From June 27 to 29, 2022, thirty one PhD students, young researchers and clinicians were in Nantes to participate in the first edition of ISI NucMed, the interdisciplinary thematic school dedicated to nuclear medicine organized by the Arronax Nantes community.
ISI NucMed for Interdisciplinary School In Nuclear Medicine. The first edition of this training course, designed by the Arronax Nantes community and its partners*, should have been held in 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it finally took two years to gather in Nantes 29 PhD students, young researchers and clinicians from several European countries: Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, Greece, Luxembourg, France.
Photo credit : Marie-Hélène Gaugler
Multidisciplinary training by nature, ISI NucMed took place in three major research centers contributing to the development of nuclear medicine in Nantes : the GIP ARRONAX, Centrale Nantes and Nantes University. The attendees followed nine thematic conferences given by French and international experts: physician and GIP ARRONAX CEO Ferid Haddad, radiochemist François Guérard (CRCI2NA), dosimetry specialists Arnaud Dieudonné (Centre Henri Becquerel in Rouen, France) et Nicolas Chouin (CRCI2NA – Oniris Nantes), medical image analysis researcher Diana Mateus (LS2N – Centrale Nantes), radiomics specialist Mathieu Hatt (LaTIM in Brest, France), radiopharmacist Mickaël Bourgeois (Nantes University Hospital – GIP ARRONAX), radiochemist Emma Aneheim (Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden) et nuclear medicine physician Clément Bailly (Nantes University Hospital). The presentations dealt with all the aspects necessary for the development of a radiopharmaceutical product, from isotope production to clinical trials. Several of them focused on astatine 211, a radionuclide at the heart of the European COST NOAR action, to the development of which Nantes’ teams are actively contributing.
This three-day program also included a visit to the Arronax installations, a cutting-edge technological facility dedicated to the production of radionuclides for medical applications, and a practical session to handle programming and machine learning tools in the context of image analysis. The content of some of the sessions sometimes disconcerted some of the participants who were not used to handling the concepts of these disciplines. But they all enjoyed the diversity and the high quality of the talks, as well as the opportunity to meet in person and exchange with young scientists in nuclear medicine coming from other European countries and/or from other French teams.
Due to the success of this first edition, the Arronax Nantes community has already decided to repeat the training in the summer of 2023 in order to allow other future international stakeholders in nuclear medicine research to participate.
* LabEx IRON, Siric ILIAD, cluster TransForMed, PRISMAP program and COST NOAR action are the partners of ISI NucMed 2022.
More information about ISI NucMed thematic school: https://isinucmed.univ-nantes.fr/
Contact : Anne Le Pennec