currently supervising Mr Will Harris who started his PhD in September 2020.

I have now moved to the INSERM U1253 iBrain lab to pursue these researches still in the context of neurodegenerative diseases but adding their application to neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Past and present PhD students and post-doc: Drs Fabien Chauveau, Loan Nguyen, Fiona Britton, Aisling Chaney, Sujata Sridharan, Helen Parker, Daniela Bochicchio, Martin Kozar and Mr Will Harris and Research Associate Drs Francois-Xavier Lepelletier, Matthias Vandesquille, Yolanda Ohene.

• Member of  Executive Committee of the European Society for Molecular Imaging (http://www.e-smi.eu/) (March 2020-2023).
• President of the European Society for Molecular Imaging (March 2021-2022).
• Organiser of the 17^th European Society for Molecular Imaging meeting (EMIM2022)
• Vice-President of the European Society for Molecular Imaging (March 2020-2021).
• Member of the local organising committee of the annual conference of the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism BRAIN 2021, Glasgow.
• Member of the scientific advisory committee of the Total-Body PET imaging Symposium, Edinburgh, June 2021.
• Co-organiser with Dr M. Fairclough, A. McMahon and Mr M. Green of the 7^th UK PET chemistry meeting in Manchester, September 2019.
• Member of the organising committee of the EMIM 2019 & 2021.
• Elected member of the Governing Board of the European Society for Molecular Imaging (May 2014-March 2020).
• Reviewer for various funding bodies (EPSRC, MRC, NHS, ERC, Royal Society, Alzheimer Society, Multiple Sclerosis Society, France Alzheimer, la Fédération pour la recherche sur le cerveau (France), le Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium), la Fondation pour la Recherche sur les AVC (i.e. stroke) (France), IBiSA (Infrastructure en Santé, Biologie et Agronomie (France), EuroBioImaging).
• Member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
• Associate editor for Frontiers in Neurology (stroke), Frontiers in Pharmacology and Biomolecules.
• Former member of the Educational Committee of the European Society for Molecular Imaging.
• Former chair of the NeuroImaging study group of the ESMI (http://www.e-smi.eu/index.php?id=molecular-neuro-imaging).

Contributing to various public engagement events across the University and associated institutions such as museums, schools and other public spaces.

Neurosciences, neuroinflammation, Alzheimer's disease, stroke & brain ischemia, cytokines, pharmacology, in vivo imaging (specialised in Positron Emission Tomography, interest in all others imaging techniques: MRI, optical, ..)

2018

Identifying the Role of IL-1 in Neuroinflammation of MPSIIIA

Author: Parker, H., 1 Aug 2018

Supervisor: Boutin, H. (Supervisor), Wilkinson, F. (Supervisor) & Bigger, B. (Supervisor)

UoM administered thesis: Phd