Research Leaders
Associate Professor Michael Kassiou
Associate Professor Michael Kassiou is the Convenor of the Medical Imaging & Radiation Sciences Research Group within the Faculty of Health Sciences and Head of the Drug Discovery Research Unit at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney.
He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of New South Wales 1992.
He was a Research Scientist at ANSTO, (1991-6) a Principal Hospital Scientist in the Department of PET & Nuclear Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (1996–2006), and from 2004-6 a Clinical Associate Professor and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney respectively.
In 2006 he took up a full-time position as Associate Professor within the Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences and School of Chemistry.
Research
Professor Kassiou’s research interests encompass the interface between chemistry and biology. In particular the development of targeted molecular probes for neuropharmacological studies, including the development of pharmacological techniques for the study of receptor-ligand interactions and radioligands to identify brain regions and neural pathways affected in substance abuse, neurodegenerative and psychotic disorders.
He has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of structure-activity relationships of molecules that are either active or that can label molecular sites of interest in the CNS.
Collaboration
He has developed strong international collaborations with:
- UCLA School of Medicine (Los Angeles, CA);
- Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes (Baltimore, MD);
- University of Tours, (INSERM);
- Department of Pharmaceutical Science University of Firenze;
- University of Chicago and
- Département de Recherche Médicale-CEA, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot (Orsay, France) where he has been a visiting fellow.
In 1996 he was awarded a Fogerty International Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in the USA.
Publications and memberships
He is the author of over 100 scientific research papers, reviews and book chapters, and is a co-inventor on 5 patents.
He is a thematic editor for Current Pharmaceutical Design and Current Radiopharmaceuticals and serves on the editorial advisory board of several international medicinal chemistry and drug development journals.
He is a management committee member for Chemistry in Australia and a committee member for the Nuclear Medicine Program Group, FEAST-France. He is a fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a member of five multi-disciplinary professional associations.