Professor of Translational Imaging

CRUK Senior Cancer Research Fellow

Honorary Consultant Radiologist

Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital

Speciality: Oncological and Molecular Imaging, MRI, PET.

Contact: Email: FA Gallagher     Tel.: + 44 (0)1223 746438

Profile

Professor Ferdia Gallagher is an academic radiologist and a CRUK-funded Senior Research Fellow who leads the Clinical Molecular Imaging Group in the Department of Radiology. Our laboratory develops new functional and molecular imaging methods to detect cancer and early response to therapy, with the aim of translating these techniques into humans. The team is especially interested in methods to probe cancer metabolism non-invasively such as clinical hyperpolarised carbon-13 MRI. Hyperpolarised MRI is an emerging method to non-invasively assess tissue metabolism using pyruvate as a probe to visualise tumour lactate formation and we are currently studying this technique in a number of human tumour types. The group is also interested in the application of proton spectroscopy to study tumour metabolism, as well as other multinuclear and multimodality approaches such as sodium MRI and PET/CT. We are applying these methods to monitor treatment response in a range of settings, including the use of immunotherapy. We are particularly interested in the application of these techniques to renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. We are also studying novel cell labelling approaches to complement more conventional approaches to monitor immune infiltration into tumours.

Professor Gallagher studied medicine at both the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford before training as a radiologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He undertook a PhD in Biochemistry in Cambridge as part of a CRUK Clinical Research Training Fellowship. He has previously been awarded both a Clinician Scientist and an Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship from CRUK. He is currently a CRUK Senior Cancer Research Fellow and an Honorary Consultant Radiologist.

Ferdia has held a number of positions on international committees and scientific advisory boards such as the European Society for Hybrid Molecular and Translational Imaging, the MR of Cancer Study Group of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), and both the Research and Education Committees of the European Society of Radiology. Nationally, he sits on the Academy of Royal Colleges Genomics Champion Group. He received Outstanding Teacher awards from ISMRM in 2012 and 2016, and is a College Lecturer and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College.

Professional Education

Current Research

Oncological Imaging, Molecular Imaging, Hyperpolarised 13C, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography

Gallagher group members:

• Joao Duarte
• Andrew Gill
• Ines Horvat Menih
• Josh Kaggie
• Ali Khan
• Mary McLean
• Nikita Sushentsev
• Jonathan Birchall
• Pascal Wodtke
• Otso Arponen
• Vinay Ayyappan
• Karthik Chary

Hyperpolariser pharmacy team:

• Marta Wylot
• Ashley Grimmer
• Elizabeth Latimer

Collaborators:

• Luigi Aloj
• Tristan Barrett
• Kevin Brindle
• Ruth Casey
• Pippa Corrie
• Martin Graves
• Chris Laustsen (Aarhus University)
• Tomasz Matys
• Shonit Punwani (University College London)
• Evis Sala
• Grant Stewart
• Damian Tyler (University of Oxford)
• Sarah Welsh

Group Prizes:

2019:   Doreen Lau, Women in Molecular Imaging Network Scholar Award.

2019:   Fulvio Zaccagna, Guarantor of Brain Award.

2018:   Doreen Lau, William Negendank Young Investigator Award, first prize. International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) MR of Cancer Study Group, Dublin.

2018:   Fulvio Zaccagna, William Negendank Young Investigator Award, third prize. ISMRM MR of Cancer Study Group, Dublin.

2018:   Laura Lechermann, Scholarship to attend the Summer School on Translational Cancer Research, Portugal.

2018:   James Grist, Magna Cum Laude, ISMRM, Paris 2018.

2017:   Ruth Casey, Best Oral Presentation, Irish Endocrine Society, Dublin.

2017:   James Grist, Best Presentation Prize, British Chapter of ISMSM, Liverpool.

2017:   Ahmed Maiter, European Congress of Radiology best medical student presentation (neuroradiology).

2016:   Ahmed Maiter, Glasgow Neurological Conference Best Poster Presentation Prize.

2016:   Fulvio Zaccagna, Future researcher award by the Royal Academy of Engineering 2016.

2016:   Ahmed Maiter, Royal College of Radiologists Clinical Oncology undergraduate prize for a research project.

2015:   Charlie Daniels, third place at the British Chapter postgraduate meeting of ISMRM.

Selected Papers:

1. Hyperpolarized ¹³C MRI of Tumor Metabolism Demonstrates Early Metabolic Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer.
   Woitek R, McLean MA, Gill AB, Grist JT, Provenzano E, Patterson AJ, Ursprung S, Torheim T, Zaccagna F, Locke M, Laurent MC, Hilborne S, Frary A, Beer L, Rundo L, Patterson I, Slough R, Kane J, Biggs H, Harrison E, Lanz T, Basu B, Baird R, Sala E, Graves MJ, Gilbert FJ, Abraham JE, Caldas C, Brindle KM, Gallagher FA.
   Radiol Imaging Cancer. 2020 Jul 31;2(4):e200017.
2. Intravital Imaging of Adoptive T-Cell Morphology, Mobility and Trafficking Following Immune Checkpoint Inhibition in a Mouse Melanoma Model.
   Lau D, Garçon F, Chandra A, Lechermann LM, Aloj L, Chilvers ER, Corrie PG, Okkenhaug K, Gallagher FA.
   Front Immunol. 2020 Jul 22;11:1514.
3. Detection limit of 89Zr-labeled T cells for cellular tracking: an in vitro imaging approach using clinical PET/CT and PET/MRI.
   Lechermann LM, Manavaki R, Attili B, Lau D, Jarvis LB, Fryer TD, Bird N, Aloj L, Patel N, Basu B, Cleveland M, Aigbirhio FI, Jones JL, Gallagher FA.
   EJNMMI Res. 2020 Jul 14;10(1):82. doi: 10.1186/s13550-020-00667-5.
4. Imaging breast cancer using hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI.
   Gallagher FA*, Woitek R*, McLean MA, Gill AB, Manzano Garcia R, Provenzano E, Riemer F, Kaggie J, Chhabra A, Ursprung S, Grist JT, Daniels CJ, Zaccagna F, Laurent MC, Locke M, Hilborne S, Frary A, Torheim T, Boursnell C, Schiller A, Patterson I, Slough R, Carmo B, Kane J, Biggs H, Harrison E, Deen SS, Patterson A, Lanz T, Kingsbury Z, Ross M, Basu B, Baird R, Lomas DJ, Sala E, Wason J, Rueda OM, Chin SF, Wilkinson IB, Graves MJ, Abraham JE, Gilbert FJ, Caldas C, Brindle KM.
   Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jan 28;117(4):2092-2098.
5. Fumarate metabolic signature for the detection of Reed Syndrome in humans.
   Casey RT, McLean MA, Challis BG, McVeigh TP, Warren AY, Mendil L, Houghton R, De Sanctis S, Kosmoliaptsis V, Sandford RN, Gallagher FA*, Maher ER*.
   Clin Cancer Res. 2020 Jan 15;26(2):391-396.
6.  Quantifying normal human brain metabolism using hyperpolarized [1-¹³C]pyruvate and magnetic resonance imaging.
   Grist JT, McLean MA, Riemer F, Schulte RF, Deen SS, Zaccagna F, Woitek R, Daniels CJ, Kaggie JD, Matys T, Patterson I, Slough R, Gill AB, Chhabra A, Eichenberger R, Laurent MC, Comment A, Gillard JH, Coles AJ, Tyler DJ, Wilkinson I, Basu B, Lomas DJ, Graves MJ, Brindle KM, Gallagher FA.
   Neuroimage. 2019 Apr 1;189:171-179.
7. Quantification of total and intracellular sodium concentration in primary prostate cancer and adjacent normal prostate tissue with magnetic resonance imaging.
   Barrett T, Riemer F, McLean M, Kaggie J, Robb F, Tropp J, Warren A, Bratt O, Shah N, Gnanapragasam V, Gilbert F, Graves M, Gallagher FA.
   Invest Radiol. 2018 Aug;53(8):450-456.
8. Translating in vivo metabolomic analysis of succinate dehydrogenase deficient tumours into clinical utility.
   Casey RT, McLean MA, Madhu B, Challis BG, Ten Hoopen R, Roberts T, Clark GR, Pittfield D, Simpson HL, Bulusu VR, Allinson K, Happerfield L, Park SM, Marker A, Giger O, Maher ER, Gallagher FA.
   JCO Precis Oncol. 2018 Mar 29;2:1-12
9. Prospective study evaluating the relative sensitivity of 18F-NaF PET/CT for detecting skeletal metastases from renal cell carcinoma in comparison to multidetector CT and 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy, using an adaptive trial design.
   Gerety EL, Lawrence EM, Wason J, Yan H, Hilborne S, Buscombe J, Cheow HK, A. S. Shaw AS, Bird N, Fife K, Heard S, Lomas DJ, Matakidou A, Soloviev D, Eisen T, Gallagher FA.
   Ann of Oncol. 2015 Oct;26(10):2113-8.
10. Production of hyperpolarized [1,4-¹³C2]malate from [1,4-¹³C2]fumarate is a marker of cell necrosis and treatment response in tumors.
    Gallagher FA, Kettunen MI, Hu DE, Jensen PR, in ‘t Zandt R, Karlsson M, Gisselsson A, Nelson SK, Witney TH, Bohndiek SE, Hansson G, Pietersen T, Lerche MH, Brindle KM.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Nov 24;106(47):19801-19806.
11. Magnetic resonance imaging of pH in vivo using hyperpolarized ¹³C-labelled bicarbonate.
    Gallagher FA*, Kettunen MI*, Day SE, Hu DE, Ardenkjaer-Larsen JH, Zandt R, Jensen PR, Karlsson M, Golman K, Lerche MH, Brindle KM.
    Nature. 2008 Jun 12;453(7197):940-3.

Last 5 Publications

All Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Gallagher+FA%5BAuthor%5D