"The Arnold C. Ott Lectureship in Chemistry was created and endowed by a generous gift from Dr. Arnold C. Ott and Marion Ott. Dr. Ott received his Ph.D. in 1943 from Michigan State University in Chemistry/Physics/Bacteriology and was a leading chemist and entrepreneur in West Michigan. He was one of the co-founders of Grand Valley State University and served on the GVSU Board of Trustees for 28 years.  Les and Jackie (Ott) Stiner carry on the vision of inspiring students and faculty in chemistry through their dedicated support of the Ott-Stiner Scholars program, providing financial support for students to engage in mentored undergraduate research." 

Dr. Thomas J. Meade

Professor of Chemistry,

Molecular Biosciences,

Neurobiology and Radiology 

Northwestern University 

Community Lecture  Thursday, October 3, 2024  6:00 - 7:00 PM 

122E DeVos Center, Loosemore Auditorium 

Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus

Gene Therapy and Molecular Imaging:  A Marriage made In Vivo

Chemistry Seminar  Friday, October 4, 2024  1:00 - 2:00 PM 

Russel H. Kirkhof Center, Room 2204 Pere Marquette Room (Parking available in Lots H2 and H4)

Non - Invasive, Real - Time Tracking of AAV Gene Therapy via MR Imaging

Community Lecture   Gene Therapy and Molecular Imaging:  A Marriage made In Vivo

Lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) represent at least 50 monogenetic diseases, most of which are fatal. As monogenetic diseases with clearly defined genotype-phenotype relations, lysosomal storage diseases are excellent candidates for gene therapy.

The heartbreaking nature of these diseases is incalculable. With a mean survival rate of 5 years, lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) are among the most dismal prognoses in all of medicine. Infantile forms of these diseases often first manifest disease signs at about 5 months of age, where developmental delay becomes apparent. Many children never learn to sit, and those who do lose this ability within 1 to 1.5 years. As disease signs increase in severity, including the inability to swallow, seizures, deafness, and blindness, individuals affected by these diseases invariably progress to a semi-vegetative state. Perhaps more tragic is the case of juvenile patients, who finish kindergarten in worse condition than when they started. They stumble, stutter, and have difficulty reading. Eventually, these kids lose the ability to walk, talk, and feed themselves and ultimately develop blindness, deafness, spasticity, seizures, and progress to a semi-vegetate state. Due to the self-awareness of children at this age, they also suffer from depression as well as the fear and hopelessness associated with a diagnosis of a fatal and untreatable disorder.

To accelerate the development of these treatments, a noninvasive means of tracking gene therapy must be realized. We report a new series of MR contrast agents for tracking gene therapy in vivo and ultimately treat monogenic diseases. As monogenetic diseases with clearly defined genotype-phenotype relations, lysosomal storage diseases are excellent candidates for gene therapy. The transformative results documented in an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy clinical trial in infants affected by spinal muscular atrophy demonstrated unequivocally the potential of in vivo gene transfer to treat monogenic neurological disorders.

To date, there is a lack of noninvasive ways to determine biodistribution or activity levels of these AAV therapies in patients. This is a significant hindrance, leaving investigators guessing which organs or structures are effectively treated, and due to the lag time associated with clinical disease progression, this limitation ultimately impacts the evolution of treatment modalities.

To overcome these limitations, we have developed a new class of bioresponsive MR imaging agents to track enzymatic activity in any organ, peripheral nervous system (PNS), or central nervous system (CNS) over time. MR imaging is an ideal technique for studying neurological disorders.

Chemistry Seminar  Non - Invasive, Real - Time Tracking of AAV Gene Therapy via MR Imaging

We report an entirely new class of MR contrast agents for tracking in vivo gene therapy for treating monogenic diseases.  With a mean survival rate of 5 years (and most cases fatal), lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) are among medicine's most dismal prognosis. LSDs represent many monogenetic diseases, and while rare, the prevalence is comparable to hemophilia.

As monogenetic diseases with clearly defined genotype and phenotype relations, lysosomal storage diseases are excellent candidates for gene therapy.  The transformative results documented in an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy in clinical trials of infants affected by spinal muscular atrophy demonstrated unequivocally the potential of in vivo gene transfer to treat monogenic neurological disorders.

To date, there is a lack of non-invasive ways to determine the biodistribution or activity levels of these AAV therapies in patients.  This is a significant hindrance, leaving investigators guessing which organs or structures are effectively treated. Due to the lag time associated with clinical disease progression, this limitation ultimately impacts the evolution of treatment modalities.

To overcome these limitations, we have developed new classes of bioresponsive MR imaging agents to track enzymatic activity in any organ, peripheral nervous system (PNS), or central nervous system (CNS) over time. MRI is the modality of choice for evaluating neurologic diseases and is a staple of clinical diagnostic radiology due to its tunable soft-tissue contrast, high spatial and temporal resolution, and lack of ionizing radiation.

Dr. Thomas J. Meade is the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Cancer Research and The Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. He is a Professor of Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, Neurobiology, and Radiology. He received his Master's in biochemistry and Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry, and after completing an NIH fellowship at Harvard Medical School, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech. In 1991, he became a faculty member in Caltech's Division of Biology and the Beckman Institute.  

In 2002, he moved to Northwestern University, where he is the Director of the Centers for Advanced Molecular Imaging (CAMI) and Quantitative Bio-element Imaging Center (QBIC). His research focuses on coordination chemistry and its application to bioinorganic problems, including biological molecular imaging, electron transfer processes, the inhibition of Zn finger transcription factors, and the development of electronic biosensors for detecting DNA and proteins. He has more than 300 publications, holds 100 issued US patents, and founded five biotech startup companies.

April 10 and 11, 2025: Dante Lauretta (University of Arizona) – Cosmochemistry and Planetary Science

Sept 11 and 12, 2025: Brian Kobilka (Stanford University) – Protein Structure and Dynamics

Vernon Ehlers, Ph.D.
U.S. Congress

Michael D. Parker, M.B.A.
Dow Chemical Company

Carl Djerassi, Ph.D.
Stanford University

Robin D. Rogers, Ph.D.
University of Alabama

Virginia W. Cornish, Ph.D.
Columbia University

Richard N. Zare, Ph.D.
Stanford University

Thomas H. Lane, Ph.D.
Dow Corning Corporation

Chad A. Mirkin, Ph.D.
Northwestern University

Gregory A. Petsko, Ph.D.
Brandeis University

Harry B. Gray, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology

Gary M. Hieftje, Ph.D.
Indiana University

Roderick MacKinnon, M.D.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
The Rockefeller University

Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco

Ada Yonath, Ph.D.
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Weizmann Institute of Science

W. Carl Lineberger, Ph.D.
University of Colorado, Boulder

Richmond Sarpong, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Jeffrey Moore, Ph.D.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Wilson Ho, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine

Geraldine Richmond, Ph.D.
University of Oregon

Sara E. Skrabalak, Ph.D.
Indiana University

Thomas J. Meyer, Ph.D.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Brian K. Shoichet, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco

Daniel M. Neumark, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Stephen L. Buchwald, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Melanie Sanford, Ph.D.
University of Michigan

Karen Trentelman, Ph.D.
Getty Conservation Institute

Anne McNeil, Ph.D.
University of Michigan

Tom Guarr, Ph.D.
Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute

Daniel Nocera, Ph.D.
Harvard University

Kent Kirshenbaum, Ph.D.
New York University