Oluwatayo (Tayo) Ikotun, PhD

Dr. Tayo Ikotun's research program focuses on developing diagnostic imaging tools to facilitate "in-life" visualization of the cancer immunity cycle. Her lab utilizes non-invasive imaging agents to longitudinally monitor the migration, localization and function activity of immune cells in living subjects. Their goals are to 1) increase basic understanding of immune response to injury, disease progression, and therapeutic intervention and 2) deliver predictive biomarker for patient stratification.

A secondary research focus is the development of targeted radio-immunotherapies (TRIT), a trimodal construct that specifically targets the tumor microenvironment, stimulates resident immune cells and activates innate immunity. TRIT has the potential to convert immunologically "cold" unresponsive lesions to "hot" infiltrated/responsive tumors. In collaboration with researchers at BSCRC, Ikotun's lab is incorporating PET reporter genes to enable monitoring of the whole body distribution and persistence of stem and T cell therapies.

Moesta AK, Cooke K, Piasecki J, Mitchell P, Rottman JB, Fitzgerald K, Zhan J, Yang B, Le T, Belmontes B, Ikotun OF, Merriam K, Glaus C, Ganley K, Cordover DH, Boden AM, Ponce R, Beers C, Beltran PJ. Local Delivery of OncoVEXmGM-CSF Generates Systemic Antitumor Immune Responses Enhanced by Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte-Associated Protein Blockade. Clin Cancer Res. 2017 Oct 15;23(20):6190-6202. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-0681. Epub 2017 Jul 13.

Marquez BV, Ikotun OF, Zheleznyak A, Wright B, Hari-Raj A, Pierce RA, Lapi SE. Evaluation of (89)Zr-pertuzumab in Breast cancer xenografts. Mol Pharm. 2014 Nov 3;11(11):3988-95. doi: 10.1021/mp500323d. Epub 2014 Aug 5.

Ikotun OF, Marquez BV, Fazen CH, Kahkoska AR, Doyle RP, Lapi SE. Investigation of a vitamin B12 conjugate as a PET imaging probe. ChemMedChem. 2014 Jun;9(6):1244-51. doi: 10.1002/cmdc.201400048. Epub 2014 Apr 17.

Marquez BV, Ikotun OF, Parry JJ, Rogers BE, Meares CF, Lapi SE. Development of a Radiolabeled Irreversible Peptide Ligand for PET Imaging of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor. J Nucl Med. 2014 Jun;55(6):1029-34. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.113.130898. Epub 2014 Apr 14.

Ikotun OF, Marquez BV, Huang C, Masuko K, Daiji M, Masuko T, McConathy J, Lapi SE. Imaging the L-type amino acid transporter-1 (LAT1) with Zr-89 immunoPET. PLoS One. 2013 Oct 15;8(10):e77476. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077476.