ERF RPSC Young Investigator Awards Symposium

Overview

SNMMI symposium and competition, in association with the SNMMI Radiopharmaceutical Science Council, for the best scientific abstracts on Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry nuclear medicine, designated as the ERF RPSC Young Investigator Award. The objectives of the award are to identify promising young investigators working in radiopharmaceuticals and radiopharmaceutical sciences nuclear medicine. These awards are made possible by a grant from the Education and Research Foundation (ERF).

• All applicants must be currently enrolled or within five (5) years of a completed certified training program.
• All former first prize winners are ineligible.
• Abstracts must be submitted to one of the five (5) categories in the Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry Track.
• All applicants must choose "Oral" as the Presentation Type.

Past Recipients

2026

1st Place: Yifan Cui

“Prolonging the Therapeutic Window with Fe2+ Reactive Small-Molecule Radioligands"

2nd Place:  Grayson Gimblet

“Urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator Receptor (uPAR) as a Target in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer"

3rd Place: Melina Kumpf

“Development of an IL13Ra2 Pretargeting Antibody”

2025

1st Place: Hannah Le

“Iron-Catalyzed Aminoradiofluorination of Alkenes to Unprotected β-Radiofluoroamines"

2nd Place:  Zhengbo Zhu

“Highly Efficient Deoxy Radiofluorination Enabled by Intramolecular Photo-Induced Electron Redistribution"

3rd Place: Anil Bidkar

“Combination of CD46 Targeted Antibody Drug Conjugate and Radioimmunotherapy Agent for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer”

• 2024
  • 1^st Place: Lukas Greifenstein
    “A highly potent FAP-targeting peptide for theranostics: production, validation and first in human experience with Ga-68 and Lu-177 3BP-3940"
  • 2^nd Place: Jimmy Patel
    “A novel 18F-labeled brain penetrant PET ligand for imaging poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1"
  • 3^rd Place: Nathan Clemons
    “In vivo PET/CT tracking of human and primate monocytes using novel radiochemistry.”
• 2023
  • 1^st Place Winner: Tanpreet Kaur
    "Two-step 11C-Carbonylation for the Synthesis of [11C]Bexarotene and [11C]Acetoacetic acid using GE TracerLab Synthesis Modules"
  • 2^nd Place Winner: Brett Vaughn
    "Pretargeted radioimmunotherapy with 212Pb-DOTA-based haptens in nude mice bearing established human-colorectal xenografts"
  • 3^rd Place Winner: Anton Lindberg
    "Structure-guided design of novel pyridinyl-indoles as 4R-tau PET radiotracers: Identification of [18F]OXD-2314 for human use"
• 2022
  • 1^st Place Winner: Kendall Barrett
    “Cyclotron produced radio-manganese as a potential radiotracer for identifying neuroinflammation in inflammatory pain”
  • 2^nd Place Winner: Ariel Buchler
    “Quinazoline-2-carboxamides as Selective Matrix Metalloproteinase-13 Radiotracers for Imaging Atherosclerosis
  • 3^rd Place Winner: Chao Zheng
    “Assessment of the two enantiomers of a metabolically stable radiotracer for imaging synaptic vesicle protein 2A in rat and monkey brains”
• 2021
  • 1^st Place Winner: Hazem Ahmed, PhD
    “Radiosynthesis and evaluation of (R)- and (S)-18F-OF-NB1 for imaging the GluN2B subunits of the NMDA receptor in non-human primates”
  • 2^nd Place Winner: Ahmed Haider
    “Evaluation of CB2 PET Radioligand 18F RoSMA-18-d6 in Non-Human Primates and Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis”
  • 3^rd Place Winner: Chao Zheng
    “Synthesis and preclinical characterization of a metabolically stable SV2A PET imaging probe: [18F]SDM-16”
• 2020
  • 1^st Place Winner: Rocío García Vázquez
    Direct Aromatic 18F-labeling of Tetrazines: A Rapid and Convenient Entry to Tetrazines for Pretargeted PET Imaging
  • 2^nd Place Winner: Outi Keinaenen, PhD
    “Pretargeted Theranostic Radioimmunotherapy with a Cu-64/Cu-67 Isotopologue Pair”
  • 3^rd Place Winner: Ian Duffy
    “Copper(I)-mediated 11C-carboxylation of (hetero)arylstannanes: radiosynthesis of [11C]bexarotene”
• 2018
  • 1^st Place Winner: Songye Li, PhD
    18F-SDM-8: A novel radiotracer for PET imaging of synaptic density
  • 2^nd Pace Winner: Israt S. Alam, PhD
    PET imaging of OX40+ activated T cells predicts therapeutic response in a murine cancer vaccine model
  • 3^rd Place Winner: Maxime Siemons
    A new generic platform for PET imaging based on 68Ga-labeled Pept-insTM: from infectious disease to cancer imaging
• 2017
  • 1^st Place Winner: Eszter Boros
    “Bifunctional desferrichrome derivatives as platform chelators for 89Zr(IV)”
  • 2^nd Place Winner: Susanne Lutje
    “Characterization of an In-111-labeled anti-PSMA antibody-photosensitizer conjugate for targeted photodynamic therapy of PSMA-expressing tumors”
  • 3^rd Place Winner: Stephen Thompson
    “Cu-mediated C-H [18F]Fluorination of Electron Rich Arenes”