Meeting Report: European Molecular Imaging Meeting (EMIM) 2024

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Key Points

  • EMIM 2024 was held March 12–15, 2024, in Porto, Portugal. 
  • Kullervo Hynynen, PhD, gave the opening lecture, and the Foundation sponsored a Therapeutic Ultrasound for the Brain session. 
European Society for Molecular Imaging

The annual meeting of the European Society for Molecular Imaging was held March 12–15, 2024, in Porto, Portugal. This 2024 European Molecular Imaging Meeting (EMIM) had more than 1,000 attendees and included several presentations of interest to the focused ultrasound community. 

Opening Lecture 

Kullervo Hynynen, PhD, Vice President of Research and Innovation at Sunnybrook Research Institute, gave EMIM’s opening lecture with his presentation titled “MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound for Targeted Drug Delivery and Gene Therapy.” 

Focus Session 

A March 14 Focus Session on Therapeutic Ultrasound for the Brain was organized and sponsored by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. The session was chaired by Chrit Moonen, PhD, and Frédéric Padilla, PhD, and featured the following speakers and presentations: 

  • Elisa Konofagou, PhD, (Columbia University) presented “Ultrasound on the brain – from mice to humans: neuromodulation, immunotherapeutics, and drug delivery.” 
  • Hong Chen, PhD, (Washington University of St. Louis) presented “Sonogenetics for noninvasive and cell-type-specific neuromodulation.” 
  • Wissam Beaino, PhD, (University of Amsterdam) presented “89Zr-Immuno-PET for imaging FUS-enhanced brain delivery of biological drugs.” 

“The Focus Session was attended by more than 150 people, and the feedback was quite enthusiastic,” said Dr. Moonen. “It was a highlight of the meeting with outstanding presentations followed by lively discussions.” 

Abstracts for each of the presentations above are available by clicking on the presenter’s name on the EMIM website

Posters 

The meeting also included the following posters of interest to the community, and additional topics can be found by searching for your own key words in the online meeting program

CHEM 051. Differences of in vitro sonoporation using hard and soft shell microbubbles by Julia K. Blöck, Hongchen Li, Gonzalo Collado-Lara, Klazina Kooiman, Junlin Chen, Christopher Hark, Céline Porte, Anne Rix, and Fabian Kießling from RWTH Aachen International University and Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam. 

ONCO-090. Optimizing FUS-aided immunoPET imaging of glioblastoma PD-L1 expression, selecting the best 89Zr-labeled anti-PD-L1 antibody format by Céline Chevaleyre, Anthony Novell, Nicolas Tournier, Ambre Dauba, Steven Dubois, Dimitri Kereselidze, Erwan Selingue, Benoit Jego, Laurène Jourdain, Bernard Maillère, Benoit Larrat, Hervé Nozach, and Charles Truillet from Paris-Saclay University. 

PS 13-01. PET imaging of 89Zr-Talidox delivery to the brain using FUS+MB mediated blood-brain barrier opening by Aishwarya Mishra, Christopher Payne, Amaia Carrascal-Miniño, Antonios Pouliopoulos, and Rafael T.M. De Rosales from King’s College London. 

PS 18-05. Longitudinal MR vascular fingerprinting approach tracking physiological changes during repeated MR guided focused ultrasound mediated BBB opening on rats by Sébastien Rigollet, Aurélien Delphin, Thomas Ador, Erik Dumont, Chantal Pichon, Emmanuel Barbier, Anthony Delalande, and Vasile Stupar from Image Guided Therapy, University Grenoble Alpes, Université d’Orléans, ART ARNm, and Institut Universitaire de Paris. 

PS 18-06. Antibody-targeted nonspherical microbubbles for ultrasound-assisted molecular imaging and drug delivery by Anshuman Dasgupta, Tao Sun, Elena Rama, Alessandro Motta, Fabian Kießling, Nathan McDannold, Samir Mitragotri, and Twan Lammers from RWTH Aachen University and Harvard University. 

SG 08-01. Optimizing FUS-aided immunoPET imaging of glioblastoma PD-L1 expression, selecting the best 89Zr-labeled anti-PD-L1 antibody format by Céline Chevaleyre, Anthony Novell, Nicolas Tournier, Ambre Dauba, Steven Dubois, Dimitri Kereselidze, Erwan Selingue, Benoit Jego, Laurène Jourdain, Bernard Maillère, Benoit Larrat, Hervé Nozach, and Charles Truillet from Paris-Saclay University. 

TECH-001. Transcranial functional ultrasound localisation microscopy in mice reveals brain-wide phenotype of small vessels disease by Nicolas Zucker, Jérémy H. Thalgott, Thomas Deffieux, Alexandre Dizeux, Franck Lebrin, and Mickael Tanter from INSERM, Physics for Medicine Paris, Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum, and Iconeus. 

The European Society for Molecular Imaging is a multidisciplinary organization for scientists and clinicians conducting basic, preclinical, translational, and clinical molecular imaging research. The society promotes collaborations for pursuing new ideas to image biological processes, the transfer of knowledge, and the implementation of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. 

Next Meeting 

EMIM 2025 will be held March 11–14, 2025, in Bilbao, Spain. Abstract submission opens September 24, 2024 and closes on November 19, 2024.