PET scan inventor honored for achievements

Published: Friday, February 26, 1999

Friday, February 26, 1999

RESEARCHER: Scientist gets award for improved methods in technology

By Angela Sveda

Daily Bruin Contributor

President Clinton recently named UCLA's Michael Phelps, inventor of the positron emission tomography (PET) scan, as a recipient of the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award, honoring a lifetime of achievement in nuclear energy.

"It is a privilege to honor (such) scientists and their pioneering research," Clinton said in a statement. "Dr. Phelps made possible an innovative technology that has improved medical research and health care."

The "innovative technology" that Phelps developed is the PET scanner. This technology is used to diagnose diseases ranging from cancer to cardiovascular and neurological disease.

"(It's) an imaging technique that creates a picture of the living human biology," Phelps said.

PET identifies biological changes before they become structurally significant, and in some cases allows early diagnosis of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, said Harvey Herschman, vice-chair of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology.

"Dr. Phelps not only developed the original PET technology, but also has consistently applied it in extremely novel ways to solve important biological and medical problems, and continues to do so." said Sanjiv Gambhir, head of the Bio-imaging Assay Laboratory at UCLA.

Currently, Phelps and researchers are developing a "micro-PET" to be used on mice.

"We can take human genes and put them in the mouse to produce a genetically altered form of the mouse." said Phelps. The mouse then receives PET scans like a human patient would to determine changes in its biological functioning.

Phelps, 59, first developed the PET scanner in 1973 at Washington State University in St. Louis. He then came to UCLA in 1976 and created the first PET clinic, and eventually the world's leading PET program. Now there are more than 800 such clinics worldwide.

"There are so few people in the world that have had such a great impact on the field of biological imaging (and) nuclear medicine," said Gambhir. "He has been relentless in pushing the field forward and has made a phenomenal impact."

Phelps' impact is also felt at UCLA. He brought together the new department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology by recruiting faculty in imaging, molecular biology, and pharmacology to bring imaging science and molecular pharmacology together, added Gambhir.

"Dr. Phelps has been a campus leader in bringing the biological, medical and physical sciences together on this campus," said Alan Fogelman, executive chair of the department of medicine.

In addition, Phelps formed the Crump Institute for Biological Imaging, which sets the pace for the rest of the world in the development and application of biological imaging tools, Herschman said.

"This is a very prestigious honor that brings honor to Dr. Phelps and UCLA," Fogelman said.

The Enrico Fermi Award, created in 1956, is named for the leader of the scientists who achieved the first self-sustained, controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago in 1952.

Phelps received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Washington in St. Louis and went on to become a Norton Simon professor.

At UCLA, Phelps is also the chair of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and director of the Crump Institute for Biological Imaging, among other things.

"It is one of the many honors that Mike has won over the past several years; one that is well-deserved and is likely to be the forerunner of many additional awards and other forms of recognition," Herschman concluded.

Clinton also named Maurice Goldhaber, the first person to accurately measure the mass of the neutron, as another recipient of the award.

Both men will receive a gold medallion and a $100,000 honorarium from U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in April.

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