The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) has awarded more than $500,000 in Drs. Jane & Abass Alavi Mars Shot Research Awards to five researchers focused on imaging infection and inflammation.
The 2026 grants will support studies on diabetic foot osteomyelitis, rheumatoid arthritis, giant cell arteritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and prosthetic joint infections, according to SNMMI. Recipients and awards include the following:
- Gad Abikhzer of McGill University in Montreal: $110,000 for a prospective multicenter study of F-18 FDG PET/CT for diagnosing diabetic foot osteomyelitis.
- Lorenzo Nardo, MD, PhD, of the University of California Davis: $110,000 for zirconium-89 certolizumab PET imaging in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
- Koenraad Van Laere, MD, PhD, and Lennert Boeckxstaens, MD, of KU Leuven in Belgium: $110,000 for ultra-high-resolution FAPI and FDG PET imaging to assess giant cell arteritis.
- Nerissa Viola, PhD, of Wayne State University in Detroit: $100,000 for a comparative imaging study of F-18 FDG and an IL23-targeted PET agent for monitoring chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
- David Wilson, MD, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco: $100,000 for development of the F-18 NAM PET radiotracer for imaging bacteria in prosthetic joint infections.
The SNMMI Mars Shot Research Fund was established in 2023 to support translation of nuclear medicine imaging and radiopharmaceutical therapy research.
