King's College London

A consortium of leading UK institutions including, King’s College London, the University of Leeds and Queen Mary University of London, has officially launched a research initiative to accelerate and optimise the clinical application of healthcare nanotechnologies using total-body PET imaging (TB-PET). This advanced approach allows researchers to safely track minute quantities of nanomaterials throughout the entire body with high precision and low radiation exposure and will allow us to select the best healthcare nanomaterials of the future with high efficiency and safety.

The event brought together chemists, biologists, clinicians and technologists from across the consortium. Attendance was limited to programme members, including principal investigators, research associates and PDRAs contributing to the programme’s themes and work packages, as well as independent advisory members, two keynote speakers and a small number of PhD students.

Funded by a £10 million EPSRC grant, the programme brings together four key areas of research:

• Image-Guided Diagnosis and Drug Delivery – use TB-PET imaging to improve early diagnosis and enable safer, more effective drug delivery, including advanced therapies such as mRNA vaccines.
• Radionuclide Therapy – improve targeted radiation treatments by enhancing how nanoparticles deliver cancer-killing doses directly to tumours, while minimising harm to healthy tissue.
• Image-Guided Surgery – advance multimodal imaging nanoparticle systems to help clinicians see more clearly and operate with greater precision.
• Combination Therapies – explore how nanotechnologies can be combined with cutting-edge treatments like immunotherapy and advanced radiotherapy to improve patient outcomes.

These themes will be delivered through seven connected work packages, spanning nanomaterial design and safety testing to clinical application and public engagement. The programme also places strong emphasis on involving patients and communities to ensure the research reflects real-world needs and priorities.

The meeting provided an opportunity for each theme and work package to introduce their work, share progress to date and gain a clearer understanding of the programme’s expectations, ambitions and overall structure.

With access to two clinical total-body PET scanners at St Thomas’ Hospital, alongside state-of-the-art facilities for nanomedicine synthesis and characterisation, radiochemistry, radiobiology and preclinical research, King’s College London is ideally placed to support the Programme’s work. Its hospital setting also enables clinical evaluation of novel research and helps accelerate the translation of discoveries into public benefit.