Purdue Institute for Cancer Research

NCI-designated since 1978, the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research is a basic laboratory centre built on chemistry, engineering and analytical science rather than a hospital. Philip Low's folate receptor-targeted imaging agents and small-molecule drug conjugates founded Endocyte, which later licensed the PSMA radioligand that became Pluvicto and was acquired by Novartis in 2018; his laboratory also produced the tumour-targeted fluorescent agents used in fluorescence-guided surgery. Graham Cooks's ambient mass spectrometry (DESI) is being applied to intra-operative tumour margin assessment, and structural and medicinal chemistry programmes feed drug discovery. Purdue partners with Indiana University's Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center for clinical translation.