Research Staff

Mohammad Namavari

Senior Research Staff, Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab (MMIL)


Education:

Ph.D., Chemistry, University of North Texas, 1988
M.S., Chemistry, University of Texas at Dallas, 1980
B.S., Chemistry, Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran, 1973


Contact Information:

Department of Radiology, Stanford University, School of Medicine
Lucas Expansion
1201 Welch Road, #P09
Stanford, CA 94305-5427

Phone: (650) 725-6767
Fax: (650) 736-7925
E-mail: namavari@stanford.edu


Research Interests:

Synthetic organic chemistry, design and development of radiopharmaceutical probes for Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Radiolabeling of molecules of interest and provide formulation to the investigators for further studies.


Recent Publications:

  1. Namavari M, Chang YF, Kusler B, Yaghoubi S, Mitchell BS, Gambhir SS. Synthesis of 2'-Deoxy-2'-[(18)F]Fluoro-9-β-D: -Arabinofuranosylguanine: a Novel Agent for Imaging T-Cell Activation with PET. Mol Imaging Biol. 2011 Oct;13(5):812-8.
  2. Namavari M, Cheng Z, Zhang R, De A, Levi J, Hoerner JK, Yaghoubi SS, Syud FA, and Gambhir SS. A Novel method for Direct site-specific Radiolabeling of peptides Using [18F]FDG. Bioconjug Chem. 2009;20:432-436.
  3. Cheng Z, Jelena J. The Application of Cleavable Linker in Development of Molecular Probe for Cancer Molecular Imaging. Recent Advances of Bioconjugate Chemistry in Molecular Imaging, Research Signpost,Kerala, India. 2008;:p53-70.
  4. Cheng Z, Padilla De Jesus O, Namavari M, De A, Levi J, Webster JM, Zhang R, Lee B, Syud FA, Gambhir SS. Small-Animal PET Imaging of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Type 2 Expression with Site-Specific 18F-Labeled Protein Scaffold . J Nucl Med. 2008;49(5).
  5. Chin FT, Namavari M, Levi J, Subbarayan M, Ray P, Chen X, and Gambhir SS. Semi-automated Radiosynthesis and Biological Evaluation of [18F]FEAU: A Novel PET Imaging Agent for HSV1-tk/sr39tk Reporter Gene Expression. Molecular Imaging & Biology. 2008;10(2):82-91.
  6. Namavari M, De Jesus OP, Cheng Z, De A, Kovacs E, Levi J, Zhang R, Joshua K. Hoerner JK, Grade H, Syud FA and Gambhir SS. Direct Site-Specific Radiolabeling of an Affibody Protein with 4-[18F]Fluorobenzaldehyde via Oxime Chemistry. Mol Imaging Biol. 2008;10(4):177-81.
  7. Namavari M, Padilla De Jesus O, Cheng Z, De A, Kovacs E, Levi J, Zhang R, Hoerner JK, Grade H, Syud FA, Gambhir SS. Direct site-specific radiolabeling of an Affibody protein with 4-[18F]fluorobenzaldehyde via oxime chemistry. Mol Imaging Biol.. 2008;10(4):177-81.
  8. Namavari M, Padilla De Jesus O, Cheng Z, De A, Kovacs E, Levi J, Zhang R, Hoerner JK, Grade H, Syud FA, Gambhir SS. Direct site-specific radiolabeling of an Affibody protein with 4-[18F]fluorobenzaldehyde via oxime chemistry. Mol Imaging Biol.. 2008;10(4):177-81.
  9. Levi J, Cheng Z, Gheysens O, Patel M, Chan CT, Wang Y, Namavari M, Gambhir SS. Fluorescent fructose derivatives for imaging breast cancer cells. Bioconjug Chem. 2007;18(3):628-34.
  10. Veach DR, Namavari M, Pillarsetty N, Santos EB, Beresten-Kochetkov T, Lambek C, Punzalan BJ, Antczak C, Smith-Jones PM, Djaballah H, Bayard Clarkson B, and Larson SM. Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of a Fluorine-18 Derivative of Dasatinib. J. Med. Chem.. 2007;:in press.
  11. Veach DR, Namavari M, Pillarsetty N, Santos EB, Beresten-Kochetkov T, Lambek C, Punzalan BJ, Antczak C, Smith-Jones PM, Djaballah H, Bayard Clarkson B, and Larson SM. Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of a Fluorine-18 Derivative of Dasatinib . J Med. Chem. 2007;50(in press):.
  12. Pal A, Glekas A, Doubrovin M, Balatoni J, Namavari M, Beresten T, Maxwell D, Soghomonyan S, Shavrin A, Ageyeva L, Finn R, Larson SM, Bornmann W, Gelovani JG. Molecular imaging of EGFR kinase activity in tumors with 124I-labeled small molecular tracer and positron emission tomography. MIB. 2006;8(5):262-77.
  13. Namavari M, Veach DR, Bornmann WG, Tjuvajev JG, Finn RD, Clarkson B, Larson SM. Synthesis of [124I]-, [125I]-, and [131I]-2-(4-iodophenylamino) pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-7-one, a dual Src / Abl kinase inhibitors. Nucl. Med. Biol. 2005;32:313-321.
  14. Veach DR, Namavari M, Beresten T, Balatoni J, Minchenko M, Djaballah H, Finn RD, Clarkson B, Gelovani JG, Bornmann WG, Larson SM. Synthesis and in vitro examination of [124I]-, [125I]- and [131I]-2-(4-iodophenylamino) pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-7-one radiolabeled Abl kinase inhibitors. Nucl Med Biol. 2005;32(4):313-21.
  15. Yaghoubi SS, Barrio JR, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Phelps ME, Herschman HR, Gambhir SS. Imaging progress of herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase suicide gene therapy in living subjects with positron emission tomography. Cancer Gene Ther. 2005;12(3):329-39.
  16. Green LA, Nguyen K, Berenji B, Iyer M, Bauer E, Barrio JR, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Gambhir SS. A tracer kinetic model for 18F-FHBG for quantitating herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase reporter gene expression in living animals using PET. J Nucl Med. 2004;45(9):1560-70.
  17. Inubushi M, Wu JC, Gambhir SS, Sundaresan G, Satyamurthy N, Namavari M, Yee S, Barrio JR, Stout D, Chatziioannou AF, Wu L, Schelbert HR. Positron-emission tomography reporter gene expression imaging in rat myocardium. Circulation. 2003;107(2):326-32.
  18. Selective and paractical synthesis of Penciclovir. Toyokuni T, Walsh J, Namavari M, Shinde S, Moore J, Barrio J.R, Satyamurthy N. Synthetic Communications . 2003;33:3897-3905.
  19. Green LA, Yap CS, Nguyen K, Barrio JR, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Phelps ME, Sandgren EP, Herschman HR, Gambhir SS. Indirect monitoring of endogenous gene expression by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of reporter gene expression in transgenic mice. Mol Imaging Biol. 2002;4(1):71-81.
  20. Iyer M, Barrio J, Namavari M, Bauer E, Satyamurthy N, Nguyen K, Toyokuni T, Phelps ME, Herschman HR, Gambhir SS. 8-[18F]Fluoropenciclovir: An Improved Reporter Probe for Imaging HSV1-tk Reporter Gene Expression In Vivo Using PET. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2001;42(1):96-105.
  21. Sun X, Annala AJ, Yaghoubi S, Barrio JR, Nguyen K, Toyokuni T, Satyamurthy N, Namavari M, Phelps ME, Herschman HR, Gambhir SS. Quantitative imaging of gene induction in living animals. Gene Therapy. 2001;8(20):1572-1579.
  22. Yaghoubi SS, Barrio JR, Dahlbom M, Iyer M, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Goldman R, Herschman HR, Phelps ME, Gambhir SS. Human Pharmacokinetic and Dosimetry Studies of [18F]FHBG: A Reporter Probe for Imaging Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 Thymidine Kinase Reporter Gene Expression. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2001;42(8):1225-1234.
  23. Yaghoubi SS, Wu L, Liang Q, Toyokuni T, Barrio JR, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Phelps ME, Herschman H, Gambhir SS. Direct correlation between positron emission tomographic images of two reporter genes delivered by two distinct adenoviral vectors. Gene Therapy. 2001;8(14):1072-1080.
  24. Yee RE, Cheng DW, Huang SC, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Barrio JR. Blood-brain barrier and neuronal membrane transport of 6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA. Biochem Pharmacol. 2001;62(10):1409-15.
  25. Gambhir SS, Bauer E, Black M, Liang Q, Kokoris MS, Barrio JR, Iyer M, Namavari M, Phelps ME, Herschman HR. A mutant herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase reporter gene shows improved sensitivity for imaging reporter gene expression with positron emission tomography. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2000;97(6):2785-2790.
  26. Herschman HR, MacLaren DC, Iyer M, Namavari M, Bobinski K, Green LA, Wu L, Berk AJ, Toyokuni T, Barrio JR, Cherry SR, Phelps ME, Sandgren EP, Gambhir SS. Seeing is believing: non-invasive, quantitative and repetitive imaging of reporter gene expression in living animals, using positron emission tomography. Journal of Neuroscience Research. 2000;59(6):699-705.
  27. Namavari M, Barrio JR, Toyokuni T, Gambhir SS, Cherry SR, Herschman HR, Phelps ME, Satyamurthy N. Synthesis of 8-[18F] Fluoroguanine Derivatives: In-vivo Probes Imaging Gene Expression with PET. Nuclear Medicine and Biology. 2000;27(2):157-162.
  28. Stout DB, Huang SC, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Yee RE, Barrio JR. Distribution volume of 3-O-methyl-6. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2000;20(12):1717-24.
  29. Yu Y, Annala AJ, Barrio JR, Toyokuni T, Satyamurthy N, Namavari M, Cherry SR, Phelps ME, Herschman HR, Gambhir SS. Quantification of target gene expression by imaging reporter gene expression in living animals. Nature Medicine. 2000;6(8):933 - 937.
  30. Gambhir SS, Barrio JR, Phelps ME, Iyer M, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Wu L, Green LA, Bauer E, MacLaren DC, Nguyen K, Berk AJ, Cherry SR, Herschman HR. Imaging adenoviral-directed reporter gene expression in living animals with positron emission tomography. PNAS. 1999;96(5):2333-2338.
  31. Petric A, Barrio JR, Namavari M, Huang SC, Satyamurthy N. Synthesis of 3beta-(4-[18F]fluoromethylphenyl)- and 3beta-(2-[18F] fluoromethylphenyl)tropane-2beta-carboxylic acid methyl esters: new ligands for mapping brain dopamine transporter with positron emission tomography. Nucl Med Biol. 1999;26(5):529-35.
  32. Stout D, Petric A, Satyamurthy N, Nguyen Q, Huang SC, Namavari M, Barrio JR. 2Beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4- and 2-[18F]fluoromethylphenyl)tropanes: specific probes for in vivo quantification of central dopamine transporter sites. Nucl Med Biol. 1999;26(8):897-903.
  33. Gambhir SS, Barrio JR, Wu L, Iyer M, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Bauer E, Parrish C, MacLaren DC, Borghei AR, Green LA, Sharfstein S, Berk AJ, Cherry SR, Phelps ME, Herschman HR. Imaging of adenoviral-directed herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase reporter gene expression in mice with radiolabeled ganciclovir. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 1998;39(11):2003-11.
  34. Green LA, Gambhir SS, Srinivasan A, Namavari M, Hoh C, Cherry SR, Sharfstein S, Cohen CL, Barrio JR, Herschman H, Phelps ME. Non-invasive methods for quantitating blood time-activity curves from FDG PET mice images. J Nucl Med. 1998;39(0):729-734.
  35. Barrio JR, Huang SC, Yu DC, Melega WP, Quintana J, Cherry SR, Jacobson A, Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Phelps ME. Radiofluorinated L-m-tyrosines: new in-vivo probes for central dopamine biochemistry. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1996;16(4):667-78.
  36. Barrio JR, Namavari M, Phelps ME, Satyamurthy N. Regioselective Fluorination of Substituted Guanines with Dilute F(2): A Facile Entry to 8-Fluoroguanine Derivatives. J Org Chem. 1996;61(18):6084-6085.
  37. Namavari M, Satyamurthy N, Phelps ME, Barrio JR. Synthesis of 6-[18F] and 4-[18F]fluoro-L-m-tyrosines via regioselective radiofluorodestannylation. Appl Radiat Isot. 1993;44(3):527-36.
  38. Namavari M, Bishop A, Satyamurthy N, Bida G, Barrio JR. Regioselective radiofluorodestannylation with [18F]F2 and [18F]CH3COOF: a high yield synthesis of 6-[18F]Fluoro-L-dopa. Int J Rad Appl Instrum. 1992;43(8):989-96.