Current Radiopharmaceuticals

Prof. Cascini is nuclear medicine specialist with a PhD in diagnostic imaging obtained from the University of Naples. He worked as medical assistant in the National Cancer Institute and assistant professor in Catanzaro. Prof. Cascini actually is Associate Professor in Diagnostic Imaging and medical director of nuclear medicine unit in UMG of Catanzaro. He has published more than 60 scientific papers concerning the nuclear medicine in neurology and oncology.

Professor Andrea Ciarmiello is the director of Nuclear Imaging Department at S. Andrea Hospital, La Spezia, Italy. He has published several papers in Oncology and Neurology imaging. Has been principal investigator on numerous research projects financed by the Ministry of Health. He is currently involved as PI in research projects focusing on amyloid and PSMA imaging. Professor Ciarmiello is a member of the Italian Society of Nuclear Medicine (AIMN) and European Society of Nuclear Medicine (EAMN). Professor Ciarmiello is currently a member of the editorial boards of European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Dr. Vincenzo Cuccurullo was born in Naples, Italy; M.D. degree from the Second University of Naples in 1994 and in 1998 Specialist in Nuclear Medicine. In 2002, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Diagnostic Imaging. Since 2003, Dr. Cuccurullo has been working as a Medical Doctor in Nuclear Medicine at the Second University of Naples and from 2008 as an Assistant Professor in Nuclear Medicine researching in Diagnostic Imaging techniques. Author of more of 200 articles consisting of research papers, abstracts and chapters of books, invited speaker at national and international meetings and workshops, book reviewer for the European J. of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and Associate Editor of Current Radiopharmaceuticals.

Frédéric Dollé graduated from the University of Strasbourg, France, where he also completed his PhD in organic chemistry in 1991. End of 1993, he joined the Life Sciences Division of the French atomic energy commission (CEA) at the Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot (Orsay), where his research interests still focus on the development of novel radiotracers for in vivo molecular imaging using Positron Emission Tomography, as well as the development and application of novel methods for the synthesis of carbon-11- and fluorine-18-labelled probes. Co-author of over 200 publications, he is also associate-editor of Current Radiopharmaceuticals since 2010.

Dr. Laura Evangelista, MD PhD, is a nuclear medicine physician at Istituto Oncologico Veneto IOV – IRCCS Padova, Italy. Following her residency in Nuclear Medicine at University “Federico II” of Napoli, Italy, she worked as research fellow at University “Federico II” of Napoli, Italy, Memorial Sloan Kettering of New York City, USA and Mayo Clinic of Rochester (MN, USA) focusing on PET/CT in breast cancer, prostate cancer and molecular imaging. Moreover, in 2009 she moved at Istituto Oncologico Veneto IOV – IRCCS Padova, Italy, where she is currently working as a nuclear medicine physician, with a special interest in the nuclear diagnostic and therapeutic evaluation in solid and non-solid tumors.

Born in Bologna (Italy) January 19, 1956. Director of the Medical Physics Department at the S.Orsola – Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna (Italy). MSc in Physics and PhD in Medical Physics from the University of Bologna, has a long experience the field of Nuclear Medicine Physics; he contributed to the planning of the PET Centre of the S.Orsola – Malpighi University Hospital. From 1990 is appointed as Professor of Nuclear Medicine Physics at the Medical School of the University of Bologna. He is a Technical expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency and consultant expert of the European Medicines Agency for radiopharmaceutical products.

Doina Piciu is Associate Professor of the “University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iuliu Hațieganu” Cluj-Napoca, Romania, being a nuclear medicine physician and endocrinologist with more than 27 years of experience in both specialties. D.Piciu has succeeded to increase interest and improve education in the field of nuclear medicine and endocrinology, both within her own country and throughout Central and Eastern Europe (CEE); she was delegated (2013-2016), by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) to act as chair of the EANM’s CEE and outreach courses. She is leading an expertize departament, part of European Research Network, in the field of rare endocrine disease (Endo-ERN).

Assoc. Prof. Sona Balogova graduated at Comenius University in Bratislava and started working at nuclear medicine department of University Hospital of Bratislava. At present is full time employed as a professor of nuclear medicine and head of department of nuclear medicine of Comenius University and St. Elisabeth oncology institute in Bratislava. Scientific interest is focused on innovative clinical applications of approved radiopharmaceuticals and on clinical applications and approval of non-FDG radiopharmaceuticals.

Dr. Raisa N. Krasikova has awarded her Ph.D. in basic radiochemistry (222Rn) and in 1991 she joined first Russian PET center within N. P. Bechtereva Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IHB RAS). Since 2000 Raisa N. Krasikova is a head of Radiochemistry lab of the IHB RAS and associated professor in radiochemistry at the St.-Petersburg State University. Her current research is focused on the new synthetic methods for PET radiopharmaceuticals, in particular, 18F-labeled aromatic amino acids. She is a well-known specialist in developing fully automated methods for clinically relevant and new 18F-labelled radiotracers.

Dr. Alongi is the person in charge at Nuclear Medicine Service of San Raffaele Giglio in Cefalù (Italy) which is one the major oncology and neurology centre in south of Italy. He has worked during the specialization in Nuclear Medicine and as Researcher at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan between 2010 and 2015 and at UCLH of London as honorary clinical-researcher in PET/MR and PET/CT, with a main research interest in molecular imaging of genitor-urinary cancer and neurodegenerative disease. He authored more than 25 peer-reviewed articles published in less than 5 years in the fields of oncology and neurology.

Nicola Belcari received his PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Pisa in 2003. Since 2007 he is atf the Department of Physics of the University of Pisa and since 2016 he is Associate Professor in Medical Physics. His present research is oriented to the development of multi-modality instrumentation for high-resolution pre-clinical PET/CT and brain-dedicated PET/MRI systems. He is also an expert of performance assessment of pre-clinical PET/CT instrumentation.

Dr. Bertagna is a Medical Doctor and Assistant Professor in Nuclear Medicine in the University of Brescia and Spedali Civili di Brescia Hospital, Italy. He has nearly 15 years of experience in the research and clinical practise in the nuclear medicine field. He has published more than 115 scientific publications and is currently a member of the editorial board of this journal.

Dr. Stefano Boschi is consultant of PET Radiopharmacy. Dr. Boschi has been for 12 years Head of PET Radiopharmacy of Dept. of Nuclear Medicine in Bologna, Italy. He has over 15 years of experience in radiopharmaceuticals preparation for clinical practice. He has served as principal investigator of a joint strategic project on synthesis of new radiopharmaceuticals in oncology. Dr. Boschi is Member of the Radiopharmaceutical Working Group at the Italian Medicine Agency since 2009. Dr. Boschi is lecturer of radiopharmacy at the University of Bologna, School of Pharmacy. He has been Technical expert involved in IAEA tutorial activity in PET radiopharmacy and in expert missions in developing country. He has published numerous manuscripts on radiopharmaceuticals and participated in several international meetings as invited speaker.

Dr. Rodney Brown obtained his PhD from Queens University, Belfast, UK. The title of his thesis was ‘The control of geometric isomerism in the bipyridine complexes of ruthenium’. He is currently a Technical Leader in the Isotope Chemistry Group at Almac. He has worked in isotopic labeling since 2006 and has experience in cGMP manufacture of isotopically labeled APIs and also the production of radiolabeled IMPs.

Dr. med. Federico Caobelli is the responsible for Nuclear Cardiology in the Clinic of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine of the University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, a leading academic Institution in Switzerland. He worked as honorary clinical-researcher at Royal Brompton Hospital in London (UK) and as post-doc researcher at Hannover Medical School (Germany), with a main research interest in cardiovascular imaging. He is Fellow of the European Board of Nuclear Medicine and Committee Member in the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology (ESCR) and European Society of Molecular Imaging (ESMI). He authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, mostly as first and leading author.

Dr. Chin is the Director of the Small Animal Translational PET / CT center at Duke University. He has over 20 years of research experience in radionuclide and molecular imaging. Dr. Chin has served as the Clinical Director of Nuclear Medicine at Johns Hopkins, and approaches imaging research from the translational perspective. He has published numerous manuscripts in oncologic PET, and has served as Principal Investigator on several projects including federally funded grants. He is currently focused on translational aspects of PET imaging in oncology with a concentration in genitourinary cancers.

Giuseppe De Vincentis, MD PhD, has more than 25 years experience in Nuclear Medicine . He has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 proceedings articles, more than 100 abstract several invited lectures, dealing with several fields of application of nuclear medicine techniques, such as cardiology, pneumology, muscular disease, oncology, clinical application of new imagers, therapeutical applications of alpha emitters nuclides (TaT). He is Associated Professor of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiological, Oncological and Pathological Sciences, at " Sapienza" University of Rome

Adriano Duatti is Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry and of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Ferrara, Italy, and Associate Researcher of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) at Legnaro National Laboratories (LNL-INFN) near Padua, Italy. His main research interests are in the field of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry with focus on the development of diagnostic radiotracers for functional and molecular imaging and on the production of innovative radioisotopes for radionuclide therapy. He was author and co-author of more than 170 scientific articles on international journals, 30 book chapters, and more than 300 communications and invited lectures at international meetings. He was co-inventor of about 50 patents in the field of radiopharmaceutical chemistry and molecular imaging.

Prof. Stefano Fanti graduated at University of Bologna. Started working in conventional nuclear medicine in the ’90, then involved in the project of PET Unit at S.Orsola Policlinic Hospital, participating to site planning then appointed as medical director in 2002. The PET Unit at S.Orsola is now recognized as one of the most active in Europe; in particular known for the nonFDG scans, in both clinical routine and research area. At present he is full time employed in Nuclear Medicine as Professor of Diagnostic Imaging as well as Director of Nuclear Medicine Division at the S.Orsola Hospital in Bologna. Author of more than 320 full articles published in peer reviewed international journals, several books and chapters; invited lecturer at more than 120 national and international meetings.

Mohsen Farsad, M.D., is the director of the Nuclear Medicine Department at Central Hospital Bolzano/Bozen Italy. He has graduated from the University of Bologna, in one of the most active PET/CT Departments in Europe and a Centre of Excellence. He pursued an Oncology Imaging fellowship at Imperial College, Hammersmith Hospital London (UK). He obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification for Associate Professor in January 2014. The major focus of his career has been on PET/CT Imaging, with special interest in Non-FDG PET tracers.

Pradeep Garg is the Executive Director of “Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy”, a division of Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, Shreveport, LA (BRF). Prior to his joining BRF, Dr. Garg was Professor of Radiological Sciences and Director of PET Research Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston Salem, NC where he led this university wide resource. Dr. Garg is a molecular imaging scientist with research focus towards developing and evaluating novel radiopharmaceuticals as diagnostic and/or therapeutic agents. He served on numerous national and international committees. He is member of several professional organizations such as the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, American Chemical Society, and American Association for Cancer Research.

Dr. Valentina Garibotto is senior physician and lecturer at the Geneva University and Geneva University Hospital, with a main research interest in molecular imaging of neurodegenerative diseases. She obtained her doctorate (MD) in Medicine from the Genoa University Hopspital, her specialization in nuclear medicine in the San Raffaele Hospital and Bicocca University in Milan and the title of Privat Docent from the Geneva University. She has authored 85 peer reviewed articles (H index: 17) in the fields of clinical neuroimaging and nuclear medicine. She is member of the Neuroimaging Committee of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine.

Dr. Antony D. Gee is Professor of PET and Radiochemistry at King’s College London. He obtained his PhD in Radiopharmaceutical Organic Chemistry at Uppsala University, Sweden. Research interests include the development of rapid labelling synthetic techniques with short-lived positron-emitting radionuclides, small molecule-protein / small molecule-membrane interactions, the design of PET imaging probes, understanding in vivo pharmacology and the utility of PET in drug discovery and development. He is very active in outreach, educational programmes, the promotion of radiochemistry and its applications and is currently the president elect of the Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences (SRS), Chair of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Drug Development Committee and Chair of UK PET Chemistry.

Dr. Guerra is the clinical director of the PET/CT Unit at San Gerardo Hospital – University of Milano Bicocca - Monza (Italy). He has over 10 years of experience in PET/CT in oncology. He is currently focused on PET/CT in Lymphoma, particularly in Hodgkin lymphoma, DLBCL and follicular lymphoma. He participate to the PET/CT commission of the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi and to the Oncological Working Group for oncohematology of the Associazione Italiana di Medicina Nucleare (AIMN). He is also interested in PET/CT respiratory gating technique both in diagnosis and in radiotherapy planning of the tumors of lung, pancreas and liver. He has published many papers, mostly in oncologic PET/CT.

Brigitte Guérin is Full Professor in the Department of Nuclear Medicine & Radiobiology of the Université de Sherbrooke, Head of the Radiochemistry Laboratory of the Molecular Imaging Centre of Sherbrooke (CIMS) and she holds Jeanne and J.-Louis Lévesque Chair in Radiobiology. Her in-depth knowledge of the peptide synthetic chemistry opens a new avenue of research for the development of radiopharmaceuticals, multimodal probes for several medical conditions. Her research interests include the development of radioisotopes and on the design, synthesis and preclinical validation of radiotracers, radiotheranostics and multimodal probes targeting overexpressed biomarkers in various cancers for molecular imaging and targeted therapy.

Dr. Hao obtained his Ph.D. in radiopharmaceutical chemistry from Beijing Normal University, China. He has over 15 years of experiences in the field of molecular imaging and radiochemistry to develop novel molecular imaging probes to diagnose and/or treat cancerous and cardiovascular diseases. Currently, Dr. Hao is an Assistant Professor in Department of Radiology and serves the Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Program as Research Radiochemist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Texas. He has authored more than thirty peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Seyed Jalal Hosseinimehr obtained PhD in Radiopharmacy in 2002 from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. He is presently serving as a Professor at the Department of Radiopharmacy in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. His Research experiences include Radiopharmaceuticals, Radiolabeled peptides, Radiation Biology, Radioprotective study. He has been recognized with several awards and honors such as Prize for top PhD student, Prize for top researcher, and others. He has contributed more than 180 publications, having citations around 3114.

Roberto Iezzi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Bioimaging and Radiological Sciences, Catholic University, Rome, Italy. He is a Member of the Italian Society of Radiology (SIRM), European Society of Radiology (ESR), and Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE). His experimental and clinical investigations have mainly focused on contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, CT angiography, MR angiography, and vascular/extravascular and oncological interventional radiology. He is author or coauthor of a number of international publications, abstracts, and book chapters. He is involved in the faculty committee of national and international congresses (ECR, CIRSE, SIRM, MIOLive, GEST).

Dr. Elena Incerti is a Researcher at the Nuclear Medicine Unit and PET center in IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy. She concluded her Post-graduate School in Clinical Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry in 2017. She previously worked at the Division of Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cells and Gene Therapy, and Diabetes Research Institute in the San Raffaele Hospital. Her main research interests include Molecular Imaging in the field of oncology and inflammation diseases. She is Author of more than 35 papers on peer-reviewed journals. She have been awarded “2016 Alavi-Mandell Award” from SNMMI as first author of a publication in JNM 2015 (doi: 10.2967/jnumed.115.163741).

Prof Kairemo graduated with an M.Sc.(Eng.) degree from Helsinki University of Technology in 1980. He undertook specialist training in Clinical Chemistry, Nuclear Medicine, Health Care Administration and Clinical Pharmacology at Helsinki University Central Hospital. He has held posts as Professor in Clinical Chemistry at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in Nuclear Medicine at Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden and as Head of the Nuclear Medicine Division at Helsinki University Central Hospital. Since 2009, he has been Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Radiotherapy at the Docrates Cancer Center, in Helsinki.

Dr. Russ Knapp is internationally recognized for development of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals and directed the Nuclear Medicine Program at ORNL from 1977-2012. Editorial Board appointments have included the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, European Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Applied Radiation and Isotopes, World Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Current Molecular Imaging . He has authored over 400 journal articles, book chapters and Proceedings. In 1991-1992 and again in 2015, he conducted research at the Clinic for Nuclear Medicine, in Bonn, Germany, supported as a Senior American Scientist of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is recognized for his translational clinical introduction of iodine-123-BMIPP for cardiac imaging and rhenium-188 for targeted therapy.

"Dr. Karl-Josef Langen is nuclear medicine physician focused on preclinical and clinical testing of new radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine diagnostics. He qualified at RWTH Aachen university clinic in 1985 and completed training in nuclear medicine at the University of Düsseldorf in 1989. After habilitation in nuclear medicine in 1992 he became head of a research group at the Research Center Jülich (FZJ) focusing on SPECT/PET and correlative MR-PET imaging of brain tumors including Hybrid-PET-MRI. He was appointed professor and senior physician of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Nuclear Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University at the FZJ in 2013."

Dr. Roy H. Larsen has a Ph.D. and postdoctoral experience in radiopharmaceutical chemistry from University of Oslo, Norway and Duke University, USA, respectively. Dr. Larsen was the main inventor in and founder of Algeta ASA (founded in 1997, acquired by Bayer AG in 2014), and he served as Managing Director and later Chief Scientific Officer in Algeta ASA from 1997-2006, He was a inventor in and founder of Nordic Nanovector ASA (2009), and Oncoinvent AS (2010). Dr. Larsen works as a consultant, inventor, founder etc within the field of radionuclide based therapeutics. Currently affiliated with Oncoinvent AS, Oslo, Norway.

Dr. Jaeho Lee has received his PhD in the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, he is working as a staff scientist in the National Institutes of Health, USA. His research has included Nanomedicine (e.g., stem cell labeling and drug delivery with liposome), Radiopharmaceuticals (e.g., Tc-99m liposome, antibody radiolabeling with radioisotopes such as In-111, Zr-89, Y-90, and Cu-64 for clinical trials and animal studies) and cancer therapy development with radiolabeled antibodies and computer simulation models. He is serving as an editorial member of several reputed journals like Current Radiopharamaceuticals, Journal of Radiology & Radiation Therapy, and Journal of Nanomedicine and Biotherapuetic Discovery. He has authored 19 research articles.

Professor Lewis currently serves as Vice Chair for Research and Chief of the Radiochemistry & Imaging Sciences Service in Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Department of Radiology, and as Director of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Radiochemistry and Molecular Imaging Probe Core Facility. He is a Member in Memorial Sloan Kettering, head of a laboratory in the Sloan Kettering Institute’s Molecular Pharmacology Program, and a Professor at the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Paola Mapelli graduated in 2007 at University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan and concluded her residency in Nuclear Medicine in 2012. She is currently a Nuclear Medicine Physician and Researcher at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan. She previously worked in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Division of Cancer at Imperial College London, where she still has a position as Honorary Clinical Research Fellow. She is Author of more than 35 papers on peer-reviewed journals. Her main research interests include Molecular Imaging (PET/CT) and urogenital malignancies, hypoxia and novel radiotracers.

Dr. Pandey is currently serving as an Associate Professor of Radiology at Mayo Clinic Rochester MN, USA. He also holds an adjunct Professor appointment at the Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA. Dr. Pandey’s research interest lies in design, development and evaluation of novel PET probes for CNS, cardiac and cancer applications. Dr. Pandey has authored over 57 publications including research articles, book chapters, books and conference reports excluding abstracts. Dr. Pandey has been awarded various patents including cyclotron production of radiometals in a liquid target.

Dr. M.R.A. Pillai D.Sc. works a Group Director at the Molecular Group of Companies, Kerala, India. Earlier during his appointments at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India; University of Missouri-Columbia, USA and at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Austria, he carried out extensive work on radioisotope production and radiopharmaceuticals development. While at the IAEA, Dr. Pillai conceived and edited 13 IAEA publications on cyclotron production of radionuclides, technetium- 99m radiopharmaceuticals and radionuclide generators. Dr. Pillai visited more than 50 countries in connection with his IAEA work and received six awards during his seven year tenure at the IAEA.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Pouget obtained his PhD thesis in Radiobiology in 2000 from the Curie Institute in Paris and carried-out a post-doctoral fellowship in the Nuclear Medicine Research Laboratory at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He then moved to Paris to the French Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (IRSN) for 4 years where he worked on radiation casualties. After moving to Montpellier, he joined the French National Institute for Health and Medical research (INSERM) where he is now leader of the Radiobiology and Targeted Radiotherapy team at the Cancer Research Institute of Montpellier (INSERM, France). He develops new radiopharmaceuticals for cancer imaging and therapy with a special focus on radiobiology. He has published about 50 papers dealing with radiobiology and radionuclide therapy and several patents. Besides research activity, Dr Pouget is involved in teaching at the University of Montpellier.

Dr. Natesan Ramamoorthy, Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Bombay, India. Currently Dr. Ramamoorthy is an Adjunct Professor in the National Inst. of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He was the Head of the Radiopharmaceuticals Programme of BRIT during 1997-2000 and of BARC during 1999-2000. He led the Indian radioisotopes and radiation technology programme at BARC and BRIT during 2000-2003. He was a Director at the IAEA, Vienna during 2003 to 2011. He has published more than 125 papers, apart from chapters in Books and Compilations and delivered lectures, invited talks in numerous events and venues.

Dr. Saji obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Kyoto University (Japan). Currently Dr. Saji is a Professor in pharmaceutical sciences at Kyoto University. Dr. Saji has published more than 380 scientific publications and is currently working in the area of molecular imaging.

Dr. Haladhar Dev Sarma holds Master’s degree in Veterinary Science and Doctorate degree in Basic Medical Sciences. Serving Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India for around two and half decades. Has extensive experience in pre-clinical studies and development of experimental animal models for radiation and cancer biology research. Globally recognized as one of the pioneering workers for development of 177Lu-based radiopharmaceuticals for cancer therapy. He and his co-workers developed quite a few radiopharmaceutical products for cancer theranostics. Serving as reviewer for about twenty scientific journals and editorial board member for half of them.

Dr. Peter Scott is an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Michigan, as well as Director of the PET Center and a Member of the Interdepartmental Program in Medicinal Chemistry. Scott’s group is involved in all aspects of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences including i) developing new methods for radiolabeling bioactive molecules, ii) design and synthesis of new radiotracers for PET imaging of CNS disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, and iii) cGMP radiopharmaceutical manufacture. The goals of his lab are to use PET radiotracers to improve the understanding of disease mechanisms and, ultimately, employ them as companion diagnostics to support therapeutic development.

Born in Florence, November 25, 1966. Nuclear Medicine Doctor, level B1 (D. Lgs 229/99, Deliberazione n. 766/25.05.2001) Co-Chief, Nuclear Medicine Unit, PET Center, Dept. of Diagnostic Imaging, NOP S. Stefano Hospital, Prato (Italy). MD at University of Florence and PhD in Functional Neuroimaging at University of Florence (Italy)/ Karolinska Institute Dept. of Neuroscience, Stockholm (Sweden), has a long experience in the field of Nuclear Medicine, with particular attention to bio-molecular neuro-imaging of brain and myocardium. From 2004 is appointed as Professor of Nuclear Medicine at University of Florence. Author of several full articles published in peer reviewed international journals (Medline), chapters and books; invited lecturer in national and international meetings.

Dr. Spadafora is the Director of the Nuclear Cardiology Section at Moscati Hospital of Avellino, Italy. Adjunct Professor School of Specialization in Nuclear Medicine of Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II and Professor at the University Degree Course for Technologists of Medical Radiology of University Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples. He has over 30 years experience as a researcher in both clinical and diagnostic imaging. Author of 130 manuscripts and editorials in the field of cardiology and nuclear medicine, particularly in nuclear cardiology and oncology, also as principal investigator of multicentric studies.

Alan Spivey (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/a.c.spivey) has been professor of synthetic chemistry at Imperial College London since 2008. Previously, he was a lecturer then reader in the Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield. His research encompasses the development of new reactions, synthesis of complex molecules of biomedical interest, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry including interests in PET tracers for cancer diagnosis and monitoring. omputer aided drug design (CAD), solid phase synthesis and imaging chemistry. For further details of his groups research activities see: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/spiveygroup.

Dr. Haibin Tian is assistant member and director of PET Radiochemistry at Moffitt Cancer Center. He is Radiochemist with over 10 years of experience in the investigating novel PET radiopharmaceutical in cancer imaging and has been at the forefront of IDO target PET imaging in immunotherapy. Dr. Tian holds a Ph.D. in Radiochemistry from The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Tian has authored more than 30 manuscripts, 5 patents, and service as Editorial Board member over 6 journal. Dr. Tian is also an adjunct faculty member at University of South Florida medical school.

Dr. Giorgio Treglia is currently a research scientist and nuclear medicine physician at the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland in Bellinzona and Lugano (Switzerland). He obtained his M.D. degree in 2003 and his post-graduate degree in Nuclear Medicine in 2007 from the Catholic University of Rome, Italy. His main research interests are evidence-based medicine (meta-analyses and systematic reviews) in nuclear medicine and imaging techniques in oncology and endocrinology. He is author and co-author of more than 200 full-text scientific articles cited in PubMed or Scopus database and several book chapters. He has won several awards at international congresses on imaging techniques.

Ganesan Vaidyanathan received his B.Sc (1973) and M.Sc (1975) in Chemistry from the University of Calicut, India and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Kentucky (1987). Since 1989 he is working in the Nuclear Medicine division, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA. He is also a faculty of the Medical Physics Graduate Program at Duke. His research interests include the development of 18F-, radioiodine-, 211At-, and 177Lu-labeled radiopharmaceuticals for cancer diagnosis and therapy. He has 105 peer-reviewed publications to his credit.

Dr Najafi is radiobiology and medical physic specialist with a MSc in radiobiology from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and PhD in medical physics obtained from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. At this moment, he is working on exploring new radioprotectors and radiomitigators. He has published more than 70 scientific papers concerning the cancer biology and radiobiology.

Giuseppe De Vincentis, MD PhD, has more than 25 years experience in Nuclear Medicine . He has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 proceedings articles, more than 100 abstract several invited lectures, dealing with several fields of application of nuclear medicine techniques, such as cardiology, pneumology, muscular disease, oncology, clinical application of new imagers, therapeutical applications of alpha emitters nuclides (TaT). He is Associated Professor of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiological, Oncological and Pathological Sciences, at " Sapienza" University of Rome

Prof. Amir R. Jalilian has a PharmD. degree (1995), a PhD degree in Radiopharmacy (2000) followed by Postdoctoral fellowships from the University of Alberta, Canada and Yale School of Medicine, CT, USA. Until 2015, he was active in the development of new radiopharmaceuticals leading to the completion of clinical trials and the marketing of six radiopharmaceuticals. He has published around 300 scientific papers in peer-viewed journals and five books in various languages and supervised more than 50 MSc and PhD thesis. In 2015, he joined the Nuclear Sciences and Application Department, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna Headquarters, Austria as a Radioisotope/Radiopharmaceutical Chemist. He is leading four IAEA international Collaborated Research Projects (CRP) on the topic of radioisotope and radiopharmaceutical production.