Dr. Gambhir Received 2018 Benedict Cassen Prize for Research in Molecular Imaging
Presentation of the Cassen Prize to Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir at the 2018 SNMMI Annual Meeting.
From left: Satoshi Minoshima, MD, PhD, Michael Phelps, PhD, Frances Keech, DHSc, RT(N), FSNMTS and Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD.
June 25, 2018
Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and Chair of the Department of Radiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, was awarded the Benedict Cassen Prize during the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) in Philadelphia, PA, for his pioneering work in multimodality molecular imaging. This honor is awarded every two years by the Education and Research Foundation (ERF) for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging in recognition of outstanding achievement and work leading to a major advance in nuclear medicine science.
"The Cassen Prize Committee selected Sanjiv (Sam) Gambhir as the 2018 recipient in recognition of his advanced work into the study and development of in vivo multimodality molecular imaging. His pursuit of expanding molecular assays to study the biology of diseases, especially cancer, using multiple imaging modalities and in vitro assays has advanced not only the nuclear medicine field but health care in general." said ERF President Frances K. Keech, DHSc, RT(N), FSNMMI-TS.
During a special plenary session at SNMMI’s Annual Meeting, Gambhir presented the Cassen Lectureship on “Multimodality Molecular Imaging of Cell/Gene Therapies for Early Disease Detection and Management.” He discussed reporter genes, how they have been utilized, how they can be imaged, how they have been translated to monitor patient T-cell therapies, and how they might be used in the future to improve blood-based and imaging diagnostics.
The Cassen Prize honors Benedict Cassen, whose invention of the rectilinear radioisotope scanner—the first instrument capable of making an image of radiotracer distribution in body organs of living patients—was seminal to the development of clinical nuclear medicine. Gambhir is the 14th individual to receive this prestigious $25,000 award from the Education and Research Foundation for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging since 1994.
Congratulations, Dr. Gambhir!
Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging press release
Video of Dr. Gambhir's Cassen Lectureship, courtesy SNMMI
Video interview with Dr. Gambhir discussing Cassen Lectureship
Visit Dr. Gambhir's Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab web site