CASNMMI ANNUAL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS  

Prof. Chun Li
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

The much anticipated CASNMMI annual meeting was successfully hold on June 24, 2019 during the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Conference at Anaheim, California, USA. Some of the memorable events from this meeting are highlighted below. during the annual meeting of the SNMMI 2017. More than 120 scientists, physicians, and business leaders attended the meeting.  

Lifetime Achievement Awards  

CASNMMI's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals in the Chinese-American community who have made fundamental contributions and accomplishments in the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. In addition to excellence in academic research, CASNMMI recognizes physicians, scientists and researchers with distinguished career as a pioneer, an educator, a mentor, and a promotor of scientific exchange between American and Chinese practitioners. Thisyear, we are proud to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to two distinguished physician scientists from China:

Prof. Xiaohai Jin (金小海先生) and Professor Xiujie Liu (刘秀杰先生)

Prof. Xiaohai Jin was Director of the Institute of Isotopes, China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing. Professor Xiujie Liu was Chairman, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Fuwai Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing. Both Professor Jin and Professor Liu have made tremendous contribution to the development of Nuclear Medicine as a field in China. According to Professor Zhi Yang (杨志, Peking University Cancer Hospital; President, Chinese Society of Radiopharmaceuticals), Professor Xiaohai Jin is one of the pioneers in nuclear medicine and has mentored more than 100 first-tier researchers and physicians. He is also instrumental in translating new technologies into the clinic. Professor Xiaoli Zhang (张晓丽, Anzhen Hospital) introduced Professor Xiujie Liu's many achievements. Among them, Professor Liu is the founder of China's nuclear cardiology. He is responsible for the introduction of ^99mTc-MIBI, and the development of China's first home-made Gamma cardiac function test instrument in 1980's in China.

Young Investigator Award (YIA)  

Each year, CASNMMI give away a total of 6 YIA awrds: 1 1^st prize award, 2 2^nd prize awards, and 3 3^rd prize awards. The winners are selected with the principle of transparency and fairness. The awards were primarily selected on the basis of scientific merits. Other factors such as geological location, a balance between basic versus clinical research etc. are also considered. The final scores given by each and every member are tallied and ranked to determine the winners. This year the winners are:

1^st Prize: Yang, Zhen  

Houston Methodist Research Institute
Develop picomole-affinity VEGFR-PET probe for targeting tumor angiogenesis.
Mentor: Prof. Zhen Li

2^nd Prize: Chen, Haotian  

West China Hospital, Sichuan University
Assessment of a novel ¹⁸F-labeled myocardial PET tracer in normal and ischemic models of rats
Mentor: Chengzhong Fan

2^nd Prize: Cao, Jianbo  

University of Pennsylvania/Xiamen University
[¹⁸F]Fluciclovine PET tracks cellular glutamine pool size in breast cancer and changes in response to metabolic inhibition
Mentors: Prof. David Mankoff and Prof. Rong Zhou

3^rd Prize: Guo, Xiaoyi  

Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute
A Pilot Study of ⁶⁸Ga-MZHER2 affibody in HER2-positive gastric cancer patients
Mentor: Prof. Zhi Yang

3^rd Prize: Yu, Yanbo  

Washington University School of Medicine
Development of a Carbon-11 PET radiotracer for imaging TRPC5 in the brain
Mentor: Prof. Zhude Tu

3^rd Prize: Zang, Jie  

Peking Union Medical College Hospital
Safety and response to ¹⁷⁷Lu-EB-PSMA treatment in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
Mentor: Xiaoyuan Chen

Please join us in congratulating all YIA winners for their excellent work and in wishing them the best of success in their pursue of scientific excellency.

Introducing CASNMMI's Newly Elected President –Elect and Chair of the BoD

Dr. Yubin Miao received his Ph.D. degree in Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry at Beijing Normal University in 1997, under the mentorship of Professor Boli Liu. He then spent three years to carry out postdoctoral research in Professor Thomas P. Quinn's group at the University of Missouri- Columbia. Dr. Miao was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Missouri- Columbia from 2003 to 2006, Assistant Professor and tenured Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of New Mexico from 2006-2014. Dr. Miao joined the Department of Radiology at the University of Colorado Denver in 2015,where he is a tenured Associate Professor and Director of Radiopharmaceutical Science.

Dr. Miao has served as a member of the BoD of CASNMMI since 2015. We are pleased to have Dr. Miao to lead CASNMMI from 2021-2023. With his dedication, enthusiasm, and experiences, we are sure that CASNMMI will continue to grow to serve the needs of our members.

Sponsorship and Financial Reports

Treasurer Dr. Wenping Li summarized CASNMMI financial status as of July 9, 2019.

We thank the following sponsors for the generous supports of the following sponsors:

GE Healthcare
United Imaging
United Well (Silver)
Becquerel & Sievert
China Isotope & Radiation Corporation
Dongcheng Pharmaceutical
Huayi Technology
IsoSolutions
Molecular Targeting Technologies, Inc.
Professor Hank Kong

An Invitation to All for Your Participation

We look forward to seeing all of you in New Orleans in 2020 during the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

We also welcome your contributions to our newsletter. If you have any observation, suggestion, idea, or experience during this year’s annual SNMMI meeting and your trip to Anaheim, California that you would like to share with our readers, please send your articles to Professor Chun Li (cli@mdanderson.org) or Professor Kai Chen (chenkai@med.usc.edu).

In this issue, we are pleased to share with you an article by Professor Zhu Hua from Peking University Cancer Hospital, who have given a wonderful account of the annual CASNMMI meeting and the dinner event, with a plenty of vivid pictures.

About Chinese-American Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (CASNMMI)

CASNMMI is a non-profit organization formed by professionals in the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. The society was established in 1977 as the Chinese-American Society of Nuclear Medicine, and has been renamed as Chinese-American Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging since 2013. CASNMMI consists of members from the United States, China, Europe, and other parts of the world. The mission of CASNMMI is to advance scholarship, collaboration, networking opportunities among our members. CASNMMI holds a meeting each year during the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. CASNMMI is governed by the Board of Directors, consisted of President, President-elect, Immediate Past-President, Secretary General, Treasurer, and two non- officer members. Please visit us at http://www.casnmmi-us.org.

Current Acting Members of Board of Directors (BoD)

Prof. Chun Li, (李春), President UT MD Anderson Cancer Center	Prof. Yubin Miao(苗玉斌), President-Elect and BoD Chair University of Colorado School of Medicine
Dr. Wenping Li (李文萍), Treasurer Principle Investigator, Merck Co.	Prof. Kai Chen(陈凯), Secretary General University of Southern California
Prof. Zhen Cheng(程震), Past-President Stanford University	Prof. Jenny J. Yang, PhD ( 杨 洁 ), YIA Committee Chair Georgia State University
Dr. Yumin Zhang (张裕民), Immediate past- President