Katheryne Wilson recently received the Young Investigator Award at the 2011 World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC), held in San Diego, California, September 7–10.
Left to right: World Molecular Imaging Society President Robert Gillies, Katheryne Wilson, and World Molecular Imaging Society Secretary Michael Tweedle.
Katheryne Wilson recently received the Young Investigator Award at the 2011 World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC), held in San Diego, California, September 7–10.
Wilson, whose research focus is on nanotechnology and biomedical imaging, is a graduate student in Professor Stanislav Emelianov’s laboratory.
Young Investigator Award semi-finalists were selected based on the scores their abstracts and presentations received.
Three finalists then presented during a special Young Investigator Award session, after which the committee announced Wilson as the winner. Wilson’s abstract was titled Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging in a Murine Model Using Optically Triggered Photoacoustic nanoDroplets. Her presentation focused on the development of a dual contrast agent for combined ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging. These dual contrast agents, called Photoacoustic nanoDroplets, allow imaging through vaporization as opposed to the traditional, weaker method, thermal expansion. This is the first example of biologically safe photoacoustic imaging through vaporization and could be beneficial to increasing the depth of photoacoustic imaging techniques and providing a unique platform for therapies, such as drug delivery. Her abstract competed with over 1000 submitted to the WMIC.
