About
Dr. Bruna Fernandes is a postdoctoral researcher in the van Dam Lab at UCLA, where she develops high-throughput microscale radiochemistry methods to optimize new PET imaging and therapeutic agents for oncology. She earned her Bachelor’s in Pharmacy (2012) and Master’s in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (2015) from PUCRS in Brazil. She completed a double Ph.D. at PUCRS and the University of Groningen (2021), focusing on PET tracers targeting tumor-associated macrophages. This work allowed her to integrate radiochemistry, biology, and molecular imaging to better understand the tumor microenvironment. She also conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health, contributing to oncology theranostics projects. Her work involves the radiosynthesis of peptides, antibodies, antibody fragments, and small molecules labeled with radionuclides such as Ga-68, F-18, Lu-177, Pb-212, and Zr-89, with a strong commitment to translating innovative probes into clinical applications.