2008 News

Natesh Parashurama Receives Dean's Fellowship

December 18, 2008
Congratulations to Natesh Parashurama, of the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab, for receiving a 2009-2010 Dean's Fellowship for his proposal entitled "Quantitative, multimodality molecular imaging of spatiotemporally regulated cardiac stem cell functions in vivo".

Congratulations, Natesh!


Dr. Willmann Received the 2008 RSNA Research Award

December 8, 2008
Dr. Willmann received the 2008 RSNA Research Award in the category "molecular imaging" for his scientific paper: "Non-Invasive Imaging of Gene Expression in Implanted Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the Porcine Heart: A Further Step Towards Clinical Translation".

Congratulations, Dr. Willmann!


Shin Kamaya Receives 2008 RSNA Trainee Scholar Award

December 1, 2008
Shin Kamaya, BSE, a member of the Molecular Imaging of Musculoskeletal Illnesses (MIMI) and currently a third-year medical student at the University of Colorado-Denver, was awarded a 2008 Radiological Society of North America Research Trainee Scholar Award for his scientific paper entitled, "Manganese-Enhanced MRI (MEMRI) Functionally Highlights Injured Peripheral Nerves in Neuropathic Pain".

Congratulations, Shin!


Paper on Therapeutic T-Cells Receives Media Coverage

November 26, 2008
Research from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab, in collaboration with UCLA and the City of Hope, covers the use of PET imaging technology to image T cells non-invasively and reports the first clinical case using a non-invasive imaging reporter gene/probe technology. The paper, published in Nature Clinical Practice Oncology and entitled "Noninvasive detection of therapeutic cytolytic T cells with 18F-FHBG PET in a patient with glioma", has received media coverage. (US News and World Report, Yahoo!News, BusinessWire, Science Centric, Palo Alto Online).


Research Featured on Cover of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine

November 21, 2008
Drs. Andrei Iagaru, Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, and Michael Goris co-authored an article that was featured on the cover of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. "90Y-Ibritumomab Therapy in Refractory Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Observations from 111In-Ibritumomab Pretreatment Imaging".


Hen-Tzu Lin Awarded Helena Anna Henzl Gabor Young Women in Science Fund Travel Grant

November 19, 2008
SMIS Post Doctoral Fellow, Hen-Tzu Lin has been awarded a travel grant from the Helena Anna Henzl Gabor Young Women in Science Fund to attend the World Molecular Imaging Congress, at Montreal, Canada, on September 23-26, 2009.

Congratulations, Hen-Tzu!


Yi Gu recieved the Bio-X Program Travel Award to Attend 2008 IEEE MIC

November 18, 2008
Yi Gu, of the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory, received the Bio-X Program Travel Award to attend the 2008 Medical Imaging Conference in Dresden, Germany.

Congratulations, Yi!


2008 Medical Imaging Conference Trainee Grants Recipients

November 14, 2008
Yi Gu, Frances Lau, Guillem Pratx, Paul Reynolds , and Arne Vandenbrouke, members of the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory, received Trainee Grants to attend the 2008 Medical Imaging Conference in Dresden, Germany.

Congratulations, Yi, Frances, Guillem, Paul and Arne!


Juergen Willmann Received the Radiology 2008 Editor's Recognition Award with Distinction

November 10, 2008
Dr. Juergen Willmann has been awarded the Radiology 2008 Editor’s Recognition award with Distinction in recognition of outstanding service as a reviewer of scientific manuscripts submitted for publication in Radiology. Dr. Willmann was elected among a highly select group of reviewers and only 105 of approximately 1000 reviewers have been selected for this award this year.

Congratulations, Dr. Willmann!


Guillem Pratx Receives Top Student Presentation IEEE MIC 2008

November 4, 2008
Guillem Pratx, of the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory (MIIL) received the top student paper award at the 2008 IEEE Medical Imaging Conference in Dresden, Germany. The title of his paper was "Fast, Accurate and Shift-Varying Line Projections for Iterative Reconstruction using the GPU".

Congratulations, Guillem!


Paper on Quantum Dot Imaging Featured in ScienceWatch

November 3, 2008
The article entitled "Peptide-labeled near-infrared quantum dots for imaging tumor vasculature in living subjects" as published in the journal "NANO LETTERS" in April 2006, coming from the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, in collaboration with the labs of Dr. Sam Gambhir (radiology), and Dr. Shan Wang (Materials Science and Engineering), received various media coverage and has been recently identified by Essential Science Indicators (ESI) as the highest cited paper in the research area of "imaging tumor vasculature". The 1st author, Dr. Weibo Cai, is now an Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch® website for November 2008 recognizes this article as one of the Fast Moving Front article at the following link: http://sciencewatch.com/dr/fmf/2008/08novfmf/08novfmfChen/.


Dr. Wu Awarded Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Junior Faculty Grant

October 21, 2008
Dr. Joseph Wu, MD, PhD was awarded the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Junior Faculty Grant. The Foundation has very broad interest in "advancing knowledge in the various fields of medical and health research" and is most interested in basic research with upstream potential for impacting disease.

Congratulations, Dr. Wu!


Dr. Gambhir Elected as Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

October 15, 2008
Dr. Gambhir has been elected as member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Congratulations, Dr. Gambhir!


Adam de la Zerda Receives Bio-X Travel Award

September 30, 2008
Adam de la Zerda has received the Bio-X Travel Award which allowed him to present his work on Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging with Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes at the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2008.

Congratulations, Adam!


NIBIB Funds T32 Training Grant in Cardiovascular Imaging

September 30, 2008
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering has funded Stanford for a T32 Training Grant to train the next generation of cardiovascular imaging researchers (PI: M.V. McConnell, Co-PIs: S.S. Gambhir, J.M. Pauly). The "Multi-Disciplinary Training Program in Cardiovascular Imaging" will train 4 post-doctoral fellows every 2 years, bringing together MD's and/or PhD's from clinical, bioengineering, and molecular imaging backgrounds. Aided by 16 faculty mentors from Cardiovascular Medicine, Radiology, Engineering, and MIPS, the fellows will pursue advanced research while also training together in collaborative problem-solving and biodesign.


Dr. Wu Recipeint of NIH Director's New Innovator Award

September 22, 2008
Dr. Joseph Wu has been selected as one of the recipients for the 2008 NIH Director's New Innovator Award. This award provides a 5-year support for investigators to undertake bold and innovative directions in research.

Congratulations, Dr. Wu!


Adam de la Zerda and Min-kyung So both Received the Young Investigator Award in the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2008 in Nice, France

September 16, 2008
Adam de la Zerda, a graduate student and Min-kyung So, a post-doctoral fellow, both in the MIPS, have received the Young Investigator Award in the world's largest Molecular Imaging conference - World Molecular Imaging Congress 2008. They were selected from a group of over 300 young investigator candidates which included a competition with oral presentations.

Congratulations, Adam and Min!


Nano Letters Cover

September 11, 2008
Research from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab is featured on the cover of Nano Letters.The abstract is entitled, "Real-Time Intravital Imaging of RGD−Quantum Dot Binding to Luminal Endothelium in Mouse Tumor Neovasculature". 

[ View Nano Letters Abstract ]


NCI Funds Stanford NTR Grant

September 10, 2008
Stanford Investigators led by Dr. Christopher Contag have been awarded a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as part of the Network for Translational Research (NTR): Optical Imaging in Multimodal Platforms. The aims of this proposal are to develop microscopes that reach inside the body for the early diagnosis of cancer and to guide therapy.


Paper on Immunogenicity of hESCs Receives Media Coverage

August 28, 2008
A paper by Rutger Swijnenburg from the laboratory of Mark Davis (Immunology), Robert Robbins (Cardiovascular Institute), and Joseph Wu on the immunogenicity of human embryonic cells (Swijnenburg et al, PNAS 2008;105:35:12991-12996) has received considerable media coverage (KQED, ABC7, ScienceNews, Sacramento Bee, Scientific American, Philadelphia News, San Jose News).


Paper on Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging Receives Media Coverage

August 22, 2008
A paper from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab in collaboration with the labs of Dr. H. Dai (Chemistry), Shawn Chen (Radiology), and Dr. Butrus T. Khuri-Yakub (Electrical Engineering) on photoacoustic molecular imaging has been published in Nature Nanotechnology. This work has received significant media coverage in radio broadcasts (KCBS Radio, KGO Radio, KQED Radio) and in the press (Washington Post, U.S. News, Forbes, MSN Health, Springfield News-Sun, Medical Health Articles, Stay Healthy News, Your Total Health, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Health, Dr. Koop).

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (ICMIC and CCNE).


Mathematical Model for Cancer Screening Receives Media Coverage

August 22, 2008
A new article from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab published in PLOS Medicine entitled "Cancer Screening: A Mathematical Model Relating Secreted Blood Biomarker Levels to Tumor Sizes" receives coverage in the news media (MSN, ScienceNews.org, WashintonPost.com, Yahoo! News).

This work was supported by the Canary Foundation.


Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Cover

July 10, 2008
A review from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab is featured on the cover of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Entitled, "Molecular imaging in drug development", it discusses the applications of molecular imaging in drug development, and the challenges that need to be addressed to optimize its utility.


Dr. Gambhir Serves as a Guest Editor for a Special Issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine

July 9, 2008
Dr. Gambhir serves as guest editor for a new special issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine reviewing multimodality molecular imaging of cancer. Over 10 articles covering all aspects of the latest developments in cancer imaging are included.


Peter Olcott Receives SNM Predoctoral Molecular Imaging Scholar Program Award

July 7, 2008
Peter Olcott, a Stanford Bioengineering graduate student, working in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory has been selected to receive a 2008 Predoctoral Molecular Imaging Scholar Program award funded for two years by the Education and Research Foundation for the Society of Nuclear Medicine for his proposal entitled: "Optically coupled pulse width modulation PET detectors for combined whole body clinical PET/MR systems". For this award Peter will study, design, and develop novel technology that will enable whole body PET and MRI data to be acquired simultaneously.

Congratulations, Peter!


Zongjin Li Receives Mitzi and William Blahd, MD Pilot Research Grant

June 24, 2008
Zongjin Li, of the Cardiovascular Gene and Cell Therapy Lab, has been awarded the Mitzi and William Blahd, MD Pilot Research Grant from the Education and Research Foundation for the Society of Nuclear Medicine for his proposal entitled "Molecular Imaging of Stem Cell Differentiation and Function".

Congratulations, Zongjin!


MIPS WMIC 2008 Student Travel Award Recipients

June 24, 2008
Congratulations to all the MIPS World Molecular Imaging Congress 2008 Travel Award Recipients:

  • Depak Behera - Biswal Lab
  • Michael Benoit - AC Matin/Gambhir Lab
  • Carmel Chan - Gambhir Lab
  • Adam de la Zerda - Gambhir Lab
  • Patrick Eimerman - Contag Lab
  • Jonathan T.C. Liu - Contag Lab

Qizhen Cao Receives Postdoctoral Fellowship from TRDRP

June 12,2008
Dr. Qizhen Cao, a Post-Doctoral Fellow from the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, has received a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) to work on lung cancer imaging and therapy.

Congratulations, Dr. Cao!


Guillem Pratx Receives SNM Travel Award

June 6, 2008
Guillem Pratx, a member of the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory been selected as a recipient of an SNM Travel Award to attend the 2008 SNM Annual Meeting in June in New Orleans, LA, where he will deliver two oral presentations for his accepted abstracts. The titles of his abstracts are: "Fast Maximum-Likelihood Image Reconstruction without a Line Search" and "Maximum a Posteriori event positioning in high-resolution PET CZT detectors".

Congratulations Guillem!


Dr. Gambhir Receives the Tesla Medal

June 4, 2008
Dr. Gambhir has been awarded the Tesla Medal from the United Kingdom Royal College of Radiologists in England for his work in Multimodality Molecular Imaging of Living Subjects.

Congratulations, Dr. Gambhir!


Adam de la Zerda Receives Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship

June 3, 2008
Adam de la Zerda, a graduate student in the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab, has received a Bio-X Graduate Student Fellowship. The fellowship is a 3-year fellowship that will fully support his research in the field of "Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging".

Congratulations, Adam!


MIPS Research Highlighted in EurekAlert!

May 27, 2008
Collaborative research on ultrasmall iron oxide nanoparticles between the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory and Brown University was published in J Am Chem Soc and highlighted in EurekAlert!, an online, global news service operated by AAAS, the Science Society.


Yingbing Wang Receives Norman Blank Award

May 23, 2008
Yingbing Wang, a medical student in the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab has been awarded the Norman Blank Award from the Stanford School of Medicine and will do her Radiology Residency at Harvard.

Congratulations, Yingbing!


Hui Wang receives SNM Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence Award

May 22, 2008
Dr. Hui Wang, a postdoctoral fellow from the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, has won First Place Award in the Molecular Imaging Abstract track for her abstract titled "Trafficking the fate of mesenchymal stem cells in vivo" from the SNM’s Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence.

Congratulations, Hui!


Adam de la Zerda Receives DOD Pre-doctoral Traineeship Award

May 21, 2008
Adam de la Zerda, a graduate student in the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab has been awarded a DOD Pre-doctoral Traineeship Award.

Congratulations, Adam!


Kai Chen receives 2008 SNM YPC Award

May 20, 2008
Dr. Kai Chen, a research associate from the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, is awarded 3rd place Young Professionals Committee (YPC) Best Basic Science Award for the 2008 Annual Convention of the Society of Nuclear Medicine in New Orleans, LA.

Congratulations, Kai!


Zhaofei (Jeff) Liu receives 2008 Berson-Yalow Award

May 20, 2008
Zhaofei (Jeff) Liu, a visiting researcher from the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, has been awarded 2008 Society of Nuclear Medicine Berson-Yalow Award (1st place). The Berson-Yalow Award recognizes significant contributions to the advancement and promotion of nuclear medicine, specifically, the most significant contributions to basic or clinical radioassay. Mr. Liu is a PhD candidate at Peking University under the supervision of Prof. Fan Wang.

Congratulations, Zhaofei!


Zi-Bo Li receives 2008 SNM travel award

May 20, 2008
Dr. Zi-Bo Li, a former postdoctoral fellow from the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, has received a Travel Award to attend the 55th Society of Nuclear Medicine annual meeting in New Orleans, LA from June 14 to June 18.
He recently joined Siemens Medical Solutions.

Congratulations, Zibo!


RSNA R&E Foundation Grants Recipients

May 7, 2008
David Wang and Juergen Willmann, both of the MMIL have both been awarded grants from the RSNA Research & Education Foundation. David received a Research Resident Grant and Juergen received a Research Seed Grant.

Congratulations, David and Juergen!


Dr. Gambhir Inducted as Member of ASCI

April 27, 2008
Dr. Sam Gambhir is inducted as a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an honor society for physician-scientists, at the societies 100th year anniversary.

Congratulation's Dr. Gambhir!


Dr. Wu Selected as Baxter Faculty Scholar

April 23, 2008
Dr. Joseph Wu has been selected as a Baxter Faculty Scholar.

Congratulations, Dr. Wu!


Research on Raman Imaging Receives Worldwide Media Coverage

April 21, 2008
Research from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab on Raman Imaging published in PNAS is covered by worldwide media including the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, US News & World Report, Photonics, the Telegraph in India.


Carbon Nanotube Research Receives News Media Coverage

April 21, 2008
Research from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab in conjunction with the Dai Lab on Carbon Nanotube toxicity in Nature Nanotechnology is covered by news media:


Dr. Biswal Receives Moncada Award at Annual SCBT-MR Meeting

April 3, 2008
Dr. Sandip Biswal has been awarded the Moncada Award at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance for the research entitled "Imaging Pain and Nociception with Manganese-Enhanced MRI (MEMRI)"

Congratulations, Dr. Biswal!


Dr. Li Receives ISSCR Travel Award

April 2, 2008
Zongjin Li, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Lab, has received a Travel Award to attend the 2008 International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA from June 11-14 2008.

Congratulations, Zongjin!


Dr. Li Receives ACCF/Bristol-Myers Squibb Travel Award

March 31, 2008
Zongjin Li, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Lab, has received the ACCF/Bristol-Myers Squibb Travel Award from the American College of Cardiology.

Congratulations, Zongjin!


Dr. Li Finalist for Young Investigators Awards Competition

March 31, 2008
Zongjin Li, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Lab, is a finalists for the Young Investigators Awards Competition of the American College of Cardiology at the 57th Annual Scientific Session in Chicago.

Congratulations, Zongjin!


MIPS Research Published in Nature Medicine

March 26, 2008
Research led by Dr. Christopher Contag in the Molecular Biophotonics and Imaging Laboratory has been published in Nature Medicine. The research finds that cancer can be detected earlier and faster with new medical imaging.


Dr. Li Receives Young Investigator Award

February 29, 2008
Zongjin Li, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Lab, has received a Young Investigator Award from the Stanford University School of Medicine Cardiovascular Institute.

Congratulations, Zongjin!


Arne Vandenbroucke Receives the Henri Benedictus Fellowship of the BAEF and the King Baudouin Foundation

February 26, 2008
Congratulations to Arne Vandenbroucke, a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory, for receiving a Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) Fellowship for his work to develop a 1 mm resolution breast-dedicated PET system.


Dr. Li Awarded Postdoctoral Fellowship

January 30, 2008
Dr. Zibo Li, post-doctoral fellow in the Molecular Imaging Probe Laboratory, has been awarded the Benedict Cassen Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Congratulations, Dr. Li!


Journal of the American College of Cardiology Cover

January 29, 2008
Research from the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab in collaboration with the Yock Lab is featured on the cover of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).


Hao Peng Receives Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship

Congratulations to Hao Peng , of the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory, for receiving a 2008-2009 Dean's Post-Doctoral Fellowship for his proposal entitled "Investigation of a miniature PET camera insert dedicated to simultaneous PET/MRI mammography and MRI-guided biopsy".


Journal of Nuclear Medicine Cover

January 7, 2008
Work from the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging lab is featured on the cover of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.