Abergel and her research team are now looking into which patient populations would be more vulnerable to gadolinium toxicity.

“What would affect larger or smaller gadolinium retention and where does it end up? It depends on how fast you can clear it out, and how well your kidneys function,” she said.


Abergel added that while the HOPO chelator’s development as a medical countermeasure or anti-nuclear-contamination pill has already largely been supported by federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, she and her team have now reached a stage where they need to identify other sources of funding to complete a first clinical safety study for the drug’s development as a gadolinium removal agent.

Chemistry for the common good: How Berkeley Lab paved the way

Abergel’s work on chelators is the latest chapter in a landmark project first conceived more than 35 years ago by Kenneth Raymond, a Berkeley Lab faculty senior scientist and UC Berkeley chemistry professor who worked closely with Berkeley Lab biophysicist Patricia Durbin-Heavey to test a large number of new chelating compounds for the removal of actinides such as plutonium from the body.

“This is the kind of research that could only take place in a national lab setting,” said Abergel. “Here at Berkeley Lab we have access to research facilities that allow us to do this work in a well-controlled, well-implemented, and safe environment. It would be difficult to find all of these capabilities in one place anywhere else.”

Development of HOPO as a medical countermeasure against nuclear threats was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Subsequent work on gadolinium decorporation was supported by an Innovation Grant from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These technologies are available for licensing and collaboration.


About Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

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