Awards and Honors: July 17, 2009

Posted 01:52 PM, July 17, 2009, by jaruiz

Andrei Iagaru, MD; Erik Mittra, MD, PhD; and Michael Goris, MD, PhD, have received the 2009 Society of Nuclear Medicine Image of the Year Award for their image comprised of two sets of before-and-after PET scans of two patients, one of whom was treated with Iodine-131 tositumomab, and the other, with Yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan. The scans examine the effectiveness of two radioimmunotherapy agents in treating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). To view the image, please access http://interactive.snm.org/img/SNM-2009-Image-of-the-Year.jpg. Please see biographies for Drs. Iagaru and Mittra below.

Andrei Iagaru, MD, instructor of nuclear medicine, completed medical school at the Carol Davila University of Medicine, Bucharest, Romania, and an internship at Drexel University College of Medicine, Graduate Hospital, in the Department of Medicine. He began his residency at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, in the Division of Nuclear Medicine, where he was the chief resident. He finished his residency and completed a PET/CT fellowship at Stanford University's School of Medicine in the Division of Nuclear Medicine. He is currently an Instructor in the Department of Radiology and his current research interests include whole-Body MRI and PET/CT for early cancer detection; Zevalin/Bexxar radioimmunotherapy; optical imaging of breast cancer; clinical translation of novel PET radiopharmaceuticals; and PET-CT imaging for thyroid/breast cancers, melanoma, lymphoma, and sarcoma. For his prior blog posting, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2009/05/awards_and_hono_91.html and http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/07/awards_and_hono_47.html.

Erik Mittra, MD, PhD, instructor of nuclear medicine, attended Stony Brook University Medical Scientist Training Program where he received his MD and PhD degrees in biomedical engineering as well as a master's degree in the anatomical sciences. After completing his internship in the Department of Internal Medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital, he finished his residency and fellowship in the Division of Nuclear Medicine at Stanford University Hospital and Clinics. In addition to the 2009 Society of Nuclear Medicine Image of the Year Award, Dr. Mittra has received the 2007 Radiological Society of North America Trainee Research Prize (co-author); was awarded 2007 Norman D. Poe Memorial Scholarship Award for Outstanding In-Training Oral Abstract at the 32nd Annual Western Regional Society of Nuclear Medicine Meeting (co-winner); and served as the Chief Nuclear Medicine Resident for 2007-2008. He has also published over 10 published manuscripts and 25 abstracts.