UM’s research team receives awards at annual meeting of Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
澳大研究團隊獲北美核醫學與分子影像年會獎項

The Biomedical Imaging Laboratory (BIG) from Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) recently participated in the 2024 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Annual Meeting held in Toronto, Canada. The team had 10 abstracts accepted for the meeting, including 2 oral and 8 posters presentations. Among them, 4 works were selected as meeting highlights. Additionally, a recent BIG’s PhD graduate, Zhonglin Lu, received the Arthur M. Weis Award in Radiation Dosimetry and Safety, which recognizes outstanding original work in radiation safety and dosimetry, for her work entitled “PET/CT-based Absorbed Dose Maps in Y-90 SIRT Correlate with Spatial Changes in Liver Function derived from Dynamic MRI”. This work has also been accepted for publication by Journal of Nuclear Medicine, a top journal in radiology and medical imaging. Another PhD student of BIG, Bingjie Wang received the International Best Abstract Award for his work, “Prediction of Coronary Artery Stenosis Using Myocardial Perfusion Stress/Rest SPECT: a Radiomics Study”. The UM research team once again shined on the world stage, showcasing latest research achievements in dosimetry and AI in nuclear medicine.

The two projects were led by Prof. Greta Mok from the FST. The first study revealed the correlation between absorbed dose maps based on PET/CT for Y-90 selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT), an effective treatment for primary and metastatic liver cancer, and spatial changes in liver function derived from dynamic MRI. This work is a joint effort between two UM, University of Macau and University of Michigan, where Lu spent her final year of PhD study as a visiting student. This is the first study ever to use MRI to assess liver toxicity of SIRT, and results shed new lights on SIRT patient management. The second study utilized radiomics to predict coronary artery stenosis using myocardial perfusion stress/rest SPECT, demonstrating state-of-the-art predictive performance. The two works are supported by FDCT grants (0099/2021/A) and (0016/2023/RIB1) respectively.

Held in North America, the SNMMI is the most influential international conference in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. It attracts >8000 leading molecular imaging and nuclear medicine professionals to participate worldwide this year.