Mirko Diksic

Biography

 Mirko Diksic is a scientist who has successfully used his abundant experience in basic sciences and applied that knowledge to neurobiological and neuropharmacological research. After joining the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1979 Mirko Diksic, along with a research group, devised and set up the first medical cyclotron facility in Canada designed exclusively for medical research. He made a substantial contribution to the development of the methods for the synthesis of radioactive labeled compounds used medical research. At the same time, Mirko Diksic established a radiochemical laboratory to prepare biologically active molecules marked with the short living 18F md 11C radioisotopes. These labeled molecules have been used in investigations of processes in the human CNS in vivo using PET. He made a significant contribution to oncological brain research. Mirko Diksic was first to demonstrate that the effects of BCNU depend on its routes of administration. A great deal of Mirko Diksic's scientific work is connected to studies in the control of the synthesis rate of the neurotransmitter (serotonin) in the CNS. He is one of the first scientists to determine the rate of serotonin synthesis in the human brain in vivo, using 11C-alpha-methyltryptophan synthesized in his laboratory. The most significant contribution of this study was the finding that the rate of serotonin synthesis in healthy male and female brains is differently affected by mild 'stress' produced by lowering body tryptophan.

Research Interest

 Oncological Brain Research