We are excited to reveal our invited speakers for Total-Body PET 2026. Information about additional speakers will be added shortly, so check back soon!
Benjamin Larimer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham
CEO, Cytosite Biopharma
Imaging Activated Cytotoxic T-Cells from Cancer to Inflammatory Disease
The activation of cytotoxic T-cells is a decisive event across cancer, autoimmunity, and tissue injury, yet whether these cells are actively killing, rather than simply present, has been difficult to measure non-invasively. This presentation focuses on PET imaging of granzyme B, the effector protease released by activated cytotoxic lymphocytes, as a direct readout of immune killing rather than cell location or generalized inflammation. Because cytotoxic responses are systemic and heterogeneous, with multi-organ involvement that single-site biopsy cannot capture, total-body PET is uniquely suited to map active T-cell immunity across the body, from cancer immunotherapy to autoimmune disease.
Biography: Benjamin Larimer is an Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and co-founder and CEO of Cytosite Biopharma. His lab develops PET imaging agents that measure immune function in vivo, including granzyme B imaging to detect active T-cell and immune responses across cancer immunotherapy, autoimmunity, and inflammation. He is a recipient of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2), with additional support from the NIH, Stand Up To Cancer, and the Department of Defense. His work focuses on translating functional immune imaging from oncology into a broad range of human diseases.
Aisling Chaney, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Precision Radiotheranostics Translational Center (PRTC),
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR),
Washington University in St. Louis
From Brain to Body: The potential of Total-body Immune PET
Chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction have emerged as key drivers in the pathogenesis of neurological disorders. However, the in vivo spatiotemporal dynamics of whole-body inflammation in health and disease remain poorly understood. Non-invasive Total-body PET has enormous potential to reveal the complex neuroimmune interactions underlying neurological and inflammatory conditions. This talk will introduce key biological targets that make immune cells and inflammation visible by PET and highlight applications thus far. Examples from our preclinical work across neurological and infectious diseases, as well as clinical imaging in Alzheimer's disease, will demonstrate the potential of total-body immune PET.
Biography: Aisling Chaney is an assistant professor at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research is focused on the development and translation of novel non-invasive molecular imaging strategies to elucidate the inflammatory component of devastating neurological and inflammatory diseases. In particular, she is interested in the relationship between peripheral and central nervous system immune responses, and how this crosstalk affects disease development and progression. Chaney previously worked at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow and Instructor in the Department of Radiology. She earned her doctorate in Neuroscience and Neuroimaging from the University of Manchester.
Kiel D. Neumann, Ph.D.
Associate Member, Department of Radiology
Section Chief, Research
Director, Molecular Imaging Research Lab
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Combatting Infection with Imaging: It All Starts at the Benchtop
This talk will present research focused on imaging infectious pathogens with positron emission tomography (PET) in vivo, with the goal of delineating infection from degenerative inflammatory processes in human cohorts. To date, there is no reliable imaging technique to detect living bacteria, fungi, or viruses in vivo and current methodologies rely on indirect methods such morphologic changes (CT/ MR), recruitment of immune cells (111In SPECT white blood cell scan), or enhanced glycolytic flux seen in inflammatory cells (18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET). These strategies are often inadequate to detect infection as they are not specific for the host or the pathogen. Usually, tissue sampling is needed for adequate diagnosis, which is an invasive procedure with potential complications. Furthermore, biopsy in many complicated infection cases can be difficult, expensive, uninformative, and exposes many non-infected patients to unnecessary risk. This talk will cover translational research from fundamental chemistry to first-in human studies, based on the hypothesis that imaging pathogens with high specificity in vivo has the potential to transform clinical care for these diseases, much like molecular imaging is a mainstay for oncology.
Lab Biography: The principal focus of our laboratory is to develop new molecular imaging agents, which can be detected by Positron Emission Tomography (PET). PET is unique in that, unlike anatomical imaging modalities such as MRI or CT, the sensitivity and quantitative nature allows non-invasive visualization of specific molecular events occurring within the body. Due to the high sensitivity of PET, biologically active molecules can be labeled with positron-emitting isotopes without eliciting a pharmacological response. Despite the enormous potential of PET in healthcare, very few specific and biologically validated imaging agents are available to clinicians for disease management. The most widely distributed PET imaging agent used in nuclear medicine is 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG). FDG PET has become a mainstay in clinical care, such as oncology, as many tumors utilize glycolysis (in part) to promote survival and growth; however, FDG has several key limitations. Many cells, including cancer, inflammatory, bacterial, and normal utilize glucose as a fuel source and render signal-to-noise a significant problem to accurately and precisely quantify a biological status using imaging. This biological ambiguity makes FDG PET particularly challenging to manage diseases of the brain, pancreas, lung, and heart. Thus, innovative tracers capable of detecting specific molecular signatures are essential to advance the role PET plays in clinical disease management and precision medicine. Projects in our lab focus on development of those novel imaging agents and translating them to the clinic.