CULVER CITY, Calif., Sept. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) presented the first annual Commercial Innovation of the Year Award at the 2015 World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) to Frederik Beekman, CEO/CSO, MILabs for his work developing G-SPECT.   

The award winner was chosen based on votes from WMIC attendees for the unique clinical SPECT platform that allows for < 3mm resolution, low-dose studies and imaging of fast tracer dynamics.  Beekman and his team began work on G-SPECT in 2006, with hopes to translate their proprietary microSPECT technologies into a clinical machine. Given the currently field-of-view available for this system and its unique potential for fast dynamic imaging first applications are expected in brain, bone and pediatric imaging. A large field-of-view option for G-SPECT is already under development.

SPECT and PET are two of the most important molecular imaging modalities in use for diagnosis and therapy follow up. Today, SPECT imaging is applied to millions of patients each year. Although SPECT is a very useful tool, current resolution of typically 7-10 mm can limit diagnostic precision. MILabs has shown that this can be changed: the new G-SPECT has high sensitivity and far superior resolution compared to current clinical SPECT systems and has fast dynamic imaging capabilities.

"It is great that so many in the molecular imaging community, both academic and commercial,  voted for the G-SPECT, and that they seem to feel that we are at the start of something that may become a game-changer," said Frederik Beekman, CEO/CSO, MILabs. "MILabs employees are very proud and pleased that the results of their work is appreciated and recognized by the molecular imaging community."

WMIS asked members of industry to submit abstracts for this award and six semi-finalists were chosen to present their innovation at WMIC. Semi-finalists were given three minutes to present, then the audience was given the opportunity to vote on the innovation of their choice.  The six semi-finalists were selected from 28 submissions following a scientific review by unbiased reviewers. 

Two other innovations recognized as finalists for the 2015 Commercial Innovation of the Year Award:

• Jeff Harford of LI-COR was selected as first runner up for his abstract titled, "Targeted Photodestruction of Tumors Using Bioconjugates of Near-Infrared IRDye® 700DX."
• The second runner up was Christian Wiest of iThera for his abstract titled, "The world's first tomographic hybrid OPtoacoustic/UltraSound imaging technology."

"It was extremely rewarding that the membership selected the winner. In fact, that the meeting attendees made the selection was entirely the point," said H. Charles Manning, Ph.D., Program Chair, WMIC 2015. "The voice of the WMIS is composed of the 'best and the brightest' in molecular imaging from around the globe; thus, it means a lot that every attendee-member had an equal share in selecting the most innovative technology presented this year."

ABOUT MILABS
MILabs was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from the University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands.  Since then, a whole line of molecular imaging systems with unsurpassed resolution has been developed which has received many international awards from the scientific community, supports many happy users worldwide and serves as the imaging platform for important discoveries in the fields of e.g. pharmacology, oncology, cardiology and neuroscience. MILabs' first commercial successes with U-SPECT and U-SPECT/CT were followed by rapid expansion of the company's customer base throughout the world. There has been a continuum of new developments that further improved the performance and functionality of the imaging systems. In 2011, MILabs introduced VECTor, an extremely user-friendly, fully integrated simultaneous SPECT and PET imaging technology with uniform and isotropic 0.75 mm resolution PET. In addition, clinical SPECT with unmatched performance is being developed at MILabs. MILabs imaging systems provide simple, intuitive system operation and highly efficient workflow.

ABOUT WORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY
The WMIS is dedicated to developing and promoting translational research through multimodality molecular imaging. The education and abstract-driven WMIC is the annual meeting of the WMIS and is held in conjunction with partner societies including the European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI) and the Federation of Asian Societies for Molecular Imaging (FASMI). WMIC provides a unique setting for scientists and clinicians with very diverse backgrounds to interact, present, and follow cutting-edge advances in the rapidly expanding field of molecular imaging that impacts nearly every biomedical discipline. Industry exhibits at the congress included corporations who have created the latest advances in preclinical and clinical imaging approaches and equipment, providing a complete molecular imaging educational technology showcase. For more information: www.wmis.org