Dr. David Bauer is a passionate biomedical chemist dedicated to advancing radiopharmaceutical cancer research, with a special focus on developing targeted alpha therapies to improve the current standard of care for patients with advanced disease progression.
Dr. Bauer earned his PhD from Dresden University of Technology, Germany, in 2020. There, he cultivated a multidisciplinary approach to connecting organic, analytical, and biomedical chemistry with radiopharmaceutical cancer research. From 2020 to 2024, he gained preclinical and translational expertise during his postdoctoral fellowship in the Jason Lewis Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s leading cancer research institutions.
In 2025, Dr. Bauer joined the University of Missouri as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, where he is building a dynamic research Lab focused on designing next-generation radiopharmaceuticals. His Lab is located in the Molecular Imaging and Theranostic Center (MITC) just a few steps away from the highest-power university research reactor in the United States — MURR.
More than just a researcher, Dr. Bauer is passionate about creating a collaborative learning environment for students and postdocs. His mission is to train the next generation of outstanding radiochemists who are technically skilled, driven by curiosity, and committed to making meaningful contributions to science.
Dr. Bauer enjoys engaging with the scientific community, collaborating with partners from academia and industry, and supporting his students in their professional growth. He is always on the lookout for fascinating new projects, and curious, motivated, and ambitious scientists to join his team and share in the excitement of discovery.
Some cancers like pancreatic, gastric, ovarian, and colorectal cancers often transform into highly aggressive diseases prone to early metastasis, high recurrence, and resistance to both chemotherapy and immune therapies. Metastatic niches often include the lungs and abdominal cavity, particularly the liver and peritoneum. Patients with this metastatic burden usually suffer great pain, since intraperitoneal metastases can lead to painful fluid buildup (ascites) containing microscopic tumor seeds that are not amenable to surgery or external radiation. Intravenous chemotherapy is often ineffective because metastases hijack existing blood vessels or form channel-like canals, avoiding early neovascularization.
Targeted alpha therapy (TAT) offers a promising solution for treating micrometastases, even in cases of resistance to traditional treatments. TAT involves using a radioactive drug that targets cancer cells and releases highly energetic alpha particles with a short range (<0.1 mm), allowing for precise cell-killing of tumor cells while sparing surrounding healthy tissue. TAT is a safe and highly effective treatment, first approved by the FDA in 2013 for metastatic prostate cancer (Xofigo®), and ongoing clinical trials are expanding this application. However, to be effective, the therapy must reach its target.
Intravenous administration struggles to penetrate ascites and poorly vascularized metastases. We hypothesize that a local, intraperitoneal administration of alpha-emitting radiopharmaceuticals will significantly reduce tumor burden while offering a more favorable safety profile than intravenously delivery, potentially transforming treatment for pancreatic and other abdominal-spreading cancers.
In the Bauer Lab, we evaluate intraperitoneal targeted alpha therapy (IP TAT) preclinically. By advancing IP TAT as a targeted treatment option, our research can potentially transform therapeutic strategies for peritoneal spreading cancers by providing an effective adjuvant therapy, offering new hope to patients who may not fully benefit from the current standard of care.
Bauer D, De Gregorio R, Pratt EC, Bell A, Michel A, Lewis JS. Examination of the PET in vivo generator 134Ce as a theranostic match for 225Ac. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2024 Nov;51(13):4015-4025. doi: 10.1007/s00259-024-06811-w. Epub 2024 Jun 28. PMID: 38940841 — cerious much?
Bauer D, Carter LM, Atmane MI, De Gregorio R, Michel A, Kaminsky S, Monette S, Li M, Schultz MK, Lewis JS. 212Pb-Pretargeted Theranostics for Pancreatic Cancer. J Nucl Med. 2024 Jan 2;65(1):109-116. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.123.266388. PMID: 37945380; PMCID: PMC10755526 — get a lead on it!
Herrero Álvarez N, Bauer D, Hernández-Gil J, Lewis JS. Recent Advances in Radiometals for Combined Imaging and Therapy in Cancer. ChemMedChem. 2021 Oct 6;16(19):2909-2941. doi: 10.1002/cmdc.202100135. Epub 2021 May 10. PMID: 33792195 — advance your knowlege!
Bauer D, Sarrett SM, Lewis JS, Zeglis BM. Click chemistry: a transformative technology in nuclear medicine. Nat Protoc. 2023 Jun;18(6):1659-1668. doi: 10.1038/s41596-023-00825-8. Epub 2023 Apr 26. PMID: 37100960; PMCID: PMC10293801 — click here!