The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) has bestowed its Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer award on Carolyn Anderson, PhD, of the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU).
Carolyn Anderson, PhD, of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Image courtesy of SNMMI.
The award honors those who have made outstanding contributions in the field of nuclear medicine, the SNMMI said.
Anderson's work during a tenure at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, led to the first human studies of a copper-64-labeled somatostatin analog for imaging neuroendocrine tumors -- 20 years before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval and commercialization of Cu-64 DOTATATE. Her research also contributed to FDA approval of Lu-177 DOTATATE for treating neuroendocrine tumors; recently, she and collaborators developed a PET imaging agent for vaso-occlusive crisis in sickle cell disease, which has been approved for human studies by the FDA as an Investigational New Drug (IND).
She is currently director of MU's Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Center and is a past president of the SNMMI Center for Molecular Imaging Innovation and Translation. Additionally, she is an associate editor for the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Anderson has received many honors, including SNMMI's Michael J. Welch Award in 2012; the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy of Radiology Research in 2014; SNMMI's Paul C. Aebersold Award for outstanding achievement for basic science research applied to nuclear medicine in 2020; and the Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 2022. She has co-authored more than 200 articles, focusing on developing radiopharmaceuticals for oncological imaging and therapy, the society said.
