Simon Cherry, Ph.D.

Positron emission tomography, or PET scanning, a technique for tracing metabolic processes in the body, has been widely applied in clinical diagnosis and research spanning physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology. Now researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Fudan University, Shanghai, have shown how to use an advanced reconstruction method with an ultrasensitive total-body PET scanner to capture real-time videos of blood flow and heart function. The work paves the way for looking at the function of multiple organs, such as the brain and heart, at the same time. The researchers published their findings Jan. 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The project makes use of the EXPLORER PET/CT total body scanner, originally developed by a team led by Professor Simon Cherry, UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Ramsey Badawi, professor of radiology in the UC Davis School of Medicine. A commercial version named uEXPLORER is manufactured by United Imaging Healthcare of Shanghai, and a Food and Drug Administration-approved model is now in clinical use at UC Davis… Continue reading.

EXPLORER, the world’s first medical imaging scanner that can capture a 3-D picture of the whole human body at once, has produced its first scans.

The brainchild of UC Davis scientists Simon Cherry and Ramsey Badawi, EXPLORER is a combined positron emission tomography (PET) and x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner that can image the entire body at the same time. Because the machine captures radiation far more efficiently than other scanners, EXPLORER can produce an image in as little as one second and, over time, produce movies that can track specially tagged drugs as they move around the entire body.

The developers expect the technology will have countless applications, from improving diagnostics to tracking disease progression to researching new drug therapies… Continue reading.

The new total-body PET/CT scanner could revolutionize our understanding and treatment of disease through analysis of better imaging data from the whole body. In The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) featured January article, scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), outline the development and benefits of this innovative diagnostic tool and explain how maximizing PET sensitivity will advance clinical research and patient care.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is widely considered the most sensitive technique available for non-invasively studying physiology, metabolism and molecular pathways in the living human being. However, there have been drawbacks, including low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) affecting image quality, long imaging times and concerns regarding radiation dose.

Total-body PET, which encompasses the entire body within the field of view and allows imaging of all the tissues and organs of the body simultaneously, promises to be a game changer… Continue reading.

DAVIS, Calif.; January 4, 2017–The National Academy of Inventors has elected Simon Cherry, distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering, to its 2016 class of fellows.

Simon Cherry, UC Davis distinguished professor of biomedical engineering
The academy accords fellowship status to “academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.”

The academy recognized Cherry for his work on medical imaging technology, especially positron emission tomography (PET) scanning and computed tomography.

This new recognition caps off a banner year for Cherry – he was elected a fellow to three prestigious academies in 2016. In November, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in February he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Cherry received his Ph.D. in medical physics in 1989 from the University of London. He was a faculty member at UCLA for eight years before joining UC Davis in 2001.

DAVIS, Calif.; November 30, 2016–The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has elected Simon Cherry, distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering, to its newest class of fellows.Simon Cherry is a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering.Cherry is pioneering new medical imaging technologies to improve cancer detection and treatment. In 2015, the National Institutes of Health awarded Cherry and his colleague, Ramsey Badawi, a $15.5 million grant to develop the world’s first total-body PET scanner. This scanner allows all tissues and organs to be imaged simultaneously with 40 times more sensitivity than current combination PET/CT scanners. It also reduces a patient’s radiation exposure dramatically. Instead of taking 20 minutes to complete a scan this method requires only 30 seconds.Cherry received his Ph.D. in medical physics in 1989 from the University of London. He was a faculty member at UCLA for eight years before joining UC Davis in 2001. Cherry was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2016.He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He received the 2007 Distinguished Basic Scientist Award from the Academy of Molecular Imaging, and the 2012 IEEE Edward J Hoffman Medical Imaging Scientist Award, for his “outstanding contributions to the field of medical imaging science.”

Simon Cherry, a Distinguished Professor in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), and co-leader of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Biomedical Program, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Cherry is being acknowledged for research that has put UC Davis on the leading edge of molecular imaging nationwide.

He is the 20th member of the UC Davis College of Engineering faculty to be elected to the prestigious academy. Cherry and the other members of this year’s newly elected class, including UC Davis engineering alum Adam Steltzner, will be inducted formally during a ceremony at the NAE’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 9.

This honor follows October’s announcement that Cherry and BME colleague Ramsey Badawi, an associate professor of radiology and a PET physicist, received a five-year, $15.5 million National Cancer Institute Transformative Research Award grant to build a combination PET-CT whole-body scanner, which could drop the patient’s radiation dose by a factor of 40, or decrease scanning time from 20 minutes to 30 seconds. Such quick scans also could reduce the incidence of images blurred by patient movement.

A University of California, Davis, research team has been awarded $15.5 million to build the world’s first total-body positron emission tomography scanner, which could fundamentally change the way cancers are tracked and treated and put the university on the nation’s leading edge of molecular imaging.

The Transformative Research Award, part of the National Institutes of Health High-Risk, High-Reward Program, supports bold and untested ideas that have the potential to be paradigm shifting. This award is one of eight given in the transformative research category in 2015. The five-year grant, administered by the National Cancer Institute, will fund the EXPLORER project, led by Simon Cherry, distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis, and Ramsey Badawi, professor of radiology.

Positron emission tomography, or PET, scans are widely used to diagnose and track a variety of diseases, including cancer, because they show how organs and tissues are functioning in the body (in contrast to MRI or CT scans, which mostly show anatomy). The EXPLORER project would address shortcomings of the current scanning technology, which requires more time and exposes the patient to more radiation because scans are done in 20-centimeter segments.

“The vision of the EXPLORER project is to solve two fundamental limitations of PET as it is currently practiced,” said Cherry. “The first is to allow us to see the entire body all at once. The second huge advantage is that we’re collecting almost all of the available signal, which means we can acquire the images much faster or at a much lower radiation dose. That’s going to have some profound implications for how we use PET scanning in medicine and medical science.”

Cherry and Badawi predict that by seeing the entire body simultaneously, their scanner could drop the radiation dose by a factor of 40 or decrease scanning time from 20 minutes to just 30 seconds. A quicker scan also could reduce the incidence of images blurred by patient movement.

Simon Cherry, distinguished professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, and co-leader of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Biomedical Technology Program, has been selected to receive a prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The award, which supports investigators with outstanding records of productivity in cancer research, brings more than $700,000 per year for seven years for long-term programs of unusual potential in cancer research. The new award is granted to experienced investigators likely to continue to conduct seminal cancer research and to mentor the next generation of cancer researchers.

Cherry is one of 60 researchers nationwide to receive the honor. He will use the funds for expanding his research involving optical and ionizing radiation for innovative cancer imaging and therapy. His grant funding took effect Aug. 1.

Simon Cherry, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering, has just received the 2016 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award, for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear and plasma sciences and engineering.

Cherry has been recognized for his “contributions to the development and application of in vivo molecular imaging systems.” The award consists of a bronze medal, a certificate and a cash honorarium.

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award, established in 2008, is administered by the IEEE Awards Board’s Technical Field Awards Council. Recipients are chosen on the basis of the following criteria: the importance of individual scientific contribution; the importance of scientific contributions made by teams led by the candidate; the seminal nature of the contribution; innovation/originality, societal benefit and impact on the profession; and the quality of the nomination.