Fedoruk Centre for Nuclear Innovation Chair in Radiopharmacy

The Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation has provided $5 million to build capacity for nuclear medicine and imaging research in Saskatchewan. The grant includes $3.5 million to recruit leading researchers to the province and establish academic research programs, as well as up to $1.7 million for research equipment and infrastructure.  $1.3 million of this grant will support the Fedoruk Chair in Radiopharmacy for a period of 5 years, including graduate students and start-up costs. 

The role of the chair is a key element of the recently established Saskatchewan Program for Nuclear Imaging to apply nuclear imaging to life sciences in humans, animals and plants.

“The unique cluster of the cyclotron and radiopharmaceutical production facilities, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, and Royal University Hospital is very valuable for translating novel radiopharmaceuticals into the animal patients, and eventually into human patients,” said Dr. Dadachova.

She hopes to establish collaborations with the radiochemists and radiopharmacists at the Fedoruk Center, with veterinarians at the WCVM, and with the nuclear medicine physicians at RUH to develop novel radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and treatment of severe fungal and bacterial infections, as well as several types of cancer.

“We welcome Dr. Dadachova as our next Fedoruk Chair and as a new leader in the province’s nuclear research community,” said Dr. Kevin Schneider, Interim Executive Director of the Fedoruk Centre. “Dr. Dadachova's experience and expertise is a tremendous addition to Saskatchewan’s growing nuclear imaging cluster, which is centered on the Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences.”

Dr. Dadachova was most recently a Professor of Radiology, Microbiology and Immunology in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, where she was also the Sylvia and Robert S. Olnick Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research. She received her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Moscow State University in 1992, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in radiopharmaceutical chemistry at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.

The Saskatchewan Program for Nuclear Imaging will grow Saskatchewan’s capacity in nuclear imaging research and training, creating a core of experts, including this chair.  The team will use the province’s first cyclotron radioisotope facility which became operational in 2016. This will give Saskatchewan unique research capability using radioisotopes that could lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of conditions such as cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

The Fedoruk Centre is funded by Innovation Saskatchewan as an independent, not-­for‐profit subsidiary of the University of Saskatchewan.