GUEST: Kevin Brindle, Cambridge In this episode we welcome the one and only Kevin Brindle from University of Cambridge. During his long and illustrious career, Kevin pioneered hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a method to map metabolic flux in cancer and other diseases, with implications for treatment response monitoring. We explore how deuterium imaging and [18F]FDG PET can be used to track the metabolic changes that occur soon after stroke and during the recovery phase....

GUEST: Mikhail Shapiro, Pasadena In this episode we welcome our famous guest Mikhail Shapiro from Caltech. Mikhail exquisitely combines ultrasound with synthetic biology for gene regulation, imaging, and therapy - and Synthetic biology is surely the common thread in this podcast edition. We discover how an engineered receptor and an intracellular signalling domain, known as ‘synNotch’ can be used to visualise cell-cell communication in vivo. And how this system can be used to identify...

GUEST: Jason Lewis, New York In this episode we discuss and learn about new PSMA-binding ligands with 161Tb, their biodistribution, dosimetry, preclinical therapy, and their comparison with conventional PSMA ligands. Our guest is one of the leading scientists in radiochemistry for cancer detection and therapy, the wonderful Jason Lewis.  We talk about the importance of using 161Tb - this novel radionuclide for radioligand therapy - and its favorable decay characteristics as compared to 177Lu....

GUEST: Annemie Van Der Linden, Antwerp In this edition of ‘Dive into Imaging Science’ we discuss the brain and the mechanisms that it employs to clear unwanted waste material whilst we sleep with our former ESMI President and Emeritus Professor Annemie Van Der Linden - an outstanding figure and incomparable scientist. We learn how closely coupled this system - known as the glymphatics - is to blood circulation, and how physical stimulation can enhance glymphatic flow in anaesthetised but not...

GUEST: Elisabeth de Vries, Groningen In this episode we talk about nectin-4 - an emerging biomarker for cancer diagnosis and therapy - with one of the most influential and distinguished scientists in medical oncology, Elisabeth de Vries. We talk about the first-in-human study of a radioligand that can target nectin-4 and learn what medical oncologists need to get out from imaging data so that these powerful tools continue to make an impact on patient outcomes. We learn about the importance...

GUEST: Bernd Pichler, Tübingen In this episode we learn how a new lensless microscope, costing just $100 (!), can be used to evaluate radiotracer retention in cells, and discuss potential applications for this revolutionary new technology with our famous guest Bernd Pichler. We discuss how this, and other technologies, could be used to assess the heterogeneous cell populations of the tumour microenvironment and identify cell senescence using new radiotracers developed in Bernd’s...

In this episode we discuss how targeting fibroblasts rather than tumour cells may be an effective strategy for both surgical guided resection and as an anti-cancer therapy with Tim’s “academic grandmother”, Zaver Bhujwalla. We discovered Zaver’s roots as a physicist and mathematician, learned about her (unpredictable) interest in cancer metabolism and how she combines tools to develop a powerful in vitro diagnostic test. Selected Publication: "Design and characterization of fibroblast...

In this episode we discuss and learn about Bioluminescence Imaging and modern tools for multiplexed imaging of different colors, tackling a major challenge of the field. Our guest is one of the founding fathers of the ESMI and pioneers on multicolor BLI, the one and only  Clemens Lowik. We talk about innovative approaches for unmixing multiple luciferase-luciferin pairs and quantitative analyses of bioluminescent mixtures, enabling serial tracking of heterogeneous cell populations. On the...

In this episode we discuss (and learn a lot about!) positronium imaging with the co-inventor of Total Body PET, the wonderful Simon Cherry, the physics behind positronium formation, and how it might provide further biological information than standard positron emission tomography imaging. We learnt about Simon’s journey that led him to change the field of clinical PET imaging and what new innovations he has up his sleeve... and if you are looking for a research area that is just waiting to be...

In this episode the hosts Tim and Giannis talk with the fantastic Jolanda De Vries from Nijmegen about how dendritic cell therapy got her into imaging and the latest therapeutic cell imaging methods. We touch on multimodality imaging, why imaging isn’t frequently used in the clinic for cell tracking, and why mouse models of cancer might never be good enough. Selected Publication: "In vivo imaging of nanoparticle-labeled CAR T cells" published in Jan. 2022 in PNAS by the authors L. Kiru, A....