MICCAI workshop on Diffusion Modelling and the Fibre Cup
Cardiff, UK
sep 24th, 2009
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/miccai/dmfc/

Over the last decade interest in diffusion MRI has exploded. The technique provides a unique insight into the microstructure of living tissue and enables in-vivo connectivity mapping of the brain. Microstructural changes are often the earliest signs of disease or tissue regeneration. Tractography and connectivity mapping give fundamental new insights in neuroscience and neuroanatomy. This is a two-part workshop, covering computational advances in Diffusion Imaging and tractography techniques.

Diffusion Modelling
The first part of this workshop builds on the success of last year's Computational Diffusion MRI MICCAI workshop, which focused on advances in the computational techniques that underpin and inform diffusion imaging.

Computational techniques are key to the continued success and development of diffusion MRI and to its widespread transfer into the clinic. This workshop will focus on the challenges at all stages of the diffusion MRI pipeline: acquisition, reconstruction, modelling and model fitting, image processing, fibre tracking, connectivity mapping, visualization, group studies and inference.

The Fibre Cup
The Fibre Cup targets the evaluation of reconstruction models and tractography algorithms in diffusion MRI. The emergence of numerous models and fibre tracking techniques during the last decade raises the urgent need for a comprehensive comparison of available methods on a common ground truth dataset. To this end, we are building a MR phantom containing a plethora of realistic crossing, kissing, splitting and bending fibre configurations to be used as a ground truth dataset for method comparison. A DT-MRI and HARDI datasets will be acquired and published on-line.

Participants to the contest will be asked to run their algorithms on the phantom dataset and return their results along with a 2-page paper summarizing the method. Finally, tractography results will be compared to the exact morphological parameters of the phantom (e.g., fibre bundle length, curvature, or thickness) for quantitative evaluation. Winners of the contest will be announced during the workshop. Data, important dates and contest rules will be made available by the end of June on the DMFC'09 website.

IMPORTANT DATES

Diffusion modelling submissions

26th June
Paper Submission
13th July
Notification of Acceptance
11th August
Camera-Ready Papers
24th September
Workshop
Fibre cup submissions

31st July
Paper Submission
11th August
Notification of Acceptance
18th August
Camera-Ready Papers
24th September
Workshop
TOPICS

The organizers encourage submissions of papers in areas including, but not limited to, the following topics:

Acquisition design
High angular resolution techniques
Biophysical models
The microstructure of diffusion in tissue
Tractography and connectivity mapping
Network analysis
Registration and segmentation
Visualization
Validation
Post-processing
Group studies and statistical analysis
Clinical applications
The organizers also invite you to enter your tractography algorithm in the Fibre Cup (details to follow)

Papers submitted to the main conference or other MICCAI workshops may be double-submitted to DMFC 2009, and we encourage tractography methods entered in in the Fibre Cup to also be entered to the first half of the workshop.

ICMIP-09
October 23-25, 2009
Nanjing, China

Yangtze River 2009 International Conference on Medical Imaging Physics & The 5th National Annual Meeting of Medical Imaging Physics will be held in Nanjing, China on October 23-25, 2009. The conference is sponsored by Chinese Society of Medical Physics(CSMP), Life Electronics Society of Chinese Institute of Electronics (LES,CIE), North American Chinese Medical Physicists Association (NACMPA) and Overseas Chinese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (OCSMRM).

This conference is intended to facilitate scientific exchange, to promote medical physics research, application and education, and to provide a platform for medical physicists and scientists in related fields worldwide to foster communications, collaborations and friendship.
The contents of the conference will cover the radiodiagnostics (including X-ray, CR, DR, CT, MRI, etc), image-guided therapy (IGT) and image-guided radiotherapy (4D CT, Cone-beam CT, IGRT, etc), ultrasound in medicine and engineering (including ultrasound diagnosis, interventional ultrasound, ultrasound engineering, HIFU, etc), nuclear medicine, interventional radiology, medical imaging and computer image processing, medical imaging information management system (PACS/RIS, IHE, etc), biomedical photonics, nanotechnology, bioinformatics and so on.

Call for Papers：
The conference abstracts should only include the latest, non-published research results and scientific findings in the above-mentioned fields. The articles should be in the form of abstract and full text. Both Chinese and English are allowed. The excellent papers (only in English) that are judged and recommended by experts can be published on Transactions of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which is indexed by EI.

The abstracts should consist of the following 4 components: objectives, materials and methods, results and conclusions. The words in full text should be limited to 4000 and the format of the article should be according to the requirements for manuscripts submitted to Transactions of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (See Appendix V). The article should be submitted to ICMIP-09@nuaa.edu.cn. The deadline for submission is July 15th, 2009. Once accepted, the authors will be informed after September 1st, 2009 by email. Presentations will include keynote speeches, invited talks and oral presentations, which will be separately arranged in the main venue and sub-venue.

Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, with convenient transportation and beautiful environment has upgraded the speed in urban modernization and internationalization after held the famous historical world Expo. The organization committee is committed to make the congress a great success by providing modern conference facilities, great scientific programs, comfortable accommodation and delightful cuisine.

We look forward to meeting you in Nanjing!
Conference Chairs:
Prof. Shanglian Bao, Prof. Chris Shaw
March, 2009

XXIVth ICMRBS
August 22-27, 2010
Cairns, Australia

It is a pleasure to invite you to attend the XXIVth International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, to be held August 22-27, 2010. The venue will be the Convention Centre in Cairns, a major regional city which is also a gateway to the magnificent Great Barrier Reef and the tropical north of Australia.

The ICMRBS is held biennially and brings together a broad cross-section of experts from around the world with interests in the applications of all aspects of magnetic resonance in biology. ICMRBS XXIV will maintain that tradition, featuring plenary and keynote lectures and concurrent sessions that cover new methods development and biological applications of high-resolution and solid-state NMR, EPR, in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy, metabolomics, and magnetic resonance imaging. This conference is the major scientific event in the field of magnetic resonance applications in the biological sciences.

Recent conferences have attracted delegates from all over the world, with a growing number of participants from Asia. It is fitting that the XXIVth conference will be held in this region.

On behalf of the Organising and Program Committees, I extend a warm welcome to delegates from around the globe.

The conference flyer can be downloaded from the website using this link:

http://www.icmrbs2010.org/images/stories/icmrbs_2010_flyer.pdf

We would be grateful if you could forward this to interested colleagues and display a copy on your noticeboards.

Please also visit the conference website (http://www.icmrbs2010.org/) for further information about the conference and the location.

We look forward to seeing you in Australia in August 2010.

Warm regards,

Ray Norton

Chair, XXIV ICMRBS Organising Committee

26th ESMRMB Annual Scientific Meeting

October 1-3, 2009

Antalya, Turkey

www.esmbmr.org

The meeting provide a forum for MR Research and clinical practice with 3 days of educational and scientific activities. The Congress is open to clinicians, physicists and basic scientists. Call for abstracts, deadline May 26, 2009.

ISMRM 17th Scientific Meeting and Exibition
Honolulu, Hawaii
April 18-24, 2009

http://www.ismrm.org/09/index.htm

Message from Margaret Hall-Craggs, M.D., Program Chair


As those of you who have visited will know, Hawai’i is a spectacular venue for a scientific meeting. The convention centre is a perfect fit for our conference; it has generous sized meeting rooms, it is built to enjoy the ocean breezes that cool Honolulu, and it has delightful spacious open communal spaces and atria. All of this is within easy walking distance of the beaches, city and hotels. Our main problem will be keeping people inside the centre and working rather than enjoying the many, many attractions on offer around the islands.

The Annual Meeting Program Committee has been working hard since January of this year putting the Hawai’i meeting together. I am delighted to announce that Professor Robert Shulman and Professor Al Macovski, have accepted the invitation to be our Mansfield and Lauterbur lecturers for 2009. Both of these impressive scientists have the most distinguished careers that have encompassed a wide body of work. Professor Shulman is the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and has been instrumental in developing the use of MR spectroscopy in vivo for the investigation of metabolic pathways in animals and humans. He has measured the flow of substrates in muscle and brain, examined the storage pathways of glucose in skeletal muscle and the role of its regulation in diabetes, and examined energy production and usage in neurotransmission. He has recently co-edited ‘Metabolomics by In Vivo NMR’. Professor Macovski is the Canon Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering and Radiology at Stanford University. His career has spanned working on television to medical imaging. Apart from some fundamental work in real-time ultrasound and dual-energy CT, he has pioneered blood vessel imaging with MRI. Amongst their many accolades and awards, both our speakers have been recipients of the Gold Medal of the ISMRM and are members of the National Academy of Science. We are honoured to have them speak at our meeting.

The plenary sessions this year will cover diverse subjects bringing together the engineering, physics and clinical communities of our society. The topics include the role of MR in stroke, MR scanners in 2025, MR probe development in molecular imaging, the lessons learnt from NSF and a session on prostate cancer from biology through imaging to therapy.

Education is being led by Dan Sodickson this year, and we have a fabulous, diverse and exciting program of education offerings. At the weekend we have 8 parallel sessions on each of Saturday and Sunday. This is followed by 10 ‘sunrise’ education offerings each morning, and a further 24 education sessions scattered throughout Monday- Thursday.

Many of the popular courses have been retained but all of these have been reviewed and refreshed. Case-based teaching introduced last year will be continued but enhanced by the use of audience response buttons. These sessions have been extended to the physics community, and Mark Griswold will be leading an interactive case-based session on ‘Guess the Artifact’. In the light of continuing legislative and clinical issues, safety is again featuring in the education program and other extremely successful sessions such as ‘Grant Writing’- of interest to most scientists – will re-run.

There are many new courses in 2009 and these include such offerings as ‘The rise and fall of the brain’ (highlighting the developing and the aging brain in a pair of sessions), a practical primer on ‘Small animal imaging and spectroscopy’, an early morning course on ‘Mobile lipids in disease’, and daytime courses on ‘MR of engineered tissues’ and ‘Fat imaging and quantification’.

As part of an ongoing initiative to provide state-of-the-art education in clinical MRI, the 2009 meeting will include a five-day continuing medical education course which will serve as a focused introduction to the ISMRM meeting for clinicians new to our meeting and our Society. This course will combine existing educational offerings with additional tailored content to form an exciting program in musculoskeletal and body MR.

I am delighted to announce a new initiative aimed at linking the ISMRM with the local community. We intend to give local high school students interested in science the opportunity to see ‘Science at Work’. Groups of students will visit the meeting and observe poster presentations, visit the exhibits and join a scientific session. Thomas Ernst of the University of Hawaii has kindly agreed to lead this initiative.

Of course we then have the science, and the ‘call for papers’ has already opened up, indeed, we have already had our first submissions. This year the committee has identified three key areas in which we would like to encourage submissions. These special sessions will be on MRI studies on functional biomechanics and exercise physiology, time resolved MR angiography, and in-vivo MR with DNP-polarized compounds. The request for these abstracts is incorporated into the online submission process and has the same time line as conventional abstracts.

The successful integration of traditional and multi-media e-posters initiated in Toronto will be continued in Hawaii. The size of the files that can be loaded has been increased to 40MB in response to requests from the Toronto meeting, and we hope that this will be adequate to support all presentations.

‘Sounds and Visions of MR 2009- the Return of Aloha’ is returning to the meeting. Submission details are being announced, so all you MR musicians and artists- start preparing your material.

Honolulu is a lovely city, and there are many fabulous things to do on Oahu and the surrounding islands. The convention hotels are all within walking distance of the conference centre, and we have ensured that there is internet access in all of these. They will all give easy access to the town, the beaches, and the convention centre.

Further afield there are visits to the erupting volcano on the big island of Hawai’i , swimming with dolphins and turtles, walking the Na Pali coast, playing golf, surfing, or just relaxing on the beach with some sweet pineapple. This fantastic location is an excuse for a holiday - bring your friends and family and have fun.

April 2009 will soon be upon us and the committee and I look forward to welcoming you to ISMRM, Hawaii 2009.

National Research Council of the National Academies

Awards for postdoctoral and senior researchers

As you know, the National Research Council of the National Academies sponsors a number of awards for postdoctoral and senior researchers at federal laboratories. These awards provide generous stipends ($42,000 - $72,000 per year for recent Ph.D. recipients and higher for additional experience), and the opportunity to do independent research in some of the best-equipped and staffed laboratories in the country.

We ask your assistance in informing doctoral students and faculty in your department of these opportunities by copying this message to each one.

Detailed program information, including instructions on how to apply online and a list of participating laboratories, is available on the NRC Research Associateship Programs Web site at:

www.national-academies.org/rap

Questions should be directed to the NRC at 202-334-2760 (phone) or rap@nas.edu.

There will be four review cycles annually. Upcoming deadline dates are:

May 1, 2009

August 1, 2009

November 1, 2009

February 1, 2010

Applicants should begin a dialogue with prospective Advisers at the lab as early as possible, before their anticipated application deadline.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely yours,

H. Ray Gamble

Director of the Fellowship Programs

National Research Council

The National Academies

National Research Council of the National Academies, 500 5th Street NW, Keck 568, Washington, DC 20001

25^TH CONGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR TREATMENT AND RESEARCH IN
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
http://www.congrex.ch/ectrims2009/

Date

Wednesday, September 9 –
Saturday, September 12, 2009

Venue

Congress Center Düsseldorf, Germany (CCD)
www.duesseldorfcongress.de

Call for Abstracts

Deadline for submission of abstracts (online):
May 5, 2009

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

We warmly invite you to the 25^th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) which will be held in Düsseldorf, Germany, 9-12 September 2009.

ECTRIMS congresses have over the years evolved into the largest and most important annual international meeting dedicated to multiple sclerosis. As always, we will bring together in Düsseldorf leading international experts in MS research, both scientists and clinicians, to share and discuss recent advances in this fast moving field. Clearly, the ultimate goal of all these efforts is to combat and eventually cure this disabling disease which affects some two million individuals throughout the world.

Düsseldorf on the river Rhine is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most densely populated federal state in Germany. Düsseldorf was founded in the 12^th century and is a lively business, trade fair, fashion and media centre. From the shopping boulevard Königsallee, the historic “Altstadt” (Old Town), and the fancy media centre “Medienhafen” in the harbour neighbourhood with its leaning Gehry buildings and many hip restaurants and bars, to the late baroque Benrath Palace, there are many places and sites to absorb and enjoy the atmosphere of this bustling cosmopolitan city and its surrounding Rhineland area.

You are certain to have a most successful and constructive ECTRIMS Congress in Düsseldorf in 2009 which will benefit from your active participation.

We again invite you to join us and very much look forward to welcoming you all in Düsseldorf next year!

Hans-Peter Hartung Chair ECTRIMS 2009 ECTRIMS President

Michel Clanet ECTRIMS Vice-President and President-elect

Ludwig Kappos ECTRIMS Secretary

Main Topics

• New therapeutic avenues
• Early treatment
• Imaging
• Neurobiology of MS
• Biomarkers
• Modelling MS pathology
• MS at the interface of inflammation and neurodegeneration
• Cognition: causes of dysfunction, diagnosis and treatment
• Symptom management in MS
• Neurorehabilitation in MS

MaxEnt2009

29th International Workshop on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering

July 5-10, 2009
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi
http://www.olemiss.edu/conf/maxent2009/

For more than 25 years the MaxEnt workshops have explored the use of Bayesian and Maximum Entropy methods in scientific and engineering applications. All aspects of probabilistic inference, such as techniques, applications and foundations, are of interest. With the rapid growth of computing power, computational techniques such as Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling are of great interest, as are approximate inferential methods. Application areas include, but are not limited to, astronomy and astrophysics, genetics, geophysics, medical imaging, material science, nanoscience, source separation, particle physics, quantum mechanics, plasma physics, chemistry, earth science, climate studies, engineering and robotics. Foundational issues involving probability theory and information theory, and inference and inquiry are also of keen interest as there are yet many open questions. The workshop includes a one-day tutorial session, state-of-the-art lectures, invited papers, contributed papers and poster presentations. Selected papers by the program committee will be edited and published in a book. All the papers will be in English. Contributed papers related to the above topics are being solicited. Especially encouraged are papers whose content is novel, either as to approach or area of application. Abstracts (one page of about 400 words) of the proposed papers should be submitted via this Web site by April 3, 2009.

Links:
MaxEnt Inc
International Society for Bayesian Analysis

MRI Scientist Position
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
University of Toronto

The Sunnybrook Research Institute invites applications for a scientist position as an MR imaging physicist with specific interests in developing MRI techniques and devices. The successful candidate will build or relocate a research program focusing on applications of MRI to basic and clinical research. The candidate will join the Discipline of Imaging Research which is currently comprised of 19 senior faculty and over 200 staff/trainees in a state-of-the-art research facility housing two 1.5 T and two 3 T research-dedicated MRI systems, a combined X-ray / MRI suite dedicated to research on image-guided interventions and an Oxford Hypersense polarizer for a research program on 13C MRI. While no specific MRI focus is specified for this post, emphasis will be placed on developing solid biophysical approaches with applications which align with one or more of the institutional clinical strengths, namely cancer, neuroscience, trauma, musculoskeletal or cardiac. The candidate will build and maintain an internationally competitive research program, foster local and international collaborations, and participate in graduate training through the Department of Medical Biophysics. The candidate must possess a PhD, demonstrated experience in the physics of MRI, and a strong grant portfolio. The candidate will be put forward for an academic position within the Department of Medical Biophysics or other appropriate department of the University of Toronto commensurate with academic focus and achievement.

In keeping with Sunnybrook’s Valuing Diversity Initiative, applications from all qualified persons are encouraged. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, this advertisement is directed initially to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Applicants should submit a covering letter describing current research interests and future research goals, a complete CV, relevant reprints, and the names of three potential references to:

Michelle Lall
For Kullervo Hynynen, PhD
Director, Imaging Research
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
2075 Bayview Avenue, M4N 3M5
E-mail: Michelle.Lall@sunnybrook.ca

Deadline for applications is: March 31, 2009 or appropriate

Annual workshop of the NCI-sponsored U24 Small-Animal Imaging Resource (SAIR) Program centers
Translating Small-Animal Imaging Technolog to the Clinic:
Markers, Methods, and Machines: 2009

March 7 – 9, 2009

Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center
Danforth Campus, Washington University

Washington University will again be hosting the annual workshop of the NCI-sponsored U24 Small-Animal Imaging Resource (SAIR) Program centers. The workshop, which covers a wide range of imaging modalities (optical, nuclear, MR, ultrasound, etc.), will be held March 7 – 9, 2009 at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center on the Danforth Campus. Senior representatives of all 13 funded SAIR centers and NCI Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) administrators and scientists will be in attendance and will be presenting talk/posters.

The SAIR workshop begins with dinner on Saturday evening, March 7, continues throughout the day and evening on Sunday, and concludes at noon on Monday, after the morning scientific session. It is intended as a “Gordon Research Conference”-style meeting with lots of time for questions and lively discussion.

PLENARY LECTURE
Mark Henkelman, Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)
‘Imaging and analysis for mouse phenotyping’

EXOTICA
Moderator: Yuan-Chuan Tai, Washington University

Xiankai Sun, U. of Texas Southwestern Med Center
‘Dual Modality (MRI/PET) Probes for Imaging of Cancer’

Bastiaan Driehuys, Duke University
‘Hyperpolarized Gas MRI, from Mouse to Human’

PRE-CLINICAL IMAGING
Moderator: Joe Culver, Washington University

Zhenghong Lee, Case Western Reserve University
‘Pre-translational Studies for Human Diseases: a Few Case Studies’

Lihong Wang, Washington University in St. Louis
‘Photoacoustic Tomography: High-Resolution Imaging of Optical Contrast in vivo at New Depths’

IMAGING BIOLOGY
Moderator: Carolyn Anderson, Washington University

Charles Manning, Vanderbilt University
‘Biological Basis of FLT-PET’

Julie Sutcliffe, University of California, Davis
‘Imaging Integrins’

Sridhar Nimmigadda, Johns Hopkins University
‘CXCR4 expression in breast cancer models’

Plenary Lecture
Carolyn Mountford, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard
‘Proton MR Spectroscopy: Bench to Bedside’

Barbara Croft, National Cancer Institute
‘The SAIR Program: Future Prospectus’

MOVING TO THE CLINIC
Moderator: Richard Laforest, Washington University

Pat Zanzonico, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
‘Multi-modality Imaging Studies in Translational Oncology Research’

Joseph Kalen, National Cancer Institute
‘Imaging Innate Immunity within the Tumor Micro-environment’

Arion Chatziioannou/David Stout, UCLA
‘Preclinical Imaging and New Technologies at the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging’

CANCER IMAGING CAM

Anne Menkens, National Cancer Institute
‘Cancer Imaging Camp 2009’

THERAPEUTIC RESPONSE
Moderator: Joel Garbow, Washington University

Craig Galban, University of Michigan
‘The Parametric Response Map’

Seung-Cheol Lee, University of Pennsylvania
‘Current Developments of Imaging Biomarkers for Cancer Treatment Response Analysis’

Jim Bankson, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
‘High-throughput preclinical search for an improved clinical response’

Matthias Nahrendorf/Alex Guimaraes, MGH/Harvard
‘Hybrid FMT-CT/FMT-MRI: the high throughput/low cost optical alternative to PET-CT in preclinical imaging?’
‘Monitoring tailored chemotherapeutic strategies using small animal imaging’

15^th Annual Kentucky Spinal Cord & Head Injury Research Trust Symposium

Leading scientists come together to discuss the latest research in spinal cord and head injury.

June 11 and 12, 2009

Seelbach Hilton Hotel •Louisville , KY

The 15th Annual Kentucky Spinal Cord & Head Injury Research Trust Symposium – Frontiers in Spinal Cord Regeneration – will bring together internationally recognized basic science researchers and clinicians to discuss ground-breaking findings in spinal cord and head injury.

Sponsored by:
University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare

Organized by:
Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust
Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center
Department of Neurological Surgery
University of Louisville School of Medicine

NortonHealthcare.com/kschirt

50th ENC (Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference)

March 29 - April 3, 2009
Asilomar Conference Grounds
Pacific Grove, California
Chair: Lucio Frydman, The Weizmann Institute

http://www.enc-conference.org/

AdMeTech

www.admetech.org

AdMeTech Foundation develops strategic partnerships with academia, advocacy, industry, and government to facilitate development and implementation of accurate, affordable, accessible diagnostic tools for improved early detection and treatment of prostate cancer. Specific objectives include:

• Development and implementation of effective strategy for technological innovation and related research
• Education of medical community and general public.

Imaging is the Solution:
Advanced diagnostic technologies will make a direct and profound impact on quality of care, quality of life, and health care costs, including:

• Saving men's lives
• Identifying men requiring preventive measures
• Improving early detection, and staging, of cancer which is critical for cure
• Eliminating unnecessary treatment ‐with all the related complications and costs ‐ by recognizing non‐aggressive prostate cancer
• Enhancing patient monitoring before, during, and after treatment
• Avoiding unnecessary biopsies
• Allowing for least invasive and most effective treatment:
• To be performed in outpatient clinics
• With minimal complications, discomfort and expense
• Reducing health care costs by at least $5 billion per year.

  U.S. Congress Supports AdMeTech’s Initiatives
  AdMeTech has been successfully working with members of the U.S. Congress to develop legislative initiatives calling upon the federal government to put forth the resources necessary to advance prostate diagnostics, including:

• U.S. Senate S. 1734 The PRIME (Prostate Research Imaging & Men's Education) Act;
• U.S. House of Representatives H.R. 3563 The PRIME (Prostate Research Imaging & Men's Education) Act; and
• U.S. House Resolution 353 states that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress and the Executive Branch should recognize the successful use of advanced imaging technologies in the fight against breast cancer and provide additional support for the research and development of technologies for prostate cancer detection and treatment comparable to state-of-the-art mammograms.

Research Projects Planned for 2008-2010

Overall Objectives:

1) To establish an International Prostate MRI Working Group that will accomplish the following goals:

1. Expedite testing of MRI/MRS, currently considered the most promising clinical imaging technology for prostate cancer, for diagnosis and assessment of treatment and
2. Develop near- and long-term research strategy for facilitated advancement of MRI/MRS. This will include development of technical specifications, standards and quality control for clinical testing.

2) To continue expansion of a multi-disciplinary ongoing consortium/Brain Trust on Molecular Imaging of Prostate Cancer for strategic planning to stimulate novel ideas and to expedite fundamental discovery, feasibility studies and technologic innovation.

Keystone Symposia Multiple Sclerosis (A8)

Sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Organizers: James L. Salzer, Anne H. Cross and John Fleming
January 21 - 26, 2009 • Hilton Santa Fe/Historic Plaza • Santa Fe, New Mexico
www.keynotesymposia.org

Despite important recent progress, the etiology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) remains unknown and important therapeutic needs are unmet. This conference will discuss advances in basic pathogenetic mechanisms and emergent therapies for MS. Emphasis will be on the immunopathogenesis of MS, including mechanisms of lymphocyte activation and trafficking across the blood brain barrier, on sources of axonal pathology, and genetic risk factors. New imaging methods and therapeutic strategies that target the immune system and promote remyelination will be discussed. An important challenge in MS research is to integrate emerging insights in the basic mechanisms of myelination, autoimmune demyelination, and neurodegeneration with translational science. The goal of this meeting is to provide a broad spectrum of MS researchers with a forum to discuss recent advances, and to foster cross-disciplinary interactions and collaborations.

MAGNETIC RESONANCE POSTDOCTORAL POSITION

The Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, has an immediate opening for a postdoctoral position. The position is with the Department’s Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND), located at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco.

The focus of the position will be on the development of new magnetic resonance spectroscopic acquisition methods for detection of brain metabolites at 4 Tesla and the application and development of spectral analysis techniques. The successful applicant will be expected to further advance methods for detection of J-coupled metabolites at high magnetic fields and is expected to be familiar with corresponding RF pulse design and spectroscopic analysis methods suitable for clinical research. The candidate would also collaborate on several ongoing clinical studies of epilepsy, normal aging, dementias, substance abuse, and other neurodegenerative diseases. Additional information about the CIND is available at the CIND website: http://www.cind.research.va.gov/

The candidate should have a Ph.D. in physics, physical chemistry, engineering or equivalent fields. The ideal candidate has a solid background in NMR physics, especially spectroscopy, signal detection and processing theory, and demonstrated hands-on experience in pulse sequence development, preferably within the Siemens IDEA programming environment. Experience in other computer languages, including C++, Matlab and IDL, is desirable.

Interested applicants should email a letter of research interests and a CV to:

Dr. Gerald Matson, Ph.D. gerald.matson@ucsf.edu

2009 CMSC

TEAMWORK, TRENDS, AND TECHNOLOGY: NEW SOLUTIONS IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Online: www.mscare.org
Email: info@mscare.org
Postal Mail: Consortium of MS Centers
Attn: Whitaker Research Track 2009
359 Main Street, Suite A Hackensack, NJ 07601
(201) 487-1050 x 104
Deadline: (extended) Jan 26, 2009

Dr. John N. Whitaker was a world famous researcher in multiple sclerosis. Not only did Dr. Whitaker engage in research himself, he encouraged budding scientists to enter the field and develop their skills and talents in this important work. The CMSC is proud to honor Dr. Whitaker’s memory by presenting the Whitaker Research Track each year as part of its annual meeting. Starting in 2004, the Whitaker Track, chaired by Dr. Michael Racke, was expanded to include the work of young scientists working in the field of MS. Students, post-doctoral fellows, and young scientists are encouraged to submit abstracts of their work for presentation during the Whitaker Track. A panel headed by Dr. Racke will judge the presentations and will award the Whitaker Prize for MS Research. A $5,000 grant will be given to the winner to support his or her continued work in the field of MS.

Young scientists whose abstracts are chosen will be provided with transportation, hotel support and free registration from the CMSC and will have the opportunity to interact with clinicians and scientists who specialize in MS.

The Whitaker Track will begin with an opening lecture for all attendees presented by Dr. Kottil Rammohan from 8-8:45 am on Friday. The program will continue with abstract platform session and invited speakers from 9 am - 4:00 pm.

ICMRM 10

The 10th International Conference on Magnetic Resonance Microscopy

West Yellowstone, Montana, USA
August 30 -Sep 4, 2009

ICMRM
The objectives of the ICMRM are to communicate recent developments in high-resolution, spatially resolved magnetic resonance methods and applications. Meeting strength stems from the eclectic background of participants and a diverse venue that has traditionally focused on non-clinical applications in science and engineering areas. The 1st ICMRM was held in 1991 in Heidelberg and was originally known as the "Heidelberg Conference“. It is the biannual conference of the Division of Spatially Resolved Magnetic Resonance of the AMPERE Society.

CMMR
The 9th Colloquium on Mobile NMR (CMMR9) will be part of the conference. The objectives of the CMMR are to communicate the development and applications of Mobile Magnetic Resonance, and to promote hands-on experience of mobile NMR equipment.

ICMRM Book
Following the 9th ICMRM, a book including a number of the significant advances in the field of spatially resolved magnetic resonance was prepared. This book is available through Wiley-VCH


For updates or more information: visit www.icmrm10.montana.edu or email icmrm10@montana.edu

2nd Frontiers of Biomedical Imaging Science conference

Vanderbilt University June 3-6, 2009

We invite you to the second Frontiers of Biomedical Imaging Science conference, an international meeting highlighting the most recent advances and the future directions in biomedical imaging. This year's meeting promises an extraordinary opportunity for connecting with other imaging scientists and learning about innovations in the field.

Trainees are especially encouraged to attend - we are offering subsidized registration and housing rates, as well as the opportunity to present a poster. All posters will be on display during the entire meeting, including a dedicated poster session, and four outstanding posters will be highlighted during a Young Investigators' Symposium. Instructions for abstract submission will be available by January 1. The submission deadline is March 1, and announcements of the posters chosen for the meeting will be made after April 1.

WHEN
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 8:15 AM -
Friday, June 5, 2009 1:00 PM

WHERE
Vanderbilt University Student Life Center
310 25th Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37240
USA

Second joint meeting of ACTRIMS and CMSC

May 27 - 30, 2009
Hyatt Regency
Atlanta, Georgia

Call for Abstracts
Researchers with an interest in multiple sclerosis are invited to submit a competitive abstract for a poster or platform presentation for ACTRIMS 2009. Review the submission guidelines and submit an abstract via www.actrims.org.

Pardon our progress!
We’re updating our website: www.actrims.org. Click here to view the preliminary 2009 program agenda on “Environmental Risk Factors in Multiple Sclerosis.”

Abstracts may be submitted online through January 26, 2009. Up to 7 abstracts will be selected for platform presentations and as many as 100 abstracts will be selected as poster presentations.

Abstract submissions are welcome in a variety of research categories covering basic and clinical issues in MS:

* Disease Modifying Therapy
* Epidemiology/Genetics
* Experimental Disease Models
* Imaging
* Neuroimmunology
* Neuropsychology/Neuropsychiatry
* Pathology
* Rehabilitation and Quality of Life
* Surrogate Markers (non-MRI)
* Symptom Management

Young Researcher Awards
To encourage emerging clinicians, clinical researchers, and basic scientists to continue their work in the field of multiple sclerosis research, the ACTRIMS Steering Committee will offer up to two $1,500 prizes for best platform or best poster presented by young researchers. The presenting authors must certify that they are 35 years old or younger, i.e., born on or after January 1, 1974. A limited number of travel awards will also be available to young researchers who are presenting.


ACTRIMS meetings are organized by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in collaboration with the MS Society of Canada.


From:
Research & Clinical Programs Department
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
733 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017 USA
212-476-0469

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Small Animal Imaging Resource (SAIR) Program: The Future of Small-Animal Imaing in Cancer: 2007 was held at Washington University in St. Louis on March 10-12. The NCI SAIR Centers include:

1. Univeristy of California, Davis
2. University of California, Los Angeles
3. Case Western Reserve University
4. Duke University
5. Johns Hopkins University
6. Massachusetts General Hospital
7. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
8. Univeristy of Michigan
9. Stanform University
10. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
11. University of Pennsylvania
12. University of Texas Southwestern Medicine Center
13. Vanderbilt University
14. Washington University in St. Louis

This event was sponsored by the Washington University Small Animal Imaging Recource (WUSAIR) Program and the Alvin J. Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.