2010 MIPS News

Cedric Panje 2010 RSNA Travel Award for Young Investigators in Molecular Imaging

December 25, 2010
Cedric Panje, a medical student in the Translational Molecular Imaging Lab (TMIL), was awarded the 2010 RSNA Travel Award for Young Investigators in Molecular Imaging for his paper entitled, "Influence of Microbubble and DNA Doses on in vivo Ultrasound-mediated Gene Delivery with Cationic vs Neutral Microbubbles". Co-authors are MA Pysz, DS Wang, Y Ren, M Schneider, and JK Willmann.

Congratulations, Cedric!


Guillem Pratx Received Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Fellowship Award

December 1, 2010
Guillem Pratx , a postdoctoral fellow in the Image Guided Intervention Laboratory , has received a Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Fellowship Award from the Department of Defense to support research on the use of intraoperative Cerenkov imaging in guiding breast cancer surgery and assessing tumor margins.

Congratulations, Guillem!


Article by Frances Lau Selected as Institute of Physics Journals Featured Article

November 22, 2010
The recently published article in Physics and Medicine and Biology, "Analog signal multiplexing for PSAPD-based PET detectors: simulation and experimental validation", byFrances Lau from the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Lab (MIIL), has been selected has been selected as a Featured Article by the editors of the Institute of Physics Journals. Featured Articles are chosen for their novelty, high level of interest and potential impact on future research.

Congratulations, Frances!


Dr. Joseph Wu Received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

November 8, 2010
Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, received the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Congratulations, Dr. Wu!


MIPS Research Featured on Small Frontispiece

November 5, 2010
Research from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab (MMIL) entitled "Dynamic Visualization of RGD-Quantum Dot Binding to Tumor Neovasculature and Extravasation in Multiple Living Mouse Models Using Intravital Microscopy " was featured on the frontispiece of the journal Small.

Jing-yu Cui Received the Pan Wen-Yuan Scholarship

November 3, 2010
Jing-yu Cui , a graduate student in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory (MIIL) received the Pan Wen-Yuan Foundation Scholarship. The Pan Wen-Yuan Foundation Scholarship is awarded every year to 2 students of Chinese ancestry with outstanding academic performance.

Congratulations, Jing-yu!

Stanford Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Clinic Grand Opening

November 1, 2010
The Stanford Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Clinic at Stanford Hospital will help advance a new generation of diagnostic techniques for earlier detection and improved management of cancer, heart disease and neurological disorders.

Stanford Release ]

2010 ARCMP Travel Award Recipients

October 28, 2010
Carmel Chan, PhD , a research scientist in theMultimodality Molecular Imaging Lab (MMIL) , andJesse Jokerst, PhD , a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars (SMIS) program , both received ARCMP Travel Awards.

Congratulations, Carmel and Jesse!

2010 World Molecular Imaging Conference Award Recipients

October 26, 2010
Congratulations to the following WMIC award recipients:

Rosalinda Castaneda - Student Travel Award, "Achieving A Preserved Differentiation Capacity and Significant MR Effects of SPIO-Labeled Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes: The Optimal Timing, Dose and Technique."

Nirupama Deshpande - Student Travel Award, "Longitudinal Assessment of Expression Levles of Tumor Angiogenic Markers with Molecular Ultrasound Imaging"

Susan Hoppmann - Student Travel Award, "Chemically Conjugated Affibody-HAS for PET Imaging of HER2-Expressing Tumors"

Michelle James - Student Travel Award, "A New Ultra Selective PET Probe for Imaging Sigma-1 Receptors in Living Subjects"

Jesse Jokerst - Student Travel Award and Best Poster Award, "Affibody-Functionalized, Multimodal Raman/Fluorescence Nanoparticles for Biomarker Profiling and Tumor Imaging"

Shuanglong Liu - Student Travel Award, "PET Imaging of Integrin Expression Using Fluorine-18 Labeled Knotting Peptides"

Guillem Pratx - Student Travel Award, "Simultaneous Anatomical and Molecular Tomographic Imaging using X-Ray-Excitable Nanoparticles"

Bryan Smith - Student Travel Award and Best Poster Award, "How Do Nanoparticles Target Cancer? Real-time Microscopic Imaging with Carbon Nanotubes in Mouse Tumor Models" and Finalist in the Young Investigator Competition, "Preliminary Intravital Microscopic Analysis Reveals Macrophage Uptake of Circulating Nanotubes and RGD-dependent Delivery into Tumor"

Conroy Sun - Student Travel Award, "PEG-coated BaYF5:Eu3+ Nanophosphors for X-ray Excited Optical Luminescence Molecular Imaging"

Nick Conley Received BioX Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program Grant

October 13, 2010
Nick Conley , a SMIS Posdoctoral Fellow in In Vivo Molecular Imaging, Tumor Immunology/Biology Laboratory, was awarded a BioX Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program grant for his project: "High-Throughput Mutagenesis of Neuropilins to Elucidate Domains Required for Hedgehog Signaling."

Congratulations, Nick!

Research by Hua Fan-Minogue Highlighted on Cover of PNAS

October 6, 2010
In collaboration with Dr. Felsher's Cancer Biology Laboratory (CBL) , research by Dr. Hua Fan-Minogue , from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab (MMIL), has been published in PNAS and highlighted on the cover. The article is entitled "Noninvasive molecular imaging of c-Myc activation in living mice ".

View PNAS highlight | View PNAS article ]

Congratulations, Hua!


The NCI Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) funds research at the Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection

October 4, 2010

The Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) has funded the Canary Center at Stanford to conduct a research project involving the early detection and prognostication of prostate cancer. The goal is to combine in vitro and in vivo platforms in an integrated approach that will lead to an accurate blood test for the early detection and prognostication of prostate cancer, along with an imaging strategy that will enable the accurate localization and biopsy of prostate lesions. Dr.'s Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir, MD, PhD and James Brooks, MDare co-principle investigators.

The Early Detection Research Network, an initiative of the National Cancer Institute, brings together dozens of institutions to help accelerate the translation of biomarker information into clinical applications and to evaluate new ways of testing cancer in its earliest stages and for cancer risk.


MIPS Paper Highlighted in American Chemical Society Chemical Biology Spotlight


NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer Funds $15M to Stanford Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and Translation (CCNE-T NIH U54)

September 27, 2010
The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer awarded $15 million over the next five years to the Stanford Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and Translation, or CCNE-T. Fostering interdisciplinary work, faculty from radiology, bioengineering, materials science, oncology and other departments collaborate in the center's effort to use and develop nanotechnology to improve cancer-patient management by, for instance, promoting earlier cancer detection and better monitoring of responses to anti-cancer therapy.

The projects supported by this grant include: the production of next-generation smart nanoparticles; the development of magnetonanotechnology for blood proteomics and cell sorting; the use of multiple nano-platforms to interrogate single circulating tumor cells; the advancement of molecular imaging with photoacoustics, Raman imaging and nanoparticles; and the monitoring of responses to therapies using imaging and magneto-nanosensors.

Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir, MD, PhD, is the principal investigator and Shan Wang, PhD, professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical engineering is the co-principal investigator. In addition, the grant provides support for scientists from UCLA, UC-Berkley, USC and MIT to collaborate with Stanford faculty on the research.


The NCI Funds $10M ICMIC@Stanford (P50)

November 27, 2010
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded $10 million over the next five years to support the in vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center at Stanford, or ICMIC, which brings together investigators from across the university in the fields of chemistry; materials science and engineering; molecular imaging; oncology; cancer biology; protein engineering; biostatistics; and mathematical modeling.Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor of radiology, is the principal investigator and Christopher Contag, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology is the co-principal investigator.

The center's goal is to develop state-of-the-art molecular imaging strategies to enable new cancer research and improved cancer-patient management. The award will fund several research projects involving positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance, and optical imaging. These projects aim to improve the understanding of basic cancer-cell biology and to optimize novel cancer therapies.


MIPS Newest Member Dr. Heike Daldrup-Link

September 20, 2010
MIPS would like to introduce our newest member,Heike Daldrup-Link, MD who heads the Translational Tumor and Stem Cell MR Imaging Laboratory . Dr. Daldrup-Link's research focusses on "Cellular MR Imaging", which combines cell biology and in vivo MR imaging with cellular imaging applications in cancer imaging and stem cell imaging.

Welcome, Dr. Daldrup-Link!

Molecular Therapy Cover

September 13, 2010
Research from the Molecular Biophotonics and Imaging Laboratory (MBIL) entitled "Silencing of Reporter Gene Expression in Skin Using siRNAs and Expression of Plasmid DNA Delivered by a Soluble Protrusion Array Device (PAD)" was featured on the cover of the journal Molecular Therapy .

read article ]

Dr. Andrei Iagaru Appointed as Assistant Professor

September 8, 2010
Congratulations to Dr. Andrei Iagaru, for being appointed as Assistant Professor.

Congratulations, Professor Iagaru!

Dr. Wu Appointed as Associate Professor

September 6, 2010

Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Wu, for being appointed as Associate Professor.

Congratulations, Professor Wu!

Nick Conley Received Cardiovascular Institute's Younger Fellowship Award

September 3, 2010
Nick Conley, a Posdoctoral Fellow in In Vivo Molecular Imaging, Tumor Immunology/Biology Laboratory, was awarded the Cardiovascualr Institute's Younger Fellowship Award for his project: "High-Throughput Mutagenesis of Neuropilins to Elucidate Domains Required for Hedgehog Signaling."

Congratulations, Nick!

Seed Grant Award from American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)

August 16, 2010
Guillem Pratx, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Image Guided Intervention Laboratory (IGIL), has recently received a Seed Grant Award from American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) to support his research project of using X-ray activatable nanophosphors for anatomical and molecular imaging.

Congratulations, Guillem!

Center of Biological Imaging at Stanford (CBIS) Grant Awarded

August 10, 2010
Colin Carpenter, PhD , a postdoctoral research fellow in the Image Guided Intervention Laboratory (IGIL) , has recently received a grant award from the Center of Biological Imaging at Stanford (CBIS) to support his research on multimodality molecular imaging.

Congratulations, Colin!

Manuscript on Molecular US Highlighted in Journal Radiology

August 5, 2010
The manuscript entitled "Antiangiogenic cancer therapy: monitoring with molecular US and a clinically translatable contrast agent (BR55)" byMarybeth Pysz , PhD et al, postdoctoral fellow in theTranslational Molecular Imaging Lab (TMIL) , was featured and highlighted by the journal Radiology in the August 2010 issue. Co-authors are Kira Foygel , Jarrett Rosenberg, Sanjiv S Gambhir , Michel Schneider, and Juergen K Willmann .

view highlight | view manuscript ]

"Molecular Imaging with Reporter Genes" is Now Available

July 26, 2010
A new book entitled "Molecular Imaging with Reporter Genes " edited by Dr.'s Sanjiv Sam Gambhir and Shahriar S. Yaghoubi is now available. This is the first book focused exclusively on all aspects of using multimodality reporter genes in living subjects including humans.

Cambridge University Press

"Molecular Imaging: Principles and Practice" is Now Available

July 23, 2010
A new book entitled "Molecular Imaging: Principles and Practice " with Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir as the senior editor is now available. This is the first comprehensive book on all aspects of molecular imaging.

PMPH Publisher

Dr. Ying Ren Received Stanford Dean's Fellowship Award

July 19, 2010
Dr. Ying Ren , a Post Doctoral Fellow in theTranslational Molecular Imaging Laboratory (TMIL) , was awarded the Stanford Dean's Fellowship Award for her project: "Quantification of Angiogenesis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Molecularly-Targeted Ultrasound: Development of A Novel Approach For Monitoring Disease Activity".

Congratulations, Ying!

Dr. Contag Awarded $1.45M for Stem Cell Research

June 29, 2010
Dr. Christopher Contag is one of four researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicineawarded about $5.6 million on June 22 from theCalifornia Institute for Regenerative Medicine to study how to overcome the immune rejection of cells and tissues derived from stem cells.

Congratulations, Dr. Contag!

Read More [ Stanford Report | CIRM ]

Virginia Spanoudaki AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship Renewed

June 18, 2010
An AXA Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship has been renewed for Virginia Spanoudaki , a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory (MIIL) .

Congratulations, Virginia!

Hongguang Liu Received Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence (MICoE) Young Investigator Award at SNM Annual Meeting

June 15, 2010
Hongguang Liu , a postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory (CMICL) , was awarded the MICoE Young Investigator Award (1st Place) for the paper presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM 2010)in Salt Lake City, UT for his talk on "Noninvasive molecular imaging of radioactive tracers using optical imaging techniques". Authors on that paper are: H. Liu, G. Ren, Z. Miao, X. Zhang, X. Tang, P. Han, S.S. Gambhir , and Z. Cheng .

This work was also highlighted at the SNM Annual Meeting press conference as one of the "top 5" research abstracts presented during the SNM meeting , and the full article was recently published on PLoS One .

Congratulations, Hongguang!

Alex Grant Received Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship

June 11, 2010
Alex Grant , a graduate student in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Lab(MIIL) , is a recipient of the prestigeous Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship. The 3-year fellowship will fully support his research in developing novel in vivo imaging technologies.

Congratulations, Alex!

Frances Lau Received California Breast Cancer Research Program Scholarship

June 4, 2010
Frances Lau, a graduate student in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Lab (MIIL) , has received a pre-doctoral scholarship from the California Breast Cancer Research Programfor her proposal "Electronics for High Resolution Breast-Dedicated PET".

Congratulations, Frances!

Shijun Hu Received American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

June 2, 2010
Shijun Hu , a postdoctoral fellow in theCardiovascular Gene and Cell Therapy Lab (CGCT) , has received a 2-yearAmerican Heart AssociationPostdoctoral Fellowship Award.

Congratulations, Shijun!

Andrew Lee Received Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship Award

May 28, 2010
Andrew Lee , a medical and PhD graduate student in the Cardiovascular Gene and Cell Therapy Lab (CGCT), has received a 3-year Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship Award.

Congratulations, Andrew!

 

Small Inside Cover

May 21, 2010
An article entitled "Radiation-Luminescence-Excited Quantum Dots for in vivo Multiplexed Optical Imaging" from the Cancer Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory (CMICL) is featured on theinside cover of Small . It presents research on using radiation luminescence as an internal light source to excite quantum dots for in vivo multiplex imaging.

read article ]

Guillem Pratx Received Stanford Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship

May 14, 2010
Guillem Pratx, PhD , a postdoctoral research fellow in the Image Guided Intervention Laboratory (IGIL) , has recently received a Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine to support his research on X-ray luminescence computed tomography, a new molecular imaging modality.

Congratulations, Guillem!

Ben Hackel Recieved American Cancer Society / Canary Foundation Fellowship

Dr. Andrei Iagaru Recieved 2009 Alavi/Mandell Award

May 3, 2010
Dr. Andrei Iagaru has received the 2009 Alavi/Mandell Award for the publication of an article in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine entitled "A Novel Strategy for a Cocktail 18F Fluoride and 18F FDG PET/CT Scan for Evaluation of Malignancy: Results of the Pilot Phase Study ". The award will be presented at the 2010 SNM Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

Congratulations, Dr. Iagaru!

read paper ]

Journal of Nuclear Medicine's 2009 Best Basic Science Paper

April 28, 2010
The Journal of Nuclear Medicine paper from the Cancer Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory (CMICL) titled "A 2-Helix Small Protein Labeled with 68Ga for PET Imaging of HER2 Expression" and authored by Dr. Gang Ren et al. was selected as one of the three best basic science papers for 2009. The award will be presented at the 2010 SNM Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

read paper ]

Colin Carpenter Received DoD BCRP Training Award

April 21, 2010
Colin Carpenter, PhD , a postdoctoral research fellow in the Image Guided Intervention Laboratory (IGIL) , has recently received a postdoctoral training award from Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program to support his research on molecular imaging using nanoparticles.

Congratulations, Colin!

Dr. Willmann Received 2010 Roscoe E. Miller Award

March 30, 2010
Juergen Willmann, MD was awarded the 2010 Roscoe E. Miller Award for best paper presentation at the Annual meeting of the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiology in Orlando, Florida for his talk on "Monitoring Anti-Angiogenic Therapy in Colon Cancer With Molecular Ultrasound and a Novel Clinically Translatable Ultrasound Contrast Agent." Authors on that paper are: MA Pysz,K Foygel, J Rosenberg. SS Gambhir , M Schneider, and JK Willmann .

Congratulations, Dr. Willmann!

MIPS Research Featured in Nature

March 25, 2010
Work on small animal imaging from theMultimodality Molecular Imaging Lab (MMIL) was featured in the journal Nature . 

view article ]

Andrew Lee Received RSNA Research & Education Foundation's Research Medical Student Grant

March 23, 2010
Andrew Lee, a medical student in the Cardiovascular Gene and Cell Therapy Lab , has received a RSNA Research & Education Foundation's Research Medical Student Grant. 

Congratulations, Andrew!

Hua Fan-Minogue AACR-Merck Scholar-in-Training Award

March 12, 2010
Hua Fan-Minogue, a postdoctoral fellow in theMultimodality Molecular Imaging Lab (MMIL) and a member of the SMIS Program , has received an AACR-Merck Scholar-in-Training Award for theAACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 .

Congratulations, Hua!

Marta Vilalta Received Postdoctoral Fellowship

March 4, 2010
Marta Vilalta, a postdoctoral fellow in the Imaging Radiobiology Laboratory , received a postdoctoral fellowship from Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, a branch of the Catalan government in Spain. The fellowship will fund her research for two years at Stanford. 

Congratulations, Marta!

Dr. Willmann Received Radiology 2009 Editor's Recognition Award with Distinction

February 22, 2010
Dr. Willmann has been awarded the Radiology 2009 Editor's Recognition Award with Distinction in recognition of outstanding service as a reviewer of scientific manuscripts submitted for publication in Radiology. 

Congratulations, Dr. Willmann!

Research on Cancer Early Detection Featured on ABC News

February 1, 2010
Research on ultra-sensitive magnetic detection system able to spot biomarkers in very low concentrations was featured on ABC7 news.

view video ]