Dr. Sanjiv (Sam) Gambhir, known for his work in multimodality molecular imaging, was awarded the Benedict Cassen Prize at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

The honor is awarded every two years by the Education and Research Foundation for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging in recognition of outstanding achievement and work leading to a major advance in nuclear medicine science. Gambhir is currently the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and chair of the radiology department at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"The Cassen Prize Committee selected Sanjiv (Sam) Gambhir as the 2018 recipient in recognition of his advanced work into the study and development of in vivo multimodality molecular imaging,” said Frances K. Keech, president of the Education and Research Foundation for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. “His pursuit of expanding molecular assays to study the biology of diseases, especially cancer, using multiple imaging modalities and in vitro assays has advanced not only the nuclear medicine field but health care in general."

"I am truly honored to receive this award that represents the hard work of so many individuals from around the world over the last 25 years,” Gambhir said. “I have had the great fortune of learning both from my terrific mentors and from my trainees. We are in the infancy of a great revolution coming in early disease detection. I am optimistic that the foundations we have laid in merging the field of cell/molecular biology with the field of biomedical imaging will lead to significant impacts in health care for decades to come.”

Gambhir leads the Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection and directs the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS). He also heads up the new Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics (PHIND) Center at Stanford. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles’ Medical Scientist Training Program.

Gambhir's lab focuses on interrogating fundamental molecular events in living subjects. He has developed and clinically translated several multimodality molecular imaging strategies including imaging of gene and cell therapies.

The Cassen Prize honors Benedict Cassen, whose invention of the rectilinear radioisotope scanner – the first instrument capable of making an image of radiotracer distribution in body organs of living patients – was seminal to the development of clinical nuclear medicine. Gambhir is the 14th individual to receive this $25,000 award from the Education and Research Foundation for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging since 1994.