Dr. Michael J. Adam, TRIUMF’s Senior Research Scientist and Deputy Division Head of Nuclear Medicine, and Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Chemistry, was recently elected to become one of the 16 voting members for the Board of Directors of the Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences.
The Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences (SRS) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of excellence in education and research in radiopharmaceutical science and in the study and use of radiopharmaceuticals. It is an organization that gathers professionals from multiple disciplines for the purpose of fostering the communication, discussion, and dissemination of information concerning radiopharmaceutical sciences. Mike is one of the four exceptional scientists elected to replace the four members of the Board of Directors whom are rotating off. He will represent the North America/South America region.
Director elections at SRS are made at the biennial meeting, SRS full members cast their votes on the candidates their Committee on Nominations have solicited. The candidate receiving the highest vote count from North America/South America, from Europe/Africa, and from Asia/Australia, respectively become Directors and representatives of that region.
The SRS deal with topics that are relevant to the work done at TRIUMF. This includes topics such as radioisotope production, radiochemistry and radiopharmaceutical synthesis. They also correlate with the current research goals and topics that Mike is working hard to complete. Mike is currently developing radiopharmaceuticals for the neurological programme in the PET chemistry group at TRIUMF, developing new agents for oncology research, and developing new labeling strategies for the incorporation of a variety of radioisotopes into organic and inorganic compounds.
TRIUMF’s PET chemistry group has extensive collaborations with researchers at UBC, UVic, SFU, BCCA, VGH, and health-sciences company Nordion. One of such collaborations include working with UBC’s Dr. Orvig to develop new chelate systems for radiometals such as 68Ga and 111In, as well as carbohydrate radio-metal conjugates with Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) and Re-186/188 for potential use as imaging and therapy agents. Tc-99m is a key medical isotope used in approximately 80 percent of nuclear medicine diagnostic in Canada. Having received about $7 million from the Government of Canada, TRIUMF is a major player in the development for alternative forms of its production using cyclotron technology to replace the aged nuclear reactor in Chalk River (which is responsible for producing the majority of Canada’s Tc-99m supply).
On behalf of TRIUMF, we congratulate Mike Adam for his recognition as one of the Directors of the SRS!
--by Elle Chau, TRIUMF's Outreach/Communications Assistant