WMIC Looking Ahead to 2015

The 2014 World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) put a spotlight on the basic science and translation of molecular imaging at the World Trade Center in Seoul, South Korea, in September. The program of the 7th annual Congress of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) featured 180 oral presentations and more than 650 scientific posters about the most salient areas of research.

Molecular Imaging caught up with three central figures of the WMIC: 2014-2015 WMIS president Jason Lewis, PhD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering; the new WMIS president for 2015-2016, Christopher H. Contag, PhD, from Stanford University School of Medicine; and the 2015 program committee chair for next year’s WMIC, H. Charles Manning, PhD, from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, to find out more about emerging trends in molecular imaging and ways in which the WMIS operates to aid translation of preclinical research to first-in-human trials.

Main events for this year and beyond

This year in Seoul, the WMIS put special emphasis on plenaries and panel discussions that bring emerging research to the fore. What sets apart the WMIC from other molecular imaging meetings is the focus on the basic sciences and preclinical research—research that may still be years away from general clinical use in human patients.

“We are really a group of professionals—including basic scientists and molecular biologists,” explains Lewis. “We speak to a very different audience than other molecular imaging societies.”

The WMIC is a springboard for scientists and researchers, but also for other stakeholders in molecular imaging to gain a better understanding of how molecular imaging is currently being used in research.

The 2015 WMIC will be set in tropical Hawaii with the theme of Precision Medicine—Visualized. The new program will build upon the 2014 program with a range of plenaries and panel discussions that continue the conversation on imaging in infectious disease, stem cell research and optical surgical navigation. Other topics for next year include research in microenvironments, obesity, neuroimaging and women’s and men’s health.

“Spotlight sessions will be led around the thematic areas of our interest groups, which are formed organically and that drive the agenda for the next year,” says Manning. “I think it is an important way to take something as complex as molecular imaging and break it down into specific areas of focus.”

These WMIS interest groups address developments and challenges in infectious disease and optical imaging, advanced radiomics, companion diagnostics, metabolic imaging and issues in practice management, such as those covered by managers of research laboratories and women in leadership.

Manning adds that interest in stem cell research is only going to grow following the 2014 Highlight Lecture featuring Michal Neeman, PhD, from the department of biological regulation at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Clore Center for Biological Physics and the Krenter Institute for Imaging and Genomics in Israel. The Institute continues to map the regulatory network that dictates angiogenesis. This team is evaluating imaging techniques for tracking the entire pathway of blood and lymph vessel development. Another key plenary that sparked interest and that was the nanotheranostics research presented by Ick Chan Kwon, PhD, director of the Global RNAi Carrier Initiative at the Center for Theragnosis, Korea Institute of Science and Technology. This area of research will be expounded upon in next year’s Congress with more data on companion diagnostics.

Bringing scientists up to speed

Molecular imaging research has branched out in a multitude of new discoveries in recent years and next year WMIC officials want to make sure that researchers are debriefed before jumping into advanced, investigatory sessions.

“One of the things we realize is that there is a learning curve for some areas in molecular imaging,” says Lewis. “We are having an educational session to prepare people with either a refresher course or in one-on-one training. We have a phenomenal array of scientists and we have to give people a common language to help our members learn from each other’s respective fields.”

Educational sessions have been developed to cover chemistry of contrast media, biology and pathology, imaging modalities for life scientists, and post processing and cross-validation in research.

Integration of disciplines

With such a multidisciplinary approach, integration is key. The 2015 WMIC agenda will go beyond education and scientific presentation to foster a greater awareness of how all the pieces fit together. This is incredibly important in a climate where the science can stall before it gets a chance to be translated into additional subject models and humans.

“The real emphasis is on integration between chemists and biologists and bringing them all into one room,” says Contag. “You see a lot of basic science looking toward translation in these meetings and not studies of probes that have been in the clinic for years or decades.”

Next year’s WMIC will be reviewing areas of development and applications where molecular imaging has never been applied before, not only for stem cell studies but for innovative therapeutics for neurodegenerative disease and imaging technologies that have not yet taken flight. Contag presents novel research in infectious disease imaging that goes beyond sequence analysis to imaging techniques that actually follow the path of infectious pathogens. This could be applied to HIV infection, bacterial infections and beyond, and is scalable among animal models. Researchers can now take a panel of pathogens and see them interacting with immune cells. A number of biomarkers are being investigated to track T-cell activation, cellular necrosis and apoptosis. New research will seek to glean the downstream effects of infectious disease.

“There is a need for expansion in this area and I think it has not been as well developed as oncologic and cardiovascular research,” says Contag. Researchers also are addressing practical needs such as how to set up facilities so that subjects are kept separate from attending scientists.

The learning curve goes well beyond the molecular imaging community into the greater populations of the world that have little to no understanding of molecular imaging. It’s time for that to change, says Lewis. “We are trying to generate more global education about molecular imaging in healthcare in order to demonstrate how molecular imaging can be used to create better health outcomes.” 

The 2015 WMIC aims to continue building knowledge and interest in an effort to keep molecular imaging innovative and viable in an uninterrupted arc from the point of discovery to the point of patient care. Expect more WMIS coverage from Molecular Imaging throughout the year.