Trends in Nuclear Medicine Symposium

Professor Jason S. Lewis 

Professor Jason S. Lewis is the Emily Tow Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is the Chief Attending of the Radiochemistry & Imaging Sciences Service and serves as the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology. He holds a joint appointment in the Molecular Pharmacology Program in the Sloan-Kettering Institute. He also holds appointments at the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School, New York, NY and the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY. Lewis’ research program is a molecular imaging-based program focused on radiopharmaceutical development as well as the study of multimodality (PET, CT & MRI) small- and biomolecule-based agents and their clinical translation. The recipient of numerous NIH R01 grants, as well as the highly prestigious NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (R35), he is also a successful educator and mentor, with multiple training grants including an NCI T32. He has published >350 papers and reviews in the field of radiochemistry and molecular imaging.

Presentation title: Theranostics - Precision Medicine in Cancer Treatment

Professor Suzanne E. Lapi

Professor Suzanne E. Lapi, Ph.D. is the Emmet O’Neal II Professor, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and Professor of Radiology and Chemistry and Cyclotron Facility Director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. My research includes the production and purification of novel radioisotopes for biomedical applications with a focus on metal radionuclides. Our group also has significant interest in radiochemistry development of new molecular imaging agents and translation of these agents into clinical trials.

Presentation title: From Isotopes to Images: Expanding the Toolbox of Radiometals for Theranostics

Professor Peter Scott 

Prof. Peter Scott started his independent faculty career at the University of Michigan in 2009, where he is currently a Professor of Radiology, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology, Division Director of Nuclear Medicine, and Director of the PET Center. Scott's group is involved in all aspects of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences including i) developing new methods for radiolabeling bioactive molecules, ii) designing and translating new radiotracers for PET imaging, iii) cGMP radiopharmaceutical manufacture and iv) adapting new technology (e.g. artificial intelligence) to imagine the radiochemistry laboratory of the future. He has received numerous awards for his research including, most recently, the 2023 Sam Gambhir Trailblazer Award from SNMMI, and his laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Presentation title: We are explorers in radiochemistry space: adventures in radiochemistry, theranostics and artificial intelligence

Dr. Anu Airaksinen 

Dr. Anu Airaksinen is Professor of Radiochemistry at Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Finland. Turku PET Centre is a national research institute in Finland for the use of short-lived positron emitting isotopes in the field of medical research. Dr. Airaksinen´s main research interest is development of bioorthogonal radiochemistry for pretargeted PET imaging, theranostics and image-guided drug delivery. She has published > 95 international scientific publications and several book chapters in radiopharmaceutical chemistry and nanoscience. 

Presentation title: Bioorthogonal PET radiochemistry for diagnostic imaging and theranostics

Dr Serge Lyashchenko

Dr. Lyashchenko is responsible for the pharmaceutical development, clinical translation, and manufacture of novel molecular imaging and targeted radioligand therapy agents. He currently serves as Associate Attending Radiopharmacist, within Department of Radiology, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. 

Presentation title: Radiopharmaceutical Development- Considerations and Lessons Learnt

Dr. Federica Pisaneschi 

Dr. Federica Pisaneschi is currently an Assistant Professor in the Center for Translational Cancer Research at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Her research focuses on the design, development, validation and translation of novel radiopharmaceuticals. She also works on the mechanistic-based use of less known imaging agents for novel biological application, and on more basic radiochemistry discovery, aimed to implement new radiolabeling methodologies for broad applicability.