Best/brightest in molecular imaging/nuclear medicine present advances at SNM's 53rd Annual Meeting

May 19, 2006

RESTON, Va.--The world's foremost authorities in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine will present the latest research on new ways to treat and manage heart and brain diseases and cancer during SNM's 53rd Annual Meeting June 3-7 at the San Diego Convention Center.

"SNM recognizes the critical role of molecular imaging/nuclear medicine in future patient care for diagnosis, for predicting treatment response and for monitoring treatment response and individual treatment plans," said SNM President Peter S. Conti, professor of radiology, clinical pharmacy and biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. This is why more than 4,000 physicians, technologists, scientists and pharmacists from around the world will attend this premier meeting, the world's largest event for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine professionals, added the director of the PET Imaging Science Center at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "The research presented at SNM's Annual Meeting will enable physicians to define disease in individual patients by relating location, function, structure and biochemistry," said Conti, who as SNM president speaks for 16,000 physicians, technologists and scientists in the United States and 78 other countries who are members of the multidisciplinary society.

"At SNM's Annual Meeting, you'll find world-class researchers from national health agencies and acclaimed domestic and international medical research universities, institutions and hospitals," said SNM Technologist President Valerie R. Cronin, vice president of imaging services in the Catholic Health System of Western New York in Buffalo. Scheduled speakers include

• Simon R. Cherry, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging, both at the University of California, Davis, "Of Mice and Men and Positrons: Advances in PET Imaging Technology," June 4;

• Alexander Gottschalk, a pioneer researcher and author who helped shape modern medical imaging and professor of diagnostic radiology at Michigan State University in East Lansing, "How to Interpret and Report the V/Q Scan in the Post PIOPED II Era," June 5;

• Henry N. Wagner Jr., director of the division of radiation health sciences at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., June 7.

The following is just a sampling of the numerous experts who will be attending and/or presenting research at this meeting: Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Md.; Peter Herscovitch, chief of the positron emission tomography imaging section at NIH in Bethesda, Md., and senior staff physician at the NIH Clinical Center; Barbara Croft, program director for the National Cancer Institute's cancer imaging program; Peter S. Conti, professor of radiology, clinical pharmacy and biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, professor of radiology and bioengineering, director of the Molecular Imaging Program and head of the nuclear medicine division at Stanford University; Heinrich R. Schelbert, professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and nuclear medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles; Martin P. Sandler, chair of the department of radiology and radiological sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn.; Alexander J.B. McEwan, director of oncologic imaging at Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and professor and director of the division of oncologic imaging in the department of oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta; Henry F. VanBrocklin, staff scientist in the department of functional imaging at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and assistant adjunct professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco; Henry D. Royal, professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., and associate director of nuclear medicine at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; Satoshi Minoshima, professor of radiology and bioengineering, vice chair for research in the department of radiology and head of the Primate PET Imaging Suite at the University of Washington, Seattle; Michael J. Welch, co-director of the division of radiological sciences at Washington University's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and head of the institute's radiochemistry laboratory; Steven M. Larson, chief of the nuclear medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, N.Y.; Barry L. Shulkin, Division Chief, Nuclear Medicine Division, Radiological Sciences Department, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.; Joanna S. Fowler, chemist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.; and Richard L. Wahl, director of nuclear medicine/PET at the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Nearly 2,000 scientific and technologist abstracts will be presented at this meeting covering heart diseases (ischemia, coronary artery stenosis, coronary angiography); brain disorders (Alzheimer's, obesity, dementia, ADHD, schizophrenia, acupuncture, smoking, cocaine use, anorexia nervosa); cancer (pancreas, breast, lung, leukemia, chemotherapy response); illnesses affecting children (Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma); infectious disease (fever of unknown origin, hip prosthesis); and technologist issues related to radiation safety, contrast agents, psychological aspects of dealing with patients, radiopharmaceutical uses and imaging of claustrophobic patients.

To register for the Annual Meeting, visit the SNM Web site at www.snm.org/am. Press registration is complimentary to credentialed media. For press registration only, contact Maryann Verrillo, at (703) 708-9000, ext. 1211, or mverrillo@snm.org. Press representatives may also register online at www.snm.org/am. SNM will hold a press conference from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on June 5, featuring an overview of the latest research and discoveries in the world of molecular imaging/nuclear medicine. New applications in oncology, neurology and cardiology will be discussed. Also at this press conference, Henry N. Wagner Jr. will announce his 2006 Image of the Year.About SNMSNM is an international scientific and professional organization of more than 16,000 members dedicated to promoting the science, technology and practical applications of molecular and nuclear imaging to diagnose, manage and treat diseases in women, men and children. Founded more than 50 years ago, SNM continues to provide essential resources for health care practitioners and patients; publish the most prominent peer-reviewed journal in the field; host the premier annual meeting for medical imaging; sponsor research grants, fellowships and awards; and train physicians, technologists, scientists, physicists, chemists and radiopharmacists in state-of-the-art imaging procedures and advances. SNM members have introduced--and continue to explore--biological and technological innovations in medicine that noninvasively investigate the molecular basis of diseases, benefiting countless generations of patients. SNM is based in Reston, Va.; additional information can be found online at http://www.snm.org.

Society of Nuclear Medicine

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