Adriaan Lammertsma: Physicist with special interest in neurosciences
‘The merger of the RadioNuclide Center with the Department of Nuclear Medicine and the PET project has created a large department that combines clinical applications of conventional nuclear medicine equipment with a strong PET research program,’ says professor of medical physics and positron emission tomography Adriaan Lammertsma.
In the late seventies, Lammertsma was one of the first people in Europe to work with positron emission tomography (PET), and he set up the PET centre at the VUmc in 1996. Since then, he has been pivotal in PET research at the VUmc, one of the two main centres for this type of imaging in the Netherlands.
PET is a powerful imaging tool that can be used in both clinical practice and research. The technique is based on the detection of tracer amounts of radiolabelled molecules that are injected into a patient. Using a PET scanner, it is possible to image and measure the distribution of such a radioactive tracer over time.
One of the major lines of research of the Lammertsma group is the design and implementation of new tracers. Synthesis of a tracer involves coupling a radionuclide to a molecule. Depending on the properties of the molecule, different physiological processes like perfusion and glucose consumption can be measured. If the molecule binds to a receptor, the radiotracer can be used to image the distribution of that receptor in tissues, and even to study the kinetics of the interaction.
‘In neuroscientific PET research we have many more possibilities to develop different tracers that can be used for imaging studies than in, for example, cancer research. In the brain, we look at specific neuroreceptors, and we try to develop radiolabelled ligands for those receptors. For example, we used raclopride to image the dopamine-2 receptor, which can be used in Parkinson’s disease research. More recently, we have developed tracer procedures for imaging amyloid plaques, which could be very useful not only for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, but also for monitoring responses to anti-amyloid therapy. We also work on tracers that bind to the serotonin receptor for imaging studies in depression.’
Facilitate research questions
Historically, Lammertsma explains, the PET group already linked many different research areas together. ‘We are of course an imaging department and perform many clinical patient scans. As a result of these contacts with clinical departments and individual scientists, new research ideas emerge frequently, and we do our best to facilitate these research questions. However, if we feel that we have developed a technique that could be useful for other departments, we do not hesitate to contact them.‘
According to Lammertsma, his group is already one of the most multidisciplinary departments, but he expects even more collaboration to result from the formation of the Neuroscience Campus. ‘We employ chemists, physicists, biologists, medical doctors, pharmacologists and technical personnel. Partly based on our background as a diagnostic facility, we have always been focused on the outside world, although we also have our own lines of research. Thus, to us the new Campus idea is not that new. Still, I can clearly see the value of a broader collaboration, provided it does not generate new barriers for novel research. It would be great if communication between the various research groups could be enhanced. Knowing what is going on in other groups might bring new solutions to existing problems, and it might even trigger the development of completely new ideas.’
