The debut of the Molecular Imaging and Nanotechnology Laboratory at the 2011 Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) Annual Meeting made a big splash in San Antonio, Texas. As a young laboratory at UW, the Cai group submitted 3 abstracts to this year’s SNM Annual Meeting, with each group member (Hao Hong, Yunan Yang, Yin Zhang) presenting one abstract. Two of the three abstracts were selected for oral presentations and both talks were well received. One of these two abstracts was awarded a Travel Award (Yunan Yang) and the other was selected for press release (read Yin Zhang’s press release from SNM). Only 1% among roughly 2,100 abstracts submitted were selected for each category.
There were two scientific summary sessions at the SNM Annual Meeting focusing on molecular imaging, given by several leaders of the field. Both abstracts were highlighted in these summary sessions. In addition to all these scientific achievements, Yin Zhang won an iPad 2 in a raffle at an exhibition booth—the only one given away at the conference!