Dr. James C Knight
I am a lecturer in radiochemistry in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. My research focusses on the synthesis and preclinical evaluation of radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and therapeutic applications.
I am the Head of Admissions for MSc Chemistry and Drug Chemistry programmes and the lead for radiochemistry within the Discovery of Medicines research theme in the Faculty of Medical Sciences. I was previously the Degree Programme Director for MSc Drug Chemistry.
I have published >50 papers (with >1000 citations) in this area and have recently co-authored 2 textbooks on click chemistry and its role in radiochemistry. I also sit on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals.
My research has been generously supported by EPSRC, Orthopaedic Research UK, UK SPINE, Wellcome Trust, and NIHR.
Latest Publications
58. Toni A. Pringle and James C. Knight*. The Effects of Buffer, pH, and Temperature Upon SPAAC Reaction Rates. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 2025, in press.
57. Stavros Melemenidis, James C. Knight, Veerle Kersemans, Francisco Perez-Balderas, Niloufar Zarghami, Manuel Sarmiento Soto, Bart Cornelissen, Ruth J. Muschel, and Nicola R. Sibson*. 2024. In Vivo PET Detection of Lung Micrometastasis in Mice by Targeting Endothelial VCAM-1 Using a Dual-Contrast PET/MRI Probe. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2024, 25(13), 7160, 1-19.
56. Tracey Luu, Katie Gristwood, James C. Knight*, and Manuela Jörg*. Click Chemistry: Reaction Rates and Their Suitability for Biomedical Applications. Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2024, in press, doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00084
55. Lydia Cooke, Katie Gristwood, Kate Adamson, Mark Sims, Michael Deary, Dawn Bruce, Antony Antoniou, Hannah Walden, James C. Knight, Timothé Antoine-Brunet, Marie Joly, David Goyard, Pierre-Henri Lanoë, Nathalie Berthet, Valery Kozhevnikov*. Annealing 1,2,4-Triazine to Iridium(III) Complexes Induces Luminogenic Behaviour in Bioorthogonal Reactions with Strain Alkynes. BioRxiv, 2024, Preprint at doi:10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-r4p1p
54. Toni A. Pringle, Erik-Ramon-Gil, Jack Leslie, Fiona Oakley, Matthew C. Wright, James C. Knight*, Saimir Luli*. Synthesis and Preclinical Evaluation of a 89Zr-labelled Human Single Chain Antibody for Non-invasive Detection of Hepatic Myofibroblasts in Acute Liver Injury. Scientific Reports, 2024, 14, 633.
53. Katie Gristwood, Saimir Luli, Kenneth S. Rankin, James C. Knight*. Synthesis and in vitro evaluation of a HER2-specific immunoSCIFI probe. ACS Omega, 2023, 8, 50, 47905-47912. (journal cover).
52. Katie Gristwood, Saimir Luli, Kenneth S. Rankin, James C. Knight*. In situ excitation of BODIPY fluorophores by Cerenkov Luminescence. Chem. Commun., 2022, 58, 11689-11692.
51. Toni A. Pringle, Oliver Coleman, Akane Kawamura, James C. Knight*. The Influence of Degree of Labelling upon Cellular Internalisation of Antibody-Cell Penetrating Peptide Conjugates. RSC Advances, 2022, 12, 27716-27722.
50. Toni A. Pringle, Corey D. Chan, Saimir Luli, Helen Blair, Kenneth S. Rankin*, James C. Knight*. Synthesis and In Vivo Evaluation of a Site-Specifically Labelled Radioimmunoconjugate for Dual-Modal (PET/NIRF) Imaging of MT1-MMP in Sarcomas. Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2022, 33(8), 1564-1573. (journal cover).
