We love what we do, and we do it with passion.
Adriana Tavares
Professor and PiW team leader
Adriana is a professor in translational molecular imaging and the head of the preclinical PET facility at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on developing new PET radiotracers and novel methods of analysis of PET data. She serves as a reviewer for various journals, funding bodies and international congresses. Adriana is a member of the European Society of Molecular Imaging (ESMI) board, founder of the “PET is Wonderful” group, and member of the PET UK network.
Angus Jacobs
PhD Student
Angus is a PhD Student working within the PiW team.
Carlos Alcaide-Corral
Senior Preclinical PET Research Associate
Carlos has a BSc(Hons) in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and a Master’s degree in Endocrinology carried out in the Department of Cardiovascular Science at the University Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Upon completion of his University training, he was awarded with a 4-year research grant to carry out various research projects at the faculty of pharmacy. Carlos is a licensed RSci technician (Institute of Biomedical Science) currently working as a Senior Preclinical PET Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh and he is responsible for conducting preclinical PET/CT studies, including acquisition, reconstruction, transfer and storage of preclinical PET/CT data.
Dániel Réti
PhD Student
Dániel joined the PET is Wonderful team in October 2022. He completed his undergraduate degree in Physics at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He earned his Masters degree in Medical Physics at the University of Galway, Ireland in 2021. He contributed to projects of the field of medical imaging, like fMRI and phase contrast CT research. After his studies he started working as a PET/MRI physicist for Mediso, which installed two new preclinical imaging devices in Edinburgh in 2022. During his PhD research, he is finding ways to optimise and standardise preclinical quality control measurement for preclinical systems, focusing on cardiac and brain PET imaging. In his free time he enjoys analogue photography, improv acting, and when it is possible, skiing.
Islay Cranston
Research Technician PET R&D
Islay is a preclinical PET research technician working in the PET is Wonderful team.
Kerry O’Rourke
Radiochemist Post-Doctoral Scientist
Kerry is a post-doctoral researcher working in the PET is Wonderful team.
Liam Carr
Post-Doctoral Scientist
Liam is a MRC-funded post-doctoral scientist in the PET is Wonderful group. He completed an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, including an honours project within the PET is Wonderful group. He became extremely enthusiastic about research having spent time working on a project in the lab, returning the following year to begin his PhD (2021-2024). His project aims to address current shortcomings in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic stages of drug development, with the aim to produce a novel, in silico model incorporating data from biomimetic chromatography and body-on-chip technology to aid in high throughput screening of potential drug candidates.
Mark G Macaskill
Research Fellow and SINAPSE ECR Rising Star 2023
Mark MacAskill is a Research Fellow working in the PiW Team within the Centre for Cardiovascular Science at The University of Edinburgh. He gained his PhD in vascular biology from the University of Strathclyde before moving to the University of Edinburgh to undertake postdoctoral studies largely involving preclinical imaging including MRI, Ultrasound and PET. Mark’s research interests involve the development and application of novel imaging approaches to investigate the complex mechanisms which drive beneficial and adverse cardiovascular remodelling. His goal is to develop better prognostic tools and therapeutic strategies to reduce the impact of adverse remodelling in pathologies such as atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction. His current projects include the development and application of a novel PET radiotracer targeting the inflammatory marker TSPO for detection of cardiac inflammation, in addition to the assessment of alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as a novel imaging and therapeutic target to assess beneficial remodelling. While Mark is mainly research focussed, he teaches Cardiovascular Imaging and Pharmacology and at an undergraduate level, as well as training and supervising postgraduate students.
Phyo Khaing
Clinical Fellow
Phyo is a Clinical Fellow working within the PET is Wonderful team.
Robert Shaw
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Robert Shaw is a Post-doctoral researcher in the PET is Wonderful group and is working on exploring changes in SV2A (a synaptic vehicle receptor) across age and sex, through analysis of PET scans. His previous postdoc was a collaborative project between the Tavares and Waldman groups as part of the MS Society Edinburgh Centre for MS Research, within the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences. He completed his undergraduate MSci in Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow in 2017 before moving to a research assistant position within the University of Glasgow. He studied his PhD at the University of Edinburgh funded by the SPRINT-MND/MS PhD Programme working on the preclinical testing and validation of a novel radiotracer for imaging myelination/remyelination using PET imaging.
Victoria Reid
Research Technician
Victoria joined the PET is Wonderful team as a research technician in 2019. She is currently investigating the pathophysiology of collagen synthesis (fibrosis) in the remodelling myocardium using a myocardial infarction (MI) model and assisting with the development of collagen-targeted PET radiotracers. If successful, these radiotracers would have the potential to change the way in which patients are managed clinically following an MI event. She holds a research masters qualification in Cardiovascular Science from the University of Edinburgh and has over 8 years of radiation experience gained in an industry setting.
Collaborations / Affiliated PiW Members
Abby Hellman
PhD Student
Abby is a PhD student in the School of Physics and Astronomy who joined the PET is Wonderful Team in September 2022. She completed her BSc degree in Physics at the University of Virginia in May of 2022. Throughout her undergraduate degree, she was involved in a variety of medical physics research projects including quality assurance checks for proton beam radiation therapy and machine learning for x-ray tomosynthesis image interpretation. She also took part in nuclear physics research, building and testing gas electron multiplier detectors and developing a streaming readout data acquisition system. Her PhD will involve network analysis of total-body PET data, looking to further the field of systems biology and explore the systemic effects of diseases.
Anne Grant
Affiliate member of the PiW group
Anne is the Facility Manager for Edinburgh Imaging and a great supporter of the PiW Team. She is instrumental to the group’s PiW meetings organised every year.
Bea Andrews
PhD Student
Bea is a PhD student funded through an EPSRC studentship. She completed her undergraduate integrated MPhys degree at the University of Edinburgh in physics. She grew a passion for PET imaging and computational research during her master’s research project with Catriona Wimberley which subsequently led to her joining the PiW group a few months after graduating. Her PhD project aims to develop and validate new whole-body PET and PET-MR methodology for radiometabolite measurements as well as the development of simplified PET-MR protocols, co-kinetic models, and analysis models for the quantification of radiotracer kinetics with a focus on reduced acquisition time without invasive arterial blood corrections.
Catriona Wimberley
Chancellor’s Fellow (School of Physics)
Catriona is a current Research Fellow in PET-MR physics within Edinburgh Imaging and the PET is Wonderful Group, working in multi-modal imaging predominantly for neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory and neurovascular studies. Catriona’s research is multi-disciplinary, applying mathematical tools to transform in vivo PET imaging data into biomarkers of emerging disease. Catriona’s main expertise is kinetic modelling, analysis and simulation of PET data, extending to MRI in her current projects. Catriona completed her PhD at the University of Sydney (Australia) and then spent 4 years in a post-doc position at the in vivo molecular imaging laboratory in Orsay, France before coming to Edinburgh.
Kelly Panichnantakul
PhD Student
Kelly is a PhD student at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences.
Alumni
Kali Pandya
Alumni PiW group
Kalyani is a PhD student in the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Science programme at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD project focuses on using fluoroproline PET imaging to investigate the effect of sex and age on changes in cardiac collagen and age-related cardiac fibrosis. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc (Hons.) in Physiology in 2020. She has also received an MScR in Cardiovascular Biology as part of the Edinburgh BHF programme.
Agne Knyzeliene
Alumni PiW group
Agne received a BSc(Hons) degree in Pharmacology (University of Aberdeen, UK) and a MSc in Brain Sciences (University of Glasgow, UK). Her doctoral research focused on the validation of a novel TSPO PET radiotracer, [18F]LW223, for imaging neuroinflammation and the characterisation of the dynamics of TSPO expression in health and disease across multiple brain cell types. In collaboration with Prof. Karen Horsburgh and Dr Barry McColl, she also looked into the application of [18F]LW223 for imaging dementia-associated neuroinflammation. Agne received her PhD in 2022.
Viktoria Balogh
Alumni PiW group
Viktoria worked as a PhD student in the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Science programme at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD project focused on using [18F]fluoroproline PET imaging to investigate myocardial fibrosis in a hypertensive heart failure rat model treated with angiotensin II. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc (Hons.) in Neuroscience. She then went on to complete an MRes in Biomedical Sciences (Integrative Mammalian Biology) at the University of Glasgow. She has also received an MScR in Cardiovascular Biology as part of the Edinburgh BHF programme. Viktoria received her PhD in 2023.
Wendy McDougald
Alumni PiW group
Wendy received a BSc from Seattle University and a MSc from the University of Washington in physics and mathematics. She is also a certified clinical positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT engineer. While in Seattle she conducted medical physics/engineering research at the University of Washington as a Research Scientist/Engineer III focusing on clinical PET, PET/CT and SPECT. Since coming to the University of Edinburgh, Wendy has completed a MScR focusing on bioinformatics and preclinical PET/CT, as well as a NC3Rs-funded PhD with the PiW, Tavares Group. During her PhD, she became aware of the need to regulate the ionising radiation doses small animals absorb while being imaged. Currently, Wendy’s NC3Rs Training Fellowship will delve into understanding the DNA damage caused by ionising radiation, while establishing guidelines and regulations for small animal X-ray exposure during CT imaging. Wendy recieved her PhD in 2020.
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