Appointments and affiliations
Scientist
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Director
Molecular Imaging Probes and Radiochemistry Laboratory
University of Ottawa Heart Institute;
Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology
Faculty of Medicine
University of Ottawa
Benjamin Rotstein, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa, and director of the Molecular Imaging Probes and Radiochemistry Laboratory at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.
Background
Dr. Rotstein obtained his BSc from Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College in Halifax, NS, and his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Toronto. His doctoral research focused on the reactivity of amphoteric molecules and their applications in macrocyclization of peptides. He then undertook postdoctoral training in radiochemistry and molecular imaging at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was promoted to faculty in 2015. During his postdoctoral work, he discovered spirocyclic iodonium ylides for radiofluorination and contributed to the development of new enzyme and receptor tracers for positron emission tomography.
Dr. Rotstein’s previous training was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in the form of postgraduate scholarships and a postdoctoral fellowship. He has received Young Investigator Awards from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging as well as the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF). He also received an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research Innovation and Science. He has served on grant panels with the Canadian Institutes of Mental Health Research and other science funding organizations. He held a leadership role within the Society for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Think Tank from 2016–2020.
Dr. Rotstein’s research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Canadian Arrhythmia Network, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science. In addition to UOHI and uOttawa Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Rotstein holds appointments in the Department of Chemistry at uOttawa and the Royal’s Institute for Mental Health Research.
Research and clinical interests
Research in the Molecular Imaging Probes and Radiochemistry Laboratory is directed towards the discovery of radiopharmaceuticals for both studying biochemical and pharmaceutical mechanisms in living systems, and diagnosis of disease conditions. Specific cardiovascular imaging targets include ones relevant for atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, valve disease, and heart failure. In support of these goals the lab also develops innovative chemical methodologies for small molecule bioconjugation with short-lived radioactive isotopes such as carbon-11 and fluorine-18.
Publications
See current publications list at PubMed.
Selected publications:
- Farber, G; Boczar, KE; Wiefels, CC; Zelt, JGE; Guler, EC; deKemp, RA; Beanlands, RS; Rotstein, BH. “The future of cardiac molecular imaging.” Semin. Nucl. Med. 2020, 50, 367–385.
- Mair, BA; Fouad, MH; Ismailani, US; Munch, M; Rotstein, BH. “Rhodium-catalyzed addition of organozinc iodides to carbon11 isocyanates.” Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 2746–2750.
- Zelt, JGE; deKemp, RA; Rotstein, BH; Nair, GM; Narula, J; Ahmadi, A; Beanlands, RS; Mielniczuk, LM. “Nuclear imaging of the cardiac sympathetic nervous system: A disease specific interpretation in heart failure.” JACC Cardiovasc. Imaging. 2020, 13, 1036–1054.
- Al-Haddad, R; Ismailani, US; Rotstein, BH. “Current and future cardiovascular PET radiopharmaceuticals.” PET Clinics. 2019, 14, 293–305.
- Liang, SH; Wang, L; Stephenson, NA; Rotstein, BH; Vasdev, N. “Facile 18F-labeling of non-activated arenes via a spirocyclic iodonium(III) ylide method and its application in the synthesis of the mGluR5 PET radiopharmaceutical [18F]FPEB.” Nat. Protoc. 2019, 14, 1530–1545.
- Pekošak, A; Rotstein, BH; Collier, TL; Windhorst, AD; Vasdev, N; Poot, AJ. “Stereoselective ¹¹C-labeling of a "native" tetrapeptide using asymmetric phase-transfer catalyzed alkylation reactions.” Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2017, 1019–1024.
- Rotstein, BH; Liang, SH; Placzek, MS; Hooker, JM; Gee, AD; Dollé, F; Wilson, AA; Vasdev, N. “11C═O bonds made easily for positron emission tomography.” Chem. Soc. Rev. 2016, 45, 4708–4726.
- Rotstein, BH; Wang, L; Liu, RY; Patteson, J; Kwan, EE: Vasdev, N; Liang, SH. “Mechanistic studies and radiofluorination of structurally diverse pharmaceuticals with spirocyclic iodonium(III) ylides.” Chem. Sci. 2016, 7, 4407–4417.
- Rotstein, BH; Stephenson, NA; Vasdev, N; Liang, SL. “Spirocyclic hypervalent iodine(III)-mediated radiofluorination of non-activated and hindered aromatics.” Nature Commun. 2014, 5, 4365. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5365.
- Rotstein, BH; Wey, H-Y; Shoup, TM; Wilson, AA; Liang, SH; Hooker, JM; Vasdev, N. “PET imaging of fatty acid amide hydrolase with [18F]DOPP in non-human primates.” Mol. Pharmaceutics 2014, 11, 3832–3838.