Faculty Bios

FACULTY BIOS

BIOGRAPHIES DES CONFÉRENCIERS 

Abele, Jonathan

Dr. Jonathan Abele is a specialist in Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology working in Edmonton, Alberta.  He is a partner with Medical Imaging Consultants (MIC) and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Alberta.  He is also a board member of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine (CANM).  He is particularly interested in the clinical applications of hybrid imaging including PET/CT and SPECT/CT.

Abikhzer, Gad

Dr. Gad Abikhzer completed his medical degree at McGill University in 2006, followed by a 5-year Royal College certified residency in Nuclear Medicine. He then pursued a 2-year clinical and research fellowship from 2011-2013 at Rambam Health Care Services, Technion university in Haifa, Israel. His fellowship focused on PET/CT and advanced SPECT/CT imaging using novel hybrid cameras and novel radiotracers. He is currently an assistant professor at McGill University, where he practices Nuclear Medicine at the Jewish General Hospital. He has published over 40 articles, including on the use of rapid whole-body bone SPECT and infection imaging with FDG PET/CT. He is a member on several committees for guidelines on infection and inflammation imaging.

Abrams, Douglas

Doug graduated from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, held a Fellowship at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg and a post doctoral fellowship at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton before moving to Winnipeg to become the Assistant Director of the Winnipeg Health Sciences Radiopharmacy.  He later moved to Edmonton to become the Director of the Edmonton Radiopharmaceutical Centre. He joined Eastern Health as a consultant to help set up the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Molecular Imaging and Research in 2014.  His research interests are in radiopharmaceutical development and translation of PET and SPECT radiopharmaceuticals into diagnostic and therapeutic use.

Doug is actively involved in several national and international professional organizations. He has been president of the Canadian Association of Radiopharmaceutical Scientists, Prairie Provinces Chapter, Society of Nuclear Medicine, Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine and founding president of the Canadian College of Radiopharmaceutical Scientists.  He is a member of the Nuclear Medicine Alliance and has served on the SNMMI radiopharmaceutical Sciences organizing committee. He was a member of the Health Canada Regulatory Working Group on Medical Isotopes and helped co-coordinate and co-chair the last several Health Canada Regulatory Workshops.  Most recently, he helped found the Health Canada, the CANM-CARS regulatory consultative group recently formed to liaise with Health Canada on regulatory matters of interest to the Nuclear medicine community. 

Andersson, Jan

Dr. Jan Andersson is currently the director and senior radiochemist at Edmonton Radiopharmaceutical Centre (ERC), Alberta Health Services and assistant adjunct professor at University of Alberta. Jan has worked in the field of radiochemistry for over 18 years. After graduating with a MSc. in chemical engineering from Uppsala University, Sweden, he worked in the brain-imaging group at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. At Karolinska, he completed a Ph.D. in radiochemistry/medical sciences in 2010 and took on the role as head of radiochemistry production for two years. Jan then moved to Canada to work as a researcher within the field of cyclotron production, separation and quality control of radiometals at University of Alberta in Edmonton, before transitioning to ERC in 2018.

Berenji, Reza

Dr. Reza Berenji is a Clinical Professor of Radiology at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine with research interest focused on Prostate cancer. As a nuclear medicine specialist with emphasis on PET/CT imaging and targeted therapy, he has a special interest in novel imaging and therapeutic approaches for prostate cancer. In the past 15 years Dr. Berenji has collaborated with the VA Greater Los Angeles and UCLA urology and oncology departments in various projects related to diagnosis or therapy of advanced prostate cancer. He has been involved in several research projects including evaluation of metastatic disease in prostate cancer using 18F-Sodium Fluoride PET/CT and PSMA imaging. In 2018, he was instrumental in starting of PSMA imaging, which subsequently expanded in 2020 for all patients with prostate cancer using 18F-DCFPyL PET/CT.

Buteau, James

Dr James Buteau completed nuclear medicine specialisation at Université de Sherbrooke in 2017. Following two years of practice as a consultant at with the dynamic team of Hôpital de la Cité-de-la-Santé, he undertook a fellowship in theranostics at Peter Mac. In 2020, he was awarded with the Detweiler Travelling Fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

James is a Peter Mac clinical and research fellow, as well as undertaking a PhD under the supervision of Prof Michael Hofman and A/Prof Arun Azad. He is focusing on imaging biomarkers, the role of PSMA PET/CT for prostate cancer diagnosis (PRIMARY2 trial, phase III), and Terbium-161-PSMA-I&T therapy for men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (VIOLET trial, phase I/II).

He was recently granted permanent residency in Australia and lives in Melbourne with his wife (Julie) and 3 young children.

Chassé, Michaël

Dr. Michaël Chassé est médecin spécialiste en médecine de soins intensifs au Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), chercheur principal au Centre de recherche du CHUM et professeur agrégé au Département de médecine et à l'École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal. Il détient également un doctorat en épidémiologie de l'Université d'Ottawa. Le Dr Chassé est le directeur scientifique du Centre d'intégration et d'analyse des données médicales du CHUM (CITADEL). CITADEL rassemble un groupe de scientifiques et de professionnels spécialisés dans la science des données de santé, la biostatistique, la bioinformatique et l'apprentissage automatique. Il est également directeur scientifique associé de la science des données au Centre de recherche du CHUM. 

Ses principaux intérêts de recherche portent sur l'amélioration des méthodes traditionnelles de recherche épidémiologique à l'aide de nouvelles technologies telles que l'apprentissage automatique et les essais cliniques innovants, en particulier dans les domaines liés aux soins critiques tels que le don d'organes, la transplantation d'organes et les transfusions sanguines.

Ciarallo, Anthony 

Dr. Anthony Ciarallo is a Royal College certified nuclear medicine specialist who trained at McGill University, completed his fellowship in PET/CT at Johns Hopkins University, and holds a Master of Science degree in human genetics. He serves as the division director of nuclear medicine at the McGill University Health Center and is an assistant professor of radiology at McGill University. 

Ginj, Mihaela

Radiopharmacy Operations Lead PET-MRI/TGH MRI Research Supervisor Toronto General HospitalUniversity Health Network

Dr. Mihaela Ginj is the Operations Lead at the University Health Network’s Radiopharmacy facility at Toronto General Hospital and the supervisor of PET-MRI operations at University Health Network. As radiopharmacy lead, Mihaela is responsible for all operational and regulatory aspects of daily manufacture and distribution of radiopharmaceuticals to five hospitals in Toronto’s downtown core. She also oversees the practical and theoretical training in radiopharmacy of Nuclear Medicine residents at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto .

Mihaela has more than 15 years experience in the field of radiopharmaceutical development. Prior to joining UHN, Mihaela was a senior scientist at the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization (CPDC) in Hamilton and the regional radiopharmacist at Vancouver Coastal Health.

Mihaela received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Basel, Switzerland and holds a Master in Science in organometallic chemistry from the University of Lille, France.

Humphrey, Fonge

Associate Professor Department of Medical Imaging College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan

Dr. Humphrey Fonge received M.Sc and PhD degrees in pharmaceutical sciences (specialization in radiopharmacy) in 2007 from KU Leuven, Belgium. He then completed post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2012 under the supervision of Drs. Christine Allen and Raymond Reilly. His postdoctoral work focused on the development of nano-delivery systems as theranostics (targeted radiotherapy and imaging/diagnostics) and on the development of radioimmunoconjugates targeting different antigens on cancer cells. Dr. Fonge also holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Toronto. He moved to the University of Saskatchewan in June 2013 where is currently associate professor in the College of Medicine. Dr. Fonge’s research focuses on bench to bedside development of novel precision cancer theranostics under the following four main pillars;

1) Production and processing of pharmaceutical-grade diagnostic and therapeutic radioisotopes

2) Development of targeted imaging agents with focus on image-guided surgical probes (near fluorescence imaging agents), and radiolabeled probes for PET and SPECT molecular imaging

3) Development of alpha particle labeled antibody/peptide therapeutics and antibody drug conjugates

4) Translation of novel imaging probes and therapeutics in clinical trials

Jen, Ho

Dr Ho Jen

MD, FRCPC Nuclear Medicine &  Radiology, Full Clinical Professor, Dept. Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, U. of Alberta

Full Partner, Medical Imaging Consultants (Edm, Alberta), Practice General Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Musculoskeletal Radiology;  50% split. Belong to academic and working groups of both these imaging communities.

Since SPECT/CT appeared in 2004, I have realized, and tried to document the expanded diagnostic abilities of bone scans not fully addressed in conventional Nuclear Medicine literature.  In daily clinical work and academic lectures to Nuclear Medicine Residents and Musculoskeletal Radiology fellows, I emphasize a combined approach to the interpretation of bone scans, incorporating many of the basic principles and concepts well established in the Musculoskeletal Radiology Literature which can now be directly applied to bone scintigraphy, with the benefit of SPECT/CT.

It has been my professional passion to promote contemporary bone scintigraphy as an important component of general Musculoskeletal Imaging;  equally important as conventional (non nuclear medicine) modalities, with diagnostic power that sometimes rivals and always complements MRI. 

Because of my mixed practice, I am a very convenient resource for both my Nuclear medicine and MSK radiology colleagues, for multimodality cases.  I have acquired a regional reputation for such multimodality MSK cases, often consulted or asked for official second opinions from WCB, CMPA or medical legal departments.

Hobbies: Grow carnivorous plants build, tune, fly FPV freestyle drones.

Leblond, Antoine

Professeur adjoint de clinique

Faculté de médecine - Département de radiologie, radio-oncologie et médecine nucléaire

Dr Antoine Leblond is a Nuclear Medicine physician at the Centre Hospitalier Affilié Universitaire Régional in Trois-Rivières, Qc. He trained in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Montreal and at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA). He was Program Director for the Nuclear Medicine Residency Program at the University of Montreal for 5 years and he is now Chair of the Nuclear Medicine Specialty Committee at the Royal College since 2016.

Maliha, Peter George

Peter George Maliha is a fellow in nuclear medicine at UCLA having recently completed residency at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. Endeavoring an academic career, he has supplemented his clinical training with multiple research projects on, amongst other subjects, FDG PET appropriate use, PSMA, vasculitis and digital PET. He is additionally proudly holding the position of resident member of the CANM board of directors. Outside work he is always up for a good movie, a challenging tennis match and recently, a nice trip to the beach post Royal College examination.

McKinnon, Nicole

Dr. Nicole McKinnon is a staff physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Scientist Track Investigator at the Research Institute and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The University Toronto who specializes in neuro-critical care. She completed her MD and PhD at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, NY, followed by a residency in Paediatrics at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center, and fellowship in Paediatric Critical Care at the Children’s Hospital Colorado. She then undertook an additional year of training in the developing field of paediatric neuro-critical care at the Hospital for Sick Children. She was awarded the Transitional Clinician Training Award in 2019. Her laboratory works on understanding how sedative medications affect neuronal communication and network changes following acquired brain injury using a combination of behavioural outcomes and electrophysiologic studies. 

Paez, Diana 

Dr Diana Paez Gutierrez is the Head of the Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging Section, Division of Human Health, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Dr Paez graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine of El Bosque

University, with a degree in Nuclear Medicine from the National Cancer Institute, Javeriana University in 1994.  She attended fellowship trainings in nuclear cardiology at the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and in nuclear oncology (PET) at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA in 1997. She also holds a master’s degree in Communication and Education from the Autonoma University in Barcelona, Spain.

Dr Paez has a specific interest in supporting countries in improving access to healthcare, and in including nuclear medicine and radiology as part of their national development plans. She places particular emphasis in addressing disparity and diversity and  on strengthening the competences of nuclear medicine, and radiology professionals worldwide, particularly through the use of information and communication technologies to broaden the reach of educational initiatives.

She strives to establish and strengthen collaborative work with professional and non-governmental organizations to provide coordinated support to the medical community.

Dr Paez has co-authored over 120 articles in peer-review scientific journals and book chapters.

Through the IAEA, she convened the first meeting to prepare the Lancet Oncology Commission on Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, published in March 2021. The report highlights the need to improve patients' knowledge and access to imaging and nuclear medicine for cancer management.

Dr Paez is an avid lecturer, participant on scientific panels and has chaired numerous symposia and scientific meetings as scientific secretary.

Prior, John O. 

John Prior, PhD MD, FEBNM has been Professor and Head of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging at Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland since 2010. After graduating from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich (ETH Zurich), he received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UTSW) and a MD from the University of Lausanne. He underwent thereafter specialization training in nuclear medicine and a visiting associate professor fellowship at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Prof. Prior is currently President of the Swiss Society of Nuclear Medicine, Chair of the UEMS/EANM Accreditation Committee of Nuclear Medicine Department and Training Centers, and WFNMB-WHO Liaison Officer.

Probst, Stephan

Chief of Nuclear Medicine, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC

Stephan Probst is a nuclear medicine physician at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. He has a special interest in theranostics and PSMA PET.

Ross, Andrew

Royal College certified nuclear physician and radiologist period.

Has worked in Halifax for over 20 years. Currently division head of nuclear medicine at the QE2 Health Sciences Center. Professor of medicine at Dalhousie University. Current president of CANM and past chair of the Royal College Nuclear Medicine Examination Committee.

Schirrmacher, Esther 

Dr.Schirrmacher is an internationally recognized expert in regulatory affairs and GMP compliance for radiopharmaceuticals. She obtained her PhD in Radiopharmaceutical Sciences in Germany. She supervised radiopharmaceutical operations for commercial FDG production as well as the research radiotracer program at the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre of the Montreal Neurological Institute for 5 years, before assuming a position as regulatory expert at the University of Alberta, where she was responsible for a clinical trial with 99mTc produced on a cyclotron. Since 2019 she is employed at TRIUMF as a Director of Operations for the Institute of Advanced Medical Isotopes.

Selivanova, Svetlana

Prof. Svetlana Selivanova is radiopharmaceutical chemist with more than 15 years of experience in the development of radiopharmaceuticals from early R&D to first-in-human clinical trials. She holds MSc in chemistry and PhD in radiopharmaceutical chemistry and radiobiology. Currently, she is researcher at CHU de Quebéc−Université Laval Research Centre and adjunct professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Laval, overseeing implementation of a new PET cyclotron and radiopharmaceutical facility at the CHU de Quebéc−Université Laval University Hospital. Previously, she held senior research positions at Sherbrooke University Hospital (Canada) and at the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich (Switzerland). She is recognized for her contribution to R&D and translation effort for the production of Tc-99m with cyclotron. More recently, in collaboration with the Division of Nuclear Medicine at CHU de Quebéc−Université Laval, she introduced an investigational prostate cancer radiopharmaceutical, 177Lu-PSMA-I&T, which was not available to patients in Canada until then. Prof. Selivanova is an active member of several professional societies and currently serves as Vice-President-Elect of the SNMMI Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council, member of the SNMMI Committee on Radiopharmaceuticals, and Executive Member of the Canadian Association of Radiopharmaceutical Scientists.

Urbain, Jean-Luc

Born in Belgium in the mid 50’s, I earned my Medical Degree at the University of Louvain, Belgium, and then pursued residency training in Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine. I subsequently obtained a Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Temple University in Philadelphia. Professor of Imaging, Medicine and Biology for more than two decades I have had the opportunity and privilege to visit hospitals and medical centers and give lecture on all continents. I consider myself as a citizen of the world.

Through my career, I have held leadership and executive positions in Medical Imaging and Medicine in Belgium at the University of Leuven, in Canada at the University of Western Ontario and in the US at Temple University, Fox Chase Cancer Center, The Cleveland Clinic, the VA Administration and now Wake Forest University. I have extensive experience and expertise in committees and boards leadership, in the management of integrated health care systems and patient advocacy groups and at regional, national and international levels of government.

As Secretary of the Belgian Society of Nuclear Medicine in the 90’s I introduced a multilingual and pluralist approach to the operational tasks of the Society. As President of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine (CANM 2006-2011), I have worked closely with national and international medical associations and government health authorities to mitigate major the major health and medical isotopes crises of 2007-2008, analyzed and helped establish medical resources needs, benchmarks and allocation for key medical service areas. I have also served as consultant and advisor for Pharmaceutical, Radio-pharmaceutical and Medical Systems companies.  My current main interests are in Medical Isotopes Production and Supply, Patients’ Education and Advocacy, Personalized Medicine and Theranostics.

As Chief of Nuclear Medicine at Wake Forest University-Baptist Medical Center, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the CANM, Chair of the SNMMI Global Initiative, President of the WFNMB, I am dedicated to work tireless with all stakeholders to improve the management of patients by 1. Securing the supply of Medical Isotopes 2. Developing NM educational tools accessible to the Nuclear Medicine Communities, Patients and Referring Physicians from around the world 3. Promoting the field of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine across the globe, particularly in the underserved countries.

Zuckier, Lionel

Dr. Lionel Zuckier is Professor of Radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Division Head of Nuclear Medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.  Most recently he served as Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Ottawa, where he maintains a clinical and teaching affiliation.

Dr. Zuckier's goal as an academic nuclear medicine physician and Is to expand the science and practice of nuclear medicine.  He has published several articles and review on topics related to “brain death”, the topic of his session, and has recently participated in a Canada-wide project entitled “A Brain-Based Definition of Death and Criteria for its Determination After Arrest of Circulation or Neurologic Function in Canada”, a partnership between Canadian Blood Services, the Canadian Critical Care Society, and the Canadian Medical Association.