The best in the world

When Oakville, Ontario native Dr. Neil Vasdev was recruited from CAMH by Harvard University about a decade ago to run its world-renowned radiochemistry program and join the leadership of the medical imaging centres, it appeared he was moving on to bigger and better things.

Flash-forward to the present day, and those bigger and better things are now right here at CAMH.

“I came back to CAMH because the leadership and philanthropic partners had the same vision I did,” says Dr. Vasdev, Canada Research Chair, Director of the CAMH Brain Health Imaging Centre, and Director of the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry. “My dream is to build the best radiochemistry program and the best brain imaging program in the world.”

Dr. Vasdev is one of the world’s leading creators of neuroscience positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers. What makes PET tracers so valuable to science and the pharmaceutical industry (where Dr. Vasdev began his career), is that they allow researchers to see in brain imaging, with unprecedented precision, exactly what happens in the brain when a particular drug or protein complex is given to a patient.

To date there have only been about 100 PET radiotracers developed for human brain research in the world. Of those, 40 are available for use at CAMH, and nearly half of those were developed “from bench to bed” at CAMH, meaning that they are being actively used in human trials.

It was that combination of factors—having access to the best technology in the world and ready access to flesh and blood test subjects—that convinced Dr. Vasdev that CAMH was where he had to be to further his dreams.

“When I came here, CAMH’s PET centre already had the best track record in the world in taking PET tracers from bench to bedside,” says. Dr. Vasdev. “That was huge for me. Knowing we could go to humans faster here than anywhere else was a big draw. Now we have the largest radiochemistry facility in North America and we do very unique radiochemistry that is not done elsewhere in the world,” says Dr. Vasdev.

While most of the other scientists in this project are indebted to Dr. Vasdev for leading the PET and brain imaging centres that allow them to take their research in so many exciting new directions, Dr. Vasdev in turn is grateful for being the beneficiary of major support from Canada’s philanthropic community.

“It allows us to have the most cutting-edge infrastructure and to hire and retain the best talent.  We can also take on these high-risk, high-gain projects that can transform the way we understand and diagnose, as well as treat, the living brain.”