Development of advanced therapies for brain cancers

​Dr Simon Puttick's research is centered around the development of advanced therapies for brain cancers guided by medical imaging technologies. My projects include the development of theranostics based on engineered antibodies, the development of MRI and PET imaging acquisition schemes that highlight physiological heterogeneity in brain tumours to predict treatment efficacy, the development of actively triggered drug releasing implants for brain cancers and the development of comparative neuro-oncology trials for more effective translation of promising therapies to the clinic. 

​Dr Simon Puttick completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Peter Licence at the University of Nottingham in July 2012. Following his PhD he moved to the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre at the University of Cambridge as a Research Fellow under the supervision of Professor A. Jennifer Morton where his research was focussed on the development of MRI biomarkers of neural degeneration in Huntingtons disease. He moved to the AIBN in January 2013 as a Research Fellow in Professor Andrew Whittakers group focussed on the development of theranostics for brain cancers. Dr Puttick is currently employed as an AIBN-CSIRO Research Fellow working within Professor Whittakers group and the CSIRO Probing Biosystems Future Science Platform where he leads a program of research focussed on the development of advanced therapies for brain cancers.

Industry Engagement

​2014-2016 - Consultant speaker for Bruker

Collaborations

Current major collaborations include:

Brain Cancer

  • Prof Stephen Rose – CSIRO
  • Dr Nick Dowson – CSIRO
  • Dr Michael Fay – Genesis Cancer Care
  • Dr Rosalind Jeffrey – Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital
  • Dr Bryan Day – QIMR
  • Dr Brett Stringer - QIMR
  • Prof Brandon Wainwright – UQ
  • Dr Laura Genovesi – UQ

Nanomedicine

  • Prof Andrew Whittaker – UQ
  • A/Prof Kris Thurecht – UQ
  • Prof Stephen Mahler – UQ
  • Dr Martina Jones – UQ
  • Dr Frank Sainsbury - UQ
  • Dr Lisa Kaminskas – UQ
  • Prof Tom Davis – Monash
  • Dr Michael Whittaker – Monash
  • Prof Nico Voelcker – Monash

Nuclear Medicine

  • A/Prof Paul Thomas – Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital
  • Prof Gary Egan – Monash
  • Prof Jason Lewis – Memorial Sloane Kettering

Comparative Oncology

  • A/Prof Rachel Allavena - UQ
  • A/Prof Sam Long – CARE Vets/Melbourne Uni
  • Dr David Simpson – Animal Referral Hospital Sydney
  • Dr Sarah Goldsmid – Animal Referral Hospital Sydney

Funding

  • ​2014 - "Imaging hypoxia in glioblastoma multiforme" - UQ ECR Grant
  • 2015-2017 - "Developing novel EphA2 targeted PET molecular imaging technology for glioma" - Cure Brain Cancer Foundation Innovation Grant
  • 2017-2021 - "Precision nanomedicine for brain cancers" - AIBN-CSIRO Fellowship

Key Publications

  1. Bell C., Puttick S., Rose S., Smith J., Thomas P. and Dowson N., “Design and utilization of protocols to characterize dynamic PET uptake of two tracers using basis pursuit”, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2017, 62, 4897
  2. Zhang C., Peng H., Li W., Liu L., Puttick S., Reid J., Bernardi S., Searles D. J., Zhang A. and Whittaker A. K., “Confirmation Transitions of Thermoresponsive Dendronized Polymers across the Lower Critical Solution Temperature”, Macromolecules, 2016, 49, 900-908
  3. Puttick S., Bell C., Dowson N., Rose S. and Fay M., “PET, MRI and simultaneous PET/MRI in the Development of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies for Glioma”, Drug Discovery Today, 2015, 20, 306-317
  4. Puttick S., Stringer B. W., Day B. W., Bruce Z. C., Ensbey K. S., Mardon K., Cowin G. J., Thurecht K. J., Whittaker A. K., Fay M., Boyd A. W. and Rose S., “EphA2 as a Diagnostic Imaging Target in Glioblastoma: A PET/MRI Study”, Molecular Imaging, 2015, 14, 385-395
  5. Puttick S., Davis A. L., Butler K., Lambert L., El harfi J., Irvine D. J., Whittaker A. K., Thurecht K. J. and Licence P., “NMR as a probe of nanostructured domains in ionic liquids: Does domain segregation explain increased performance of free radical polymerization”, Chemical Science, 2011, 2, 1810-1816