Guiding radiopharmaceuticals

In another project, Sanders is working to design biological molecules that recognize defective cells to deliver a precise radioisotope payload for cancer treatment. One of the aims of the Accelerating Radiotherapeutics through Advanced Molecular Constructs, or ARM initiative, is to advance the development of constructs to deliver medical isotopes to specific tumor cells, while minimizing exposure to heathy tissue. The project integrates ORNL expertise in isotopes, chemistry, biology, materials science and modeling and simulation — the kind of cross-cutting work that Sanders finds especially motivating.

“Strategically, ARM is a very exciting project,” Sanders said. “ORNL has the unique ability to generate medically relevant radioisotopes, and now we’re building the infrastructure to design new, potential therapies for several kinds of cancer. Not everyone has a nuclear reactor in-house. The combination of these capabilities is very powerful.”

Sanders has likewise been working with colleagues in the ORNL-led Plant-Microbe Interfaces Scientific Focus Area, studying lipid-containing carbohydrates called lipo-chitooligosaccharides that act as signaling molecules to understand how plants and microorganisms such as fungi communicate and establish beneficial partnerships. The project’s focus is on poplar — a fast-growing tree of interest as a hardy, perennial biomass crop. 

In a recently completed project, Sanders worked with ORNL scientists to explore biological methods such as protein engineering to source critical materials. They developed a high-throughput approach that leveraged single-particle mass spectrometry to advance methods for the recovery and recycling of platinum. 

Oak Ridge native son

Sanders is an Oak Ridge, Tennessee, native who grew up hearing about ORNL, including projects that his civil engineer father supported in the region. After high school he studied at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as an undeclared student, exploring courses as wide-ranging as art and anthropology before settling on chemistry. 

“In my second UT chemistry class, a professor remarked that chemistry boils down to the movement of electrons. I found that to be very thought provoking,” Sanders said. “It’s what life boils down to as well; chemistry is what makes life happen.” During his undergrad, he interned at ORNL in the Biosciences and the Metals and Ceramics divisions.  

Sanders went on to pursue his doctorate in chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry at the University of Georgia with a focus on metals in biology. Those studies led to a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, where Sanders worked with Harry Gray, a well-known chemist and spectroscopist in the same field. 

“At Caltech I studied electron transfer in proteins, and so it became a bit of a full-circle moment,” Sanders said. “I was inspired by chemistry being the movement of electrons, and then ended up studying how that works in biology – the mechanisms and importance of those processes.” 

This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "Brian Sanders: Chemical solutions for environmental, human health" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news