Events

Abstract

Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) is one of promising cancer treatment modalities. In addition to a few of RPTs being routinely practiced already, there have been highly active efforts in developing new RPTs that utilize beta and alpha particles’ potent therapeutic effects. The beta- and alpha- emitting radionuclides used in RPTs typically have detectable gamma- or x- ray photons that can be used for tracking where RPTs are distributed. Imaging of RPTs is nothing new, but there are still many challenges to overcome if our goal is to make imaging of RPTs a routine and highly accurate imaging procedure. In addition, the quantitative aspect of RPT imaging is essential for radiation dose calculation which could be the main driver for optimizing RPTs on an individual basis. Again, there are many challenges to overcome to make quantitative RPT imaging available and practiced. Finally, mathematical and computational modeling of radiation effects of beta and alpha particles is still in its infancy since there is a sizable gap of understanding between simple mathematical modeling and observable therapy response in the context of RPTs of solid tumors. In this presentation, I will share our own efforts that involve extensive physics and engineering solutions for this emerging field of study. 

About the speaker

Youngho Seo, PhD, is a Professor and Director of Nuclear Imaging Physics in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Program Director of MS in Biomedical Imaging graduate program, Faculty at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, Program Member of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC, Berkeley, Faculty of UC Berkeley - UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Program, and Physicist Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics from KAIST where he investigated radiation effects on electronics by cosmic ray as his senior thesis research project. He completed a master's degree in Physics at University of Alabama in Huntsville, focusing on space plasma physics. He spent one year at UC, Irvine as a medical physics graduate student before moving to UCLA where he obtained his second master's degree and PhD in Physics with the dissertation on a dark matter experiment. He spent another year for postdoctoral training at UCLA in experimental neutrino physics. Dr. Seo joined the UCSF Physics Research Laboratory in 2003, and was trained in medical imaging physics before joining the faculty in 2006. Dr. Seo has been Director of UCSF PRL since 2008. His primary research focus is to use and develop quantitative ionizing radiation imaging tools for a broad range of biomedical applications.