Novel immune checkpoint biomarkers for medical imaging: from drug design to in vivo evaluation

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has revolutionized the standard of care for oncology patients. This type of therapy can have outstanding results, such as a stabilization of the disease and a profound increase of overall survival in even incurable cancers. Nonetheless, ICB therapy is not always successful and depends on the cancer type. Additionally, treatment with i.e. antibodies can have substantial adverse effects and the cost of treatment is quite high. To overcome those issues it would be beneficial to have a predictive biomarker for patient stratification. This dissertation is a multidisciplinary study of predictive biomarker development that targets key immune molecules. The two main molecular targets that are selected for this study are PD-L1 and CD103, which bioactive ligands are radiolabeled with positron emitting radioisotopes and their efficacy evaluated in vitro and in vivo.