Appointments and affiliations
- Scientist, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
- Associate professor, Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences (primary appointment), Department of Biology (cross-appointment)
- uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute
- Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in chemical biology
Dr. Shuhendler is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa and holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in chemical biology. He holds a primary appointment in the Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Biology. Dr. Shuhendler also holds a scientist position at the UOHI, and is affiliated with the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute where he is a member of the Concussion Injury Group.
Background
Dr. Shuhendler received his graduate training at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences with Professor Xiao Yu Wu. In his Ph.D., Dr. Shuhendler developed a polymer-lipid hybrid nanopharmaceutical encapsulating combination chemotherapy against multidrug resistant breast cancers. Projects developing nanoparticle-based imaging agents comprising hierarchical particle complexes for fluorescence imaging and MRI thermometry initiated an interest in imaging, which lead Dr. Shuhendler to a postdoctoral fellowship in the Molecular Imaging Program in the Department of Radiology, School of Medicine at Stanford University. Under the supervision of Professor Jianghong Rao, Dr. Shuhendler developed nanoparticle and small molecular-based imaging agents across a range of imaging modalities, including fluorescence, photoacoustic, MRI, and PET. Overall, Dr. Shuhendler’s work at Stanford centred on activity-based probes (i.e. those that respond to specific bioactive targets) for imaging tumour response to therapy, sterile injury, and non-sterile inflammation.
Dr. Shuhendler received the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council Young Investigator Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (2015), and the John Charles Polanyi Prize for Chemistry from the Government of Ontario (2015).
Dr. Shuhendler is a member of the CIHR College of Reviewers and serves on the Pharmacology & Toxicology Committee. He also serves as a member of the Early Translational Research and Epidemiology Panel of the Cancer Research Society.
Research and clinical interests
Medical imaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), have the potential to allow early detection of disease, inflammation or injury, improving the ability to detect disease at early stages. The members of the Molecular Medicine Lab are developing new molecules enabling the visualization of these early signs of disease using these medical imaging technologies. With their efforts, their goal is to provide new clinical tools to achieve better prognoses through earlier diagnosis of a range of diseases and injuries spanning atherosclerosis, concussion, drug toxicity, and disease response to therapeutics.
Publications
See current publications list at PubMed.