ANSTO’s seminar in March on the latest clinical developments in novel radiopharmaceuticals and new imaging methods was well received.

Offering a valuable teaching and learning opportunity for the radiopharmaceutical research community, highly regarded local and international speakers presented their work in the use of novel radiopharmaceuticals for imaging cancer and neurodegeneration, and new imaging methods including modelling, instrumentation and small animal imaging.

More than 100 people attended over the two day program which was held at the Garvan Institute and supported by the CRC for Biomedical Imaging Development (CRCBID).  Among the speakers were:

• CRCBID’s Radiopharmaceuticals Research Stream leader, Professor Rod Hicks, from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne, who gave many examples of how metabolic profiling with PET imaging can provide information that allows more patients to get the best result from their cancer treatment.
• Dr Rob Ware, nuclear medicine specialist and CRCBID’s Executive Manager, Clinical Business, who talked about how CRCBID is working to make a useful brain imaging tracer available to clinicians and researchers throughout Australia.
• Professor Terry O’Brien, from The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, who presented on the use of FMZ in epilepsy management, research also supported by CRCBID.

Several other Australian researchers presented on their work, including Andrew Scott and Chris Rowe who spoke respectively of developing novel monoclonal antibodies for cancer therapy, and of clinical validation of PET agents to characterise Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Heinz Coenen, from Julich in Germany, the base of a world-leading radiopharmaceutical development team, gave an overview of the development process for novel radiopharmaceuticals, and his personal experience with the development of FET. He also spoke about the use of radiopharmaceuticals in gaining further understanding of plant physiology.

The challenges and benefits of operating a large commercial research institute dedicated to using PET radiopharmaceuticals for neurodegenerative diseases was the focus of Professor Gilles Tamagnan, from the Institute of Neurodegenerative Disorders, USA.