Thiele receives NIH award for innovative chemistry research to fight cancer

Nikki Thiele, a staff scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has received a 2026 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. The five-year grant will support her planned research into new chelator designs for targeted radiopharmaceuticals, with the aim of improving cancer imaging and treatment. Thiele is one of 42 New Innovator Award recipients in 2026.

Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs that use radioactive atoms to help doctors detect cancer through imaging or treat tumors by delivering radiation to them. Their targeted-delivery strategy is intended to limit exposure to healthy tissue. Specialized molecules called chelators can securely bind radioactive isotopes in these agents, but many medically promising radioisotopes have chemical properties that make them difficult to capture and stabilize with conventional chelators. Thiele’s project is intended to address that barrier by developing new bifunctional chelators for emerging medical radionuclides used in targeted cancer therapy and imaging.

In her proposal, Thiele said the new chelators could enable more effective delivery of radionuclides to tumors, expanding access to next-generation radiopharmaceuticals with improved precision, sensitivity and therapeutic potential. These are proposed benefits rather than demonstrated clinical outcomes. The award supports a five-year program of research that will combine organic synthesis, radiochemistry, in vitro experiments and in vivo studies. The planned work will examine new molecular designs under complementary laboratory and biological approaches, with the goal of determining whether they can improve the use of radionuclides that are difficult to handle with conventional chelators.

Thiele’s project is part of a broader scientific portfolio at ORNL. In addition to the radiopharmaceutical work supported by the new award, her current projects explore chemical separations of rare earth elements and radioisotopes using new receptors. Her academic and laboratory background includes a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Florida, where she studied small-molecule prodrugs intended to improve delivery of topical and oral therapeutic agents, and postdoctoral work in bioinorganic chelator development at Cornell University. She joined ORNL’s Chemical Separations Group in 2020.

Established in 2007, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award supports innovative research proposed by early-career investigators who are within 10 years of their final degree or clinical residency and have not received an NIH R01 or equivalent grant. Funding comes from the NIH Common Fund High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, overseen by the Office of Strategic Coordination within the Office of the Director. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering will administer the award. The funded research could advance personalized medicine by improving approaches to cancer diagnosis and treatment, but the announcement does not report testing results or establish clinical benefit.

Subject of Research: New chelator designs for targeted radiopharmaceutical cancer imaging and treatment

Article Title: Thiele receives NIH award for innovative chemistry research to fight cancer

Article References: Thiele receives NIH award for innovative chemistry research to fight cancer. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: Nikki Thiele, NIH New Innovator Award, bifunctional chelators, radiopharmaceuticals, medical radionuclides, cancer imaging, targeted radiotherapy, radiochemistry, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, personalized medicine, Thiele, receives