International Speakers
Associate Professor Clemens Decristoforo,
Clinical Department of Nuclear Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
Dr. Clemens Decristoforo is radiopharmacist and Associate Professor in Radiopharmacy (Univ.Doz., since 2001) at the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Medical University Innsbruck. He did his PhD in Radiopharmacy and a post doc at the Nuclear Medicine Research Laboratory at St. Bart`s in London, UK. From 2009-2010 he worked as radiopharmaceutical scientist at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. His main research area is in the preclinical development of peptide based radiopharmaceuticals for molecular imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy in oncology with a focus on radiometals with more than 100 publications and world-wide research collaborations. Several 99mTc and68Ga labeled peptides have been translated from radiopharmaceutical research to the clinic. He is in the editorial board of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular imaging and other NM-related journals. He is past chairman of the Radiopharmacy committee and member of the Legislation Working Group of the EANM, member of the expert group on radiopharmaceuticals (Group 14) of the European Pharmacopeia. For many years he is involved in the organization of the European Symposia on Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmaceuticals (ESRR, local organizer 2003) as well as in the scientific committee of the annual EANM meeting. He is participating in many activities regarding radiopharmaceutical legislation on a European level.
Professor Chaitanya Divgi, MD
Professor of Radiology; Vice-Chair, Research Department of Radiology Chair, Joint Radiation Safety Committee Columbia University Director, Nuclear Medicine/PET Columbia University Medical Center, USA
After graduating from St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore, India, in 1976, Dr. Divgi went to the Radiation Medicine Center, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, India, where he obtained a Diploma in Radiation (Nuclear) Medicine in 1978. He subsequently worked at the Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre in Bombay, with Dr. R.D. Lele, before going to Abu Dhabi as Head of Nuclear Medicine in 1982. Dr. Divgi came to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, in 1985, and was there until May 2006, when he joined the University of Pennsylvania. In April 2011, he joined Columbia University as Director, Nuclear Medicine and PET and Vice-Chair, Research, Department of Radiology at Columbia University.
In addition to targeted radiopharmaceutical therapy and diagnostic clinical single photon and PET Nuclear Medicine, Dr. Divgi’s research interests include antigen-binding constructs. He has conducted several immunoPET and radioimmunotherapy studies in a variety of solid tumors including ovary, colon, kidney, and biliary cancers. Dr. Divgi has a close collaboration with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, having started in 1987 at MSKCC as a Clinical Research Fellow with Dr. Lloyd J. Old, Director of the LICR, New York branch.
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Dr. Peter F. Faulhaber M.D, M.A
Director, Clinical PET, Case Western Reserve University, USA
Dr. Faulhaber is Director of Clinical PET University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Professor of Radiology Case Western Reserve University. He has worked in the field of Positron Emission Tomography for 34 years, starting out as a research technologist at the University of Chicago prior to medical school. At University Case Medical Center, he was steward of the transition of PET from a research tool to a clinical modality, and finally the transition to PET/CT. His clinical interests include all aspects of PET imaging in oncology, neurology and cardiology. Dr. Faulhaber is particularly interested in response to therapy evaluations and patient outcomes based on PET imaging. He has numerous research collaborations with clinical and basic research colleagues in ovarian, prostate and breast cancer, for example. Dr Faulhaber is involved in the implementation of the new modality PET/MRI at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. He is part of a recent State of Ohio Third Frontier Award in PET/MRI applications in breast cancer. Dr. Faulhaber has a passion for education in PET/CT imaging and lectures nationally and internationally. He began to write podcasts to promote excellence in PET imaging on PET four years ago, available at clinicalpetcast.com.
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Dr Jamshid Maddahi, MD, FACC, FASNC
Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology (Nuclear Medicine) Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, USA
Dr. Jamshid Maddahi is internationally recognized as a leader and expert in cardiovascular disease research, teaching and patient care. Dr. Maddahi obtained his MD degree with Distinguished Honors in 1975 from Tehran University. He subsequently completed his residency and fellowship training in the United States in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Nuclear Medicine, and Nuclear cardiology. Dr. Maddahi began his academic and research career in 1977 in the field of Nuclear Cardiology. His pioneering and collaborative research in this field has led to several seminal articles on clinical applications of Nuclear Cardiology. The scope of his research has included development and validation of methods for assessment of myocardial perfusion, detection and risk stratification of patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease, assessment of myocardial viability and cost effectiveness of nuclear imaging in the management of patients. At the present, Nuclear Cardiology has become a standard technique in cardiology. In the US alone, more than 10 million Nuclear Cardiology procedures are done each year.
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Professor Wim Oyen, MD
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, The Netherlands
Dr. Wim Oyen, MD, PhD, is professor of Nuclear Medicine (2001) and chair (2008) of the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His main areas of research interest are the development of molecular imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy in cancer and of molecular imaging of inflammatory and infectious diseases. He has led a substantial number of clinical trials and translational studies on these subjects and has published over 450 papers. He is currently serving as research director of the Research Institute of Oncology of the Radboud University Medical Center, Congress President for the Annual European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) 2014 and 2015, member of the EANM Executive Committee and member of the Board of the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO). He is actively involved in the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Imaging Group. He is associate-editor of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine and member of the editorial board of The European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
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Australian Speakers
Dr Zoe Brady
Diagnostic Imaging Medical Physicist, Radiation Safety Officer, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.
Zoe undertook a PhD at RMIT University investigating the medical radiation exposure of children in Australia from computed tomography (CT) examinations. Dr Brady is undertaking further research at the University of Melbourne on an Australian epidemiological study examining whether ionising radiation from diagnostic scans in childhood increases the subsequent risk of cancer. Dr Brady lectures regularly on medical physics and radiation protection in the health sector.
Associate Professor Michael Hofman MBBS, FRACP, FAANMS
Centre for Cancer Imaging, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Associate Professor Michael Hofman is a nuclear medicine physician at the Centre for Cancer Imaging at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. He previously completed a fellowship at Guy's & St Thomas' in London, and was a consultant at Southern Health and MIA. He has a broad interest in positron emission tomography (PET), molecular imaging applications in oncology and radionuclide therapy. He has a vision of improving patient outcomes by using molecular imaging to non-invasively characterise disease thereby enabling improved selection of the most appropriate therapy for an individual patient and better assessment of therapeutic response. He has particular interest in novel F-18 and Ga-68 PET radiotracers, and theranostic applications including neuroendocrine tumours. He has an interest in training the next generation of nuclear medicine specialists and currently serves as the RACP representative on the Joint Specialty Advisory Committee in Nuclear Medicine. He has authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts or book chapters, and currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology and the American Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
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Professor Robert Howman-Giles
Clinical Professor, Discipline of Medical Imaging and Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Sydney
Professor Robert Howman-Giles is a Clinical Professor in the Discipline of Medical Imaging and Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Sydney. He is Head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and a Director of Alfred Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound, RPAH Medical Centre, Newtown, NSW. He has published extensively on the use of nuclear medicine and bone mineral density with over 165 publications in peer reviewed journals, 22 book chapters and 1 book. He has presented many lectures and been an invited speaker at national and international conferences. Professor Howman-Giles has major interests in imaging and therapy in paediatric oncology especially PET/CT applications, skeletal, biliary and renal disorders. He has extensive experience in lymphatic mapping in children and in adult sentinel lymph node imaging in melanoma and breast cancer.
Dr James Kollias
Dr James Kollias is a senior consultant surgeon in Breast and Endocrine Surgery the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Senior Visiting Surgeon at BreastScreen SA and senior Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Adelaide. He is previous Chairman of the Breast Section of RACS and founding President of BreastSurgANZ. Dr Kollias helped pioneer SNB surgery in breast cancer in Australia in the late 1990’s, was an executive member of the ANZ SNAC Trialists Group and convened 6 workshops on SNB at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in conjunction with RAH Breast surgeons, Dr Barry Chatterton and members of the Department of Nuclear Medicine. He has published and presented a number of papers on SNB in breast cancer and maintains a strong interest in this area.
Professor Vijay Kumar MSc (Med), PhD.
Clinical Professor, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney & Radiopharmaceutical Scientist.
Professor Vijay Kumar is a Radiopharmaceutical Scientist at the Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET at Westmead Hospital & The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. He is a Clinical Professor at Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. He worked as a Consultant Radiopharmaceutical Science Expert at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna in 2010. He has been associated with IAEA activities since 2005 on several National consultant missions to develop International Radiopharmacopoeial Monographs and Hospital Radiopharmacy guidelines etc. He trained many overseas candidates at Westmead Hospital under IAEA Fellowship and Scientific visits. His major research focus is in developing 68Ga-PET radiopharmaceuticals for molecular imaging of Infection and Neuroendocrine Tumours. He has been closely associated with University of Mainz for research collaboration. He is an editorial board member of the World Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology and has been associated with ISORBE activities (International Society of Radiolabelled Blood Elements). He has been actively associated with ANZSNM Scientific Advisory Panel, IRC (International Relations Committee) and in the bid committee for winning the WFNMB-2018. He has published many book chapters, reviews, peer-reviewed publications and Radiopharmacy modules for IAEA. He has been invited to speak at several international meetings.
Dr Michelle Reintals MBBS, FRANZCR
Michelle is a Breast Radiologist with Breast Screen South Australia and is the Breast Imaging Modality Director at Dr Jones & Partners in Adelaide. Specializing in breast imaging including breast MRI and implant MRI, Michelle has a fellowship from Breast Screen SA (2004) and a mini-fellowship in Breast MRI from Brigham Hospital, Boston and observorship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, NYC in 2010. Since 2012 she has been undertaking a research study into the MRI Evaluation of PIP Breast Implants, which is a co-investigation with A/Prof M. Middleton from UCSD, USA. Michelle holds positions of committee member of the Breast Imaging Reference Group (BIRG), Breast Imaging Group (BIG) and is a Clinical Image Reviewer for the Royal Australasian College of Radiology Mammography Quality Assurance Program (MQAP).
Professor Christopher C. Rowe MD FRACP
Director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Rowe leads a neuroscience PET group at Austin Health that has an outstanding international reputation and current funding of over $1.5 million per year from government, philanthropic and commercial sources. Publication rate of over 20 papers per year in the field of neurodegenerative disease and imaging. Annual citations of >1500 in 2012. Notable first author publications include Neurology (2007) – the first report of amyloid imaging in normal ageing and dementias other than AD (>450 citations) and Lancet Neurology (2008) – the first human trial of a beta-amyloid PET tracer suitable for routine clinical use (>280 citations). His group was awarded the “Best Paper 2012 and 2013, de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging” prize from the US Alzheimer’s Association. Career highlight - receipt of the Kuhl-Lassen Award for Outstanding Contribution to Brain Imaging from the US Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) in 2011. The focus of Prof. Rowe’s research continues to be imaging of neurodegenerative diseases for better understanding of these conditions, earlier more accurate detection, and to facilitate development of early therapeutic interventions.
Professor Pamela J Sykes
Professor, Preventive Cancer Biology, Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, Flinders University
Prof Sykes obtained her PhD in somatic cell genetics at the University of Adelaide. She then undertook a post-doctoral position at the University of Oklahoma, USA on bacterial gene cloning before returning to Adelaide to the Flinders University where she was involved in developing molecular methods to study minimal residual disease in childhood leukaemia. During this time she joined the Pathology Service at Flinders Medical Centre, becoming the Department Head of Genetics and Molecular Pathology in 2004, and is a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Science in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. Her current research is focussed on studying the mechanism of the protective role of low dose ionising radiation. Prof Sykes was appointed as Professor, Preventive Cancer Biology in the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer at Flinders University in 2011. She has collaborative low dose radio-biology projects in Australia, Canada, UK and Italy. Current appointments include membership on state and national committees for radiation protection and research and she is an Associate Editor for the journal Radiation Research.
Lowenthal Lecture
Leighton Barnden
Chief Medical Scientist, Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Dr Barnden commenced his medical physics career in 1975 after completing his PhD in X-Ray astronomy and Cosmic Ray Physics, and postdoctoral fellowships in Italy and Canada. He participated in the transition from analog to digital cameras, the development of tomographic imaging and the evolution of clinical software. Involvement with two 3-head cameras in brain and cardiac SPECT in a quantitative research environment led to optimization, calibration and modelling work in SPECT. Clinical research projects with brain SPECT saw him adopt iterative reconstruction and the powerful Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) package for voxel-based quantitative analysis. From a database of 100 normal brain SPECT studies, he provided new insights into the interaction of normal ageing with the spatial resolution limitations of SPECT. Lately he has translated his SPECT experience to the quantitative analysis of brain MRI databases in clinical research.
Pioneer Lecturer
Max Bellon
Royal Adelaide Hospital
