SNM, the world's largest molecular imaging and nuclear medicine society, recently awarded $105,000 in numerous research grants and fellowships funded by its Education and Research Foundation. SNM, the world's largest molecular imaging and nuclear medicine society, recently awarded $105,000 in numerous research grants and fellowships funded by its Education and Research Foundation.

"SNM's awards and fellowships are designed to support the work of promising researchers in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine and-ultimately-to improve health care for our patients," said SNM President Alexander J. McEwan. "By funding scholars so they may pursue independent research projects, SNM continues its long-time tradition of promoting the discovery of new science and the creation of new techniques and technologies," added Mathew L. Thakur, chair of SNM's Awards Committee.

Steve Shih-Lin Huang at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, is the recipient of the $25,000 SNM/Mallinckrodt Seed Grant in Molecular Imaging/Nuclear Medicine Research for studying 'Three-Helix-Bundle Ribosome Display System for VEGRF2 Imaging.' This one-year grant is designed to assist researchers in conducting new and innovative pilot projects that have potential for future support from foundations, corporations or government agencies.

Monica Sala-Rabanal of the University of California David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles received the $10,000 Mitzi and William Blahd, M.D., Pilot Research Grant for the research project, 'Functional expression of glucose transporters: positron emission tomography studies in mice.' This grant honors the couple's dedication to building philanthropic support for education and research in nuclear medicine.

Xuping Zhu of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., received the $10,000 Mallinckrodt Pilot Research Grant for studying 'Quantitative Y-86 PET imaging for monitoring Y-90 therapy.'

Pilot research grants, each totaling $8,000, support clinical and basic research by young investigators who are interested in testing innovative ideas while other major grant support is being sought. Recipients include

Wengen Chen, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 'Glucose metabolism in macrophage foam cells: molecular mechanism for imaging atherosclerosis by FDG-PET';

Hyung Chun, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., 'Integration of imaging and genomics for characterization of cardiac stem cell therapy';

Bart Cornelissen, University of Toronto, Canada, 'Bispecific radioimmunoconjugates for molecular imaging of the response and resistance of breast cancer to herceptin';

Sridhar Nimmagadda, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., 'Choline kinase as a therapeutic target: imaging downstream effects of choline kinase inhibition'; and

Kaijun Zhang, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pa., 'PET molecular imaging of prostate cancer by targeting VPAC1 receptors.'

The prestigious Mark Tetalman Award was presented to Matthew A. Kupinski, an assistant professor in both the College of Optical Sciences and the Department of Radiology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, during the society's 54th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

The $5,000 Mark Tetalman Award honors the work of a young investigator who is pursuing a career in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine. The biennial award is based in part on submitting a paper supporting current research efforts as well as research accomplishments, teaching, clinical service and administration. It is named in memory of a highly respected and productive clinician and researcher.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by SNM and receive this award for my work," noted Kupinski, whose research interests include task-based assessment of image quality for both tumor detection and parameter estimation tasks, understanding the statistical characteristics of images and objects being imaged, imaging hardware optimization and human-observer models for image analysis. Kupinski, who expressed appreciation to colleagues Harrison H. Barrett and Eric Clarkson, received his doctorate in medical physics from the University of Chicago in Illinois in 2000 and his bachelor's degree in physics from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, in 1995. He did his postdoctoral research in image quality at the University of Arizona from 2000-02.

The society also announced the recipients of $3,000 fellowships, which support students' full-time participation in clinical and basic research activities in molecular imaging/nuclear medicine. The top three candidates are designated as Bradley-Alavi Fellows, named by donors Jane and Abass Alavi in honor of Stanley E. Bradley, a professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York until 1978 and a prominent researcher in the fields of renal physiology and liver disease.

The Bradley-Alavi Fellows are

Ricky Tong and Andrew Hsu, both at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., and

Christopher Kim, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pa.

SNM's student fellowship program is open to students enrolled in medical, pharmacy or graduate school and undergraduates who demonstrate outstanding competence in the physical and/or biological aspects of radioactive tracers. Student fellowships were awarded to

Nathan Basken, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and

Kitch Wilson, Stanford University.

The Education and Research Foundation for SNM has been supporting the molecular imaging/nuclear medicine community since its founding in 1969. The foundation's mission is to advance excellence in health care through education and research in molecular imaging/nuclear medicine by provision of grants and awards. Additional information about these and other awards, grants and fellowships can be found online at http://www.snm.org/grants.


Source: SNM