Monday, July 27, 2009

Maung Maung Saw, Radiochemist


Present Appointment:
· Director, Singapore Radiopharmaceuticals Pte Ltd

Career History:
· General Practitioner (1986-2000), Thirisandar Health Care Pte. Ltd., Yangon, Myanmar
· Radiochemist (2000 Nov-2006 Apr), Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
· Research Fellow, Department of Radiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore (2006 Apr-2008 Sept)
· Radiochemist, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National University Hospital (2006 Apr-2008 Sept)

Academic/Professional Qualifications:
· MBBS (1982), Institute of Medicine (1), Yangon, Myanmar
· PhD Chemistry (2006 Mar), National University of Singapore, Singapore
· Post-graduate Diploma in Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry (pursuing), ETH, Switzerland

Professional Memberships:
· Associate member, Medicinal Chemistry Program, National University of Singapore; Member, Singapore National Institute of Chemistry, Singapore; Member, European Association of Nuclear Medicine; Member, International Liver Cancer Association

Major Achievements:
· Development of a new class of [Re(CO)3]-based therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals
· One of the 5 main international authors of IAEA Technical Document; "Operational Guidance on Hospital Radiopharmacy; A Safe and Effective Approach".
· International Atomic Energy Agency Expert on Radiopharmacy: (missions to)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Nuclear Medicine Division, radiopharmacy expert missions to Choray Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (October 2001), Ulanbaata State University Hospital, Ulanbaata, Mongolia (Feb 2002), Choray Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (December 2002), Atomic Energy Agency, Division of Radiopharmaceutical Production, Bangkok, Thailand (2003), Chaing Mai Hospital, Chaing Mai, Thailand (2003), St Luke Hospital, Quezon City, The Philippines (December 2003), Kasr El-Einy Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre, Cairo University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt (Feb 2005))

Research Interests:
Development of New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals
Molecular Imaging Probes
Inorganic, organometallic drugs & nanoparticles

Previopus Research Projects:
(1)“Cysteine-Based Tailoring of Peptide Radiopharmaceuticals and Probes”, SBIC, (co-PI), (2) “Silicon-based and Microwave-driven Fluorination of Bioactive Molecules”, National University of Singapore/Academic Research Fund, (Collaborator), (3) “New Rhenium Sulfido Core for Molecular Imaging and Therapy”, Innovative grant 2006, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, (PI), (4) "Coordinated Research Project on Standardization of Hospital Prepared Radiopharmaceuticals for Nuclear Oncology" – A research project by IAEA with focus on radiolabeling of monoclonal antibodies and 99mTechnetium labeled annexin-V, (PI), (5) "Novel Isostructure 99mTc and Re complexes for Dual Fluorescence and Radioimaging: Bridging the gap between in vitro and in vivo imaging". AcRF (SoM), (PI), (6) “99mTc-labeled Ginseng Extracts Protopanaxadiol and Ginsenoside Rh2 for Determination of In Vitro Cytotoxic Activities and In Vivo Pharmacokinetic Studies: A Step towards Translation of Food-based Bioactive Compounds into Clinical Drugs”. National University of Singapore/Cross Faculty Research Grant, (Collaborator).

Previopus Participated Clinical Trials:
(i) 188Rhenium-HDD/Lipiodol for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma,
(ii) 131Iodine labeled anti-CD20 (Mabthera) for the treatment of refractory Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,
(iii) 90Yttrium labeled anti-CD20 (Zevalin) for the treatment of refractory Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,
(iv) 188Rhenium-HEDP for metastatic bone pain palliation,
(v) 188Rhenium-tin colloid for the radiation synovectomy,
(vi) 32Phosphorous biodegradable chips for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, and
(vii) Development of 18Fluorine-based radioprobes of clinical interest.

Invited Presentations:
(1) (a) “An Overview of Different Preclinical Imaging Modalities”, (b) “SPECT and Optical Imaging Probes”, and (c) “Designing Molecular Imaging Probes via Total Approach; From Bench-top to Bed-side”. Preclinical Imaging – Making Imaging at the Bench for the Bedside Possible. University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 21-22 July 2007
(2) “Design of Radiopharmaceuticals for Tumor Imaging and Therapy”. Thematic Symposia: Bioimaging of Cancer, GEM4 Conference on Cancer, Singapore, 1-6 July 2007
(3) (a) “188Re-Lipiodol based Internal Radiation Therapy Agents for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Explanation of Clinical Response and Side Effects from Radiopharmacology Point of View”, (b) “Molecularly Targeted Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals”. International Conference on Radiopharmaceutical Therapy (ICRT-2007), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 3-7 September 2007
(4) “Designing SPECT Probes”, Workshop on Molecular Imaging: Bridging Basic Sciences and Clinical Imaging, Departments of Chemistry and Diagnostic Radiology, National University of Singapore, 7 July, 2007
(5) “New Radiopharmaceuticals for Molecular Imaging”, the First Singapore General Hospital Nuclear Medicine Update, SGH Postgraduate Medical Institute, 5th Mar 2008.

Selected Publications:
Bernal, P.; Raoul J. L.; Stare, J.; Sereegotov, E.; Sundram, F. X.; Kumar, A.; Jeong, J. M.; Pusuwan, P.; Divgi, C.; Zanonico, P.; Vidmar, G.; Buscombe, J. R.; Chau, T.; Saw, M. M.; Chen, S.; Ogbac, R.; Dondi, M.; and Padhy, A. K. “International Atomic Energy Agency-Sponsored Multination Study of Intra-Arterial Rhenium-188-Labeled Lipiodol in the Treatment of Inoperable Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Results With Special Emphasis on Prognostic Value of Dosimetric Study.” Seminars in Nuclear Medicine. 2008, 38(2), S40-S45.
Bernal, P.; Raoul J. L.; Vimar, G.; Sereegotov, C.; Sundram, F. X.; Kumar, A.; Jeong, J. M.; Pusuwan, P.; Divgi, C.; Zanonico, P.; Stare, J.; Chau, T.; Saw, M. M.; Chen, S. L.; Ogbac, R.; Buscombe, J. R.; Padhy, A. K. “Intra-arterial Rhenium-188 Lipiodol in the treatment of inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma: results of an IAEA-sponsored multi-nation study”. Int. J. Rad. Oncol. Biol. Phy. 2007, 69(5), 1448-1455.
CH Liu, MH Hong, Y Zhou, GX Chen, MM Saw and TSA Hor. “Synthesis and characterization of Ag deposited TiO2 particles by laser ablation in water.” (Article in press) Physica Scripta, 2007, T129, 326-328.
Maung Maung Saw, Philipp Kurz, Nikos Agorastos, T. S. Andy Hor, Felix X. Sundram, Yaw Kai Yan and Roger Alberto. Complexes with the fac-{M(CO)3}+ (M = 99mTc, Re) moiety and long alkyl chain ligands as Lipiodol surrogates. Inorg. Chim. Acta. 2006, 359(12), 4079-4086.