Dr. rer. nat. Veronika Felber
Veronika Felber studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich and worked during her Bachelor thesis on the investigation of the hydrosilylation of poly(dimethylsiloxanes) with olefin-functionalized comonomers and the characterization of their thermoplastic elastomers at the Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry (Prof. Rieger). She also completed her Master's degree at the Technical University of Munich and worked on the synthesis of novel PSMA ligands with modified inhibitor structure during her Master's thesis at the Chair of Pharmaceutical Radiochemistry. From November 2016 until April 2020, she has been working on the development and preclinical evaluation of peptide-based PSMA inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor ligands as part of her doctoral thesis. From January 2021 until June 2023 she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow (Prof. T. Mindt, University of Vienna) at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Applied Diagnostics (at the Vienna General Hospital) mainly focusing on diagnostic applications with dual-tracers. Since her return to TUM in August 2023, her current research focus includes the development of CCK-2 receptor ligands in addition to further dual-tracer projects.
Research
- Development of radiolabeled, peptide-based PSMA ligands, focused on modifications within the PSMA binding motif to reduce salivary gland uptake (in cooperation with Prof. Antes, Freising)
- Development of peptide-based GLP-1 receptor ligands, focused on reduction of peptide size while maintaining affinity to improve pharmacokinetics (especially reducing kidney uptake)
-
Development of diagnostic applications with dual-tracers to determine tumor heterogeneity in patients and thus to enable individual therapy adjustments (personalized medicine)
-
Novel CCK-2R-addressing compounds for improved imaging and targeted radiotherapy of medullary thyroid carcinoma (within the project of T. Günther)
Teaching
University of Vienna (Winter semester 2021/22 to 2022/23)
- Parts of the lecture Radioactive Metals in Medicine (https://ufind.univie.ac.at/en/person.html?id=114221&teaching=true)
Technical University of Munich (Winter semester 2016/17 to 2019/20)
- Parts of the lecture Special Aspects of Radiochemistry (LV2642) and the Seminar on the Research Laboratory Course in Radiopharmacy (LV2641)
- Parts of Radioactivity, Radioanalytics and Production of Radiopharmaceuticals, Laboratory Course (LV2639)
- Supervision of the Analytical-chemical basic laboratory course for biochemistry and molecular biotechnology in WS 2017/18 (LV0107)
Publications
- Guenther, T., Deiser, S., Felber, V., Beck, R., & Wester, H.-J. (2022). Substitution of L-Trp by α-methyl-L-Trp in 177Lu-RM2 results in 177Lu-AMTG, a high affinity GRPR ligand with improved in vivo stability. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, jnumed.121.263323. doi:10.2967/jnumed.121.263323
- Wurzer, A., Kunert, J.-P., Fischer, S., Felber, V., Beck, R., Rose, F. d., . . . Wester, H.-J. (2022). Synthesis and Preclinical Evaluation of 177Lu-Labeled Radiohybrid PSMA Ligands for Endoradiotherapy of Prostate Cancer. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 63(10), 1489-1495. doi:10.2967/jnumed.121.263371
- Felber, V. B., & Wester, H.-J. (2021). Small peptide-based GLP-1R ligands: an approach to reduce the kidney uptake of radiolabeled GLP-1R-targeting agents? EJNMMI Radiopharmacy and Chemistry, 6(1), 29. doi:10.1186/s41181-021-00136-x
- Felber, V. B., Valentin, M. A., & Wester, H.-J. (2021). Design of PSMA ligands with modifications at the inhibitor part: an approach to reduce the salivary gland uptake of radiolabeled PSMA inhibitors? EJNMMI Radiopharmacy and Chemistry, 6(1), 10. doi:10.1186/s41181-021-00124-1
- Wurzer, A., Parzinger, M., Konrad, M., Beck, R., Günther, T., Felber, V., . . . Wester, H.-J. (2020). Preclinical comparison of four [18F, natGa]rhPSMA-7 isomers: influence of the stereoconfiguration on pharmacokinetics. EJNMMI Research, 10(1), 149. doi:10.1186/s13550-020-00740-z