Serving as the largest international forum for cutting edge research designed to speed the discovery of more and better treatments for cancer and other diseases, the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) held its 11th annual WMIC in Seattle, Washington, September 12-15, 2018. The theme of the World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) 2018 was ‘Molecular Imaging – Visualizing Biology to Improve Medicine,’ and highlighted new discoveries in molecular imaging with over 200 oral presentations, over 500 poster presentations and more than 1,200 attendees from world-renowned institutions from around the globe with keynote sessions on precision medicine and co-clinical trials.
Click the button below to view the recorded presentations from WMIC 2018 here, which are available as a part of WMIS membership.
| Gold Medal Award |
 The WMIC 2018 Gold Medal Award was presented to Dr. Robert J. Gillies, PhD, Moffitt Cancer Center. His Gold Medal Lecture highlighted his work in actively identifying and characterizing the consequences of increased acidity on tumor behavior. Click here to read the press release >> |
| Young Investigator Award Winner and Finalists |
 WMIS proudly recognizes the outstanding commitment to research and endeavors of the next generation of researchers with the presentation of the 2018 Young Investigator Award to George Lu, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, at WMIC 2018 in Seattle. Honoring distinction in his work based on the quality of the science, the clarity of presentation and the ability to answer questions about the abstract, Dr. Lu was presented the Young Investigator Award for his work titled “Acoustically Modulated MRI of Gas-filled Protein Nanostructures.” Click here to read the press release >>
The two other finalists for the Young Investigator Award were Sijumon Kunjachan, PhD, DFCI/BWH/Harvard Medical School, and Ilke Tunali, PhD, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. Kunjachan was recognized for his work, “Image-Guided Drug Delivery by Radiation-Induced Tumor Vascular Modulation.” Tunali was recognized for his work, “Radiomics and clinical predictors of disease progression among non small cell lung cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors.” Pictured (L to R): Sanjiv (Sam) Gambhir, MD, PhD; George Lu, PhD; Sijumon Kunjachan, PhD; Ilke Tunali, PhD; and Martin G. Pomper, MD, PhD. |
| Roger Tsien Award for Excellence in Chemical Biology |
 Mikhail Shapiro, PhD, California Institute of Technology, received the 2018 Roger Tsien Award for Excellence in Chemical Biology for his advanced contributions to the molecular imaging field specifically in chemical biology, synthetic biology and reporter genes. Read the press release here >> |
| Commercial Innovation of the Year Award |
 WMIS presented the Commercial Innovation of the Year Award to MILabs for their work, “VECTor-6: Broadband photon tomography takes the versatility of multi-modality preclinical imaging beyond the limits of PET-SPECT-CT and Optical Imaging.” The award winner was chosen based on votes from WMIC attendees. Freek Beekman presented the work at WMIC and it was submitted by Ruud Ramakers. The runner-up was Bruker Española SA with their innovation, “A Novel Method for MRI-derived PET Gating for Cardiac Imaging and Motion Correction.” Click here to read the press release >> |
| Inaugural WIMIN Leadership Award |
 Dr. Katherine Ferarra, PhD, University of California, Davis, was the inaugural winner of the The Women in Molecular Imaging Network (WIMIN) Interest Group Leadership Award.
Pictured left: Dr. Katherine Ferarra receives the Inaugural WIMIN Leadership Award at the WMIC 2018 2nd Annual Auction sponsored by the WIMIN Interest Group. |
| WIMIN Scholar Award Winners |
 The Women in Molecular Imaging Network (WIMIN) Interest Group continues its emphasis on recognizing work of high merit through the WIMIN Scholar Awards. At WMIC 2018, the WIMIN Interest Group awarded 15 WIMIN Scholar Awards. Those receiving the awards were: Hailey Knox, Zhao Li, Hannah Greenwood, Caitlin McCowan, Raiyan Zaman, Ning Zhao, Federica De Lorenzi, Maryam Hajfathalian, Stefanie Rosenhain, Maike Baues, Qi Fan, Wei Tang, Wen-Ting Tsai, Suchismita Mohanty, and Bowen Qi
Pictured left: 2018 WIMIN Chair, Naomi Matsuura, PhD, University of Toronto, presenting the WIMIN Scholar Awards at the WMIC 2018 Closing Ceremony. |
| Poster Award Winners |
 The WMIS continues its emphasis on recognizing work of high merit through poster awards. Chosen from among the abstract submissions that are accepted as posters and based upon the abstract grade and ranking, the winners are: Jessica Hsu, Maryam Hajfathalian, Greetje Vande Velde, Matthew Fox, Joseph Brook, Kyosuke Watanabe, Kenneth Chin, and Deep Hathi.
Pictured left: Greetje Vande Velde and her winning poster in Inflammation & Infectious Disease |
| Molecular Imaging and Biology Award |
 Molecular Imaging and Biology recognized the work of high merit in both the area of preclinical and clinical papers and presented awards to:
Best Preclinical Paper: Sujata Sridharan, for his work, “Comparative Evaluation of Three TSPO PET Radiotracers in a LPS-Induced Model of Mild Neuroinflammation in Rats” |
| Exhibitor Selected Posters |
 Exhibitors offered awards to recognize innovative science research by young investigators.
Bruker: Joel Garcia and Hossein Nejadnik LI-COR: Chengyue Li, Guolan Lu, Sadeghipour Negar, and Kazuhide Sato Magnetic Insight: Hui Hui |
| Presentations from WMIC 2018 |
 The WMIC meeting included over 500 oral presentations including plenary, educational and informative sessions as well as more than 200 poster presentations from world-renowned institutions from around the globe with keynote sessions on precision medicine and co-clinical trials.
View the WMIC 2018 Online Program. |
| This is Our Lab |
The 4th annual “This is Our Lab” campaign featured 34 labs who all submitted abstracts to WMIC 2018. This year’s winner was the Molecular Imaging and Therapy Lab at Seoul National University! Stay tuned for an in-depth video on their lab! |
| Gala Event |
 The WMIC meeting concluded with our annual gala event, held this year at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle. |