Total-body PET Scanner

Research Focus:
T-cell imaging, immuno-PET, tracer kinetic modeling, PET data corrections

Bio:

Negar Omidvari is an Assistant Project Scientist at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis. She joined Prof. Simon Cherry’s lab at UC Davis as a postdoctoral researcher in 2019 and has contributed to several EXPLORER total-body PET projects since. Dr. Omidvari has experience in Monte-Carlo simulations, system characterization, image reconstruction, image analysis, quantification, and kinetic modeling for total-body PET systems. Her current research is primarily focused on T cell imaging, and she has led two pilot studies using novel T cell imaging radiotracers of 89Zr-Df-Crefmirlimab and [18F]F-AraG. She is particularly interested in use of T-cell imaging biomarkers for therapy response evaluation in cancer patients, as well as evaluating the immune response in viral infections (e.g., COVID-19, long COVID, HIV). She is also the PI of an NIH-funded project on utilization of the lutetium background radiation for quantitative total-body PET imaging and leads efforts on utilizing the background radiation for PET attenuation/scatter correction and motion correction.

Education:

· (2018) PhD, Physics, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany, 
Advisors: Prof. Sibylle Ziegler and Prof. Stephan Paul, 
Dissertation: “Development and Characterization of MADPET4: A High-Resolution Small Animal Positron Emission Tomography Insert for a 7 T Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner”

· (2013) MSc, Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.

· (2011) BSc, Electrical Engineering-Biomedical Engineering, University of Tehran, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tehran, Iran.

Honors and Awards:

· (2022) Young Investigator Award, European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI), Total-Body PET 2021/2022 Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

· (2021) Recognized as “Ones to Watch” in 2021 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI)

· (2018) IEEE Glenn F. Knoll Graduate Educational Grant in Nuclear Science and Instrumentation for recognition as an outstanding graduate student in the field of nuclear science instrumentation, medical instrumentation, or instrumentation for security applications

· (2017) Valentin T. Jordanov Radiation Instrumentation Travel Grant for participation in the IEEE NSS/MIC 2017.

· (2015, 2017– 2021) IEEE Conference Trainee Grant for participation in the IEEE NSS/MIC.

· (2015, 2018) DAAD Conference Travel Grant for participation in the IEEE NSS/MIC.

· (2012) Dean’s List Certificate for recognition among the top 5 percent best students in 2011/12 study year, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.

· (2008 – 2010) Iran's National Elites Foundation Scholarship, Tehran, Iran.

· (2006) Ranked 284th (top 0.01%) among 306,138 participants in Iran's physics and mathematics nation-wide universities entrance exam, Iran.

· (2005) Bronze Medal winner in 23rd National Mathematical Olympiad, Tehran, Iran.

Grants:

R03 EB032457, PI: Negar Omidvari 
12/01/2021 – 11/30/2024
National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIBIB
Utilization of Lutetium Background Radiation for Quantitative Total-Body PET Imaging
Goal: This project aims to utilize the lutetium background radiation in attenuation correction, scatter correction, and motion correction methods in the new generation of long axial-field-of-view PET scanners, with particular attention toward ultralow-dose PET scans.

Publications:

1. Omidvari N, Levi J, Abdelhafez YG, Wang Y, Nardo L, Daly ME, Wang G, Cherry SR (2024) Total-body Dynamic Imaging and Kinetic Modeling of [18F]F-AraG in Healthy Individuals and a Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patient Undergoing Anti-PD-1 Immunotherapy. J Nucl Med;jnumed.123.267003.

2. Li H, Badawi RD, Cherry SR, Fontaine K, He L, Henry S, Hillmer AT, Hu L, Khattar N, Leung EK, LiT, Li Y, Liu C, Liu P, Lu Z, Majewski S, Matuskey D, Morris ED, Mulnix T, Omidvari N, Samanta S, Selfridge A, Sun X, Toyonaga T, Volpi T, Zeng T, Jones T, Qi J, Carson RE. (2024) Performance Characteristics of the NeuroEXPLORER, a Next-Generation Human Brain PET/CT Imager. J Nucl Med;jnumed.124.267767. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.124.267767.

3. Mingels C, Spencer BA, Nalbant H, Omidvari N, Rokni M, Rominger A, Sen F, Cherry SR, Badawi RD, Abdelhafez YG, Nardo L. (2024) Dose Reduction in Pediatric Oncology Patients with Delayed Total-Body [18F]FDG PET/CT. J Nucl Med;jnumed.124.267521. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.124.267521.

4. Bayerlein R, Spencer BA, Leung EK, Omidvari N, Abdelhafez YG, Wang Q, Nardo L, Cherry SR, Badawi RD. (2024) Development of a Monte Carlo-based scatter correction method for total-body PET using the uEXPLORER PET/CT scanner. Phys Med Biol;69(4). doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ad2230.

5. Omidvari N, Jones T, Price PM, Ferre AL, Lu J, Abdelhafez YG, Sen F, Cohen SH, Schmiedehausen K, Badawi RD, Shacklett BL, Wilson I, Cherry SR. (2023) First-in-human immunoPET imaging of COVID-19 convalescent patients using dynamic total-body PET and a CD8-targeted minibody. Sci Adv;9(41):eadh7968. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh7968.

6. Wang Y, Nardo L, Spencer BA, Abdelhafez YG, Li EJ, Omidvari N, Chaudhari AJ, Badawi RD, Jones T, Cherry SR, Wang G. (2023) Total-Body Multiparametric PET Quantification of 18F-FDG Delivery and Metabolism in the Study of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Recovery. J Nucl Med;64(11):1821-1830. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.123.265723.

7. Bayerlein R, Spencer BA, Abdelhafez YG, Cherry SR, Badawi RD, Omidvari N. (2023) Numerical investigation reveals challenges in measuring the contrast recovery coefficients in PET. Phys Med Biol;68(21). doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ad00fa.

8. Abdelhafez Y, Raychaudhuri SP, Mazza D, Sarkar S, Hunt HL, McBride K, Nguyen M, Caudle DT, Spencer BA, Omidvari N, Bang H, Cherry SR, Nardo L, Badawi RD, Chaudhari AJ. (2022) Total-Body 18F-FDG PET/CT in Autoimmune Inflammatory Arthritis at Ultra-Low Dose: Initial Observations. J Nucl Med;63(10):1579-1585. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.121.263774.

9. Omidvari N, Cheng L, Leung EK, Abdelhafez YG, Badawi RD, Ma T, Qi J, Cherry SR. (2022) Lutetium background radiation in total-body PET-A simulation study on opportunities and challenges in PET attenuation correction. Front Nucl Med, Rising Stars in PET and SPECT Special Issue;2:963067. doi: 10.3389/fnume.2022.963067.

10. Costa G, Spencer B, Omidvari N, Foster C, Rusnak M, Hunt H, Caudle DT, Pillai RT, Vu CT, Roncali E. (2022) Radioembolization Dosimetry with Total-Body 90Y PET. J Nucl Med;63(7):1101-1107. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.121.263145.

11. Leung EK, Abdelhafez YG, Berg E, Xie Z, Zhang X, Bayerlein R, Spencer B, Li E, Omidvari N, Selfridge A, Cherry SR, Qi J, Badawi RD. (2022) Relating 18F-FDG image signal-to-noise ratio to time-of-flight noise-equivalent count rate in total-body PET using the uEXPLORER scanner. Phys Med Biol;67(12):10.1088/1361-6560/ac72f1. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ac72f1.

12. Ng QK, Triumbari EKA, Omidvari N, Cherry SR, Badawi RD, Nardo L. (2022) Total-body PET/CT - First Clinical Experiences and Future Perspectives. Semin Nucl Med;52(3):330-339. doi: 10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2022.01.002.

13. Varasteh Z, Braeuer M, Mohanta S, Steinsiek AL, Habenicht A, Omidvari N, Topping GJ, Rischpler C, Weber WA, Sager HB, Raes G, Hernot S, Schwaiger M. (2022) In vivo Visualization of M2 Macrophages in the Myocardium After Myocardial Infarction (MI) Using 68 Ga-NOTA-Anti-MMR Nb: Targeting Mannose Receptor (MR, CD206) on M2 Macrophages. Front Cardiovasc Med;9:889963. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.889963.

14. Leung EK, Berg E, Omidvari N, Spencer BA, Li E, Abdelhafez YG, Schmall JP, Liu W, He L, Tang S, Liu Y, Dong Y, Jones T, Cherry SR, Badawi RD. (2021) Quantitative accuracy in total-body imaging using the uEXPLORER PET/CT scanner. Phys Med Biol;66(20):10.1088/1361-6560/ac287c. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ac287c.

15. Spencer BA, Berg E, Schmall JP, Omidvari N, Leung EK, Abdelhafez YG, Tang S, Deng Z, Dong Y, Lv Y, Bao J, Liu W, Li H, Jones T, Badawi RD, Cherry SR. (2021) Performance Evaluation of the uEXPLORER Total-Body PET/CT Scanner Based on NEMA NU 2-2018 with Additional Tests to Characterize PET Scanners with a Long Axial Field of View. J Nucl Med;62(6):861-870. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.120.250597.

16. Zatcepin A, Pizzichemi M, Polesel A, Paganoni M, Auffray E, Ziegler SI, Omidvari N. (2020) Improving depth-of-interaction resolution in pixellated PET detectors using neural networks. Phys Med Biol;65(17):175017. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ab9efc.

17. Varasteh Z, Mohanta S, Robu S, Braeuer M, Li Y, Omidvari N, Topping G, Sun T, Nekolla SG, Richter A, Weber C, Habenicht A, Haberkorn UA, Weber WA. (2019) Molecular Imaging of Fibroblast Activity After Myocardial Infarction Using a 68Ga-Labeled Fibroblast Activation Protein Inhibitor, FAPI-04. J Nucl Med;60(12):1743-1749. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.119.226993.

18. Omidvari N, Topping G, Cabello J, Paul S, Schwaiger M, Ziegler SI. (2018) MR-compatibility assessment of MADPET4: a study of interferences between an SiPM-based PET insert and a 7 T MRI system. Phys Med Biol;63(9):095002. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/aab9d1.

19. Omidvari N, Cabello J, Topping G, Schneider FR, Paul S, Schwaiger M, Ziegler SI. (2017) PET performance evaluation of MADPET4: a small animal PET insert for a 7 T MRI scanner. Phys Med Biol;62(22):8671-8692. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/aa910d.

20. Omidvari N, Sharma R, Ganka TR, Schneider FR, Paul S, Ziegler SI. (2017) Characterization of 1.2×1.2 mm2 Silicon Photomultipliers with Ce:LYSO, Ce:GAGG, and Pr:LuAG Scintillation Crystals as Detector Modules for Positron Emission Tomography. J Instrum;12(4): P04012. doi: 10.1088/1748-0221/12/04/P04012.

21. Omidvari N and Schulz V. (2015) Characterization of Sensitivity Encoded SiliconPhotomultiplier (SeSP) with 1-Dimensional and 2-Dimensional Encoding for High Resolution PET/MR. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci;62(3): 679-687. doi: 10.1109/TNS.2015.2422374.

22. Schulz V, Berker Y, Berneking A, Omidvari N, Kiessling F, Gola A, Piemonte C. (2013) Sensitivity encoded silicon photomultiplier--a new sensor for high-resolution PET-MRI. Phys Med Biol;58(14):4733-48. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/58/14/4733.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=8YlOhWQAAAAJ&hl=en 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/negar-omidvari/
Email: nomidvari@ucdavis.edu