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Awards & Prizes
Society of Nuclear Medicine provides $65,500 in 2005 grants, awards for researchers, students
Apr 15, 2005 - 6:45:38 PM

The Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) recently awarded $65,500 in grants and awards for molecular imaging/nuclear medicine researchers and students.

Georges El Fakhri, Ph.D., M.Eng., MSEE, MSBME, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., received the prestigious Mark Tetalman Award, which honors the work of a young investigator who is pursuing a career in molecular imaging/nuclear medicine. This $2,500 award is based in part on submitting a paper supporting current research efforts as well as research accomplishments, teaching, clinical service and administration. The award is named in memory of a highly respected and productive clinician and researcher.

El Fakhri is a staff physicist in the joint program in nuclear medicine and an assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. He received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1998 and holds a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Paris and a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Texas, Austin.

For the first time, the society offered the Mitzi and William Blahd, M.D., Pilot Research Grant, which honors the couple's dedication to philanthropic support for education and research in nuclear medicine. Receiving $10,000 was Gary Ulaner, M.D., Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif. His research project was "PET and Bioluminescent Imaging of Telomerase Promoter Activity to Evaluate in Vivo Chemotherapy Response."

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

# Yiyan Lui, M.D., Ph.D., New Jersey Medical School, Newark, N.J., "Imaging of Fatty Acid Oxidation in Prostate Cancer: Preclinical in Vitro and Animal Model Studies";

# Mi-Ae Park, Ph.D., Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass., "Improved Brain Image Using a Conventional Dual-Head SPECT System and Ultra-Short Focusing Sollimation";

# Xiankai Sun, Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, "Preparation of 74 As-doped Fe2O3 Nanoscaffolds as Multimodality Imaging Probes"; and

# Shyam Srinivas, M.D., Ph.D., Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., "Using 64 Cu-ATSM as a Tracer for "Hot Spot" PET Imaging of Hypoxia in Exercise Stress-Induced Myocardial Ischemia."

Bradley-Alavi Fellows are named in honor of the late Stanley E. Bradley, a professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a prominent researcher in the fields of renal physiology and liver disease, and Abass Alavi, M.D., professor of radiology and chief of the division of nuclear medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Fellows, who will each receive $3,000, include

# Tapan Nayak, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., "Pharmacokinetics, Radiation Dosimetry and Toxicity of Somatostatin Receptor Targeted Cancer Therapy in Animal Model Using Alpha Particle Emitter213Bi, Beta Particle Emitter90Y and Auger Emitter111In";

# Christopher Kim, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, "Drug Development Application of FDG-PET Imaging: P13K Isoform Inhibitors in Ovarian Cancer"; and

# Jeremy West, California State University, Sacramento, Calif., "Investigation of Growth Inhibition and Cell Death Effects of Novel Anti-HLA-DR10 Radionuclide Carriers for Radionuclide Therapy and Imaging Prototype for Lymphoma."

Student fellowships, which provide $3,000 to support students' full-time participation in clinical and basic research activities in molecular imaging/nuclear medicine, were awarded to

# Carrie Hruska, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., "Optimization of Collimator Selection for Molecular Breast Imaging";

# Paras Lakhani, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa., "Correlation Between PET and Digital Mammography of Normal Breasts";

# Bao Tran, University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Philadelphia, Pa., "FDG-PET Imaging as a Potential Technique for Detecting Clots: Validation by in Vitro and Animal Models"; and

# Yingbing Wang, Stanford University School of Medicine, "Comparison of 18F-2-flouro-2-deoxygluclose (FDG) Versus 124I-Anti-CEA Minibody Fragments in PET Imaging of Patients with Rising CEA Levels and Suspected Recurrent Colorectal Cancer."

These SNM grants and awards were announced at the society's Mid-Winter Educational Symposium in Tampa, Fla. Please check http://www.snm.org/grants for applications for the society's 2006 grant and award program.

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