Dr Gabriela Kramer-Marek

Biography

Dr Gabriela Kramer-Marek specialises in the use of molecular imaging for early prediction of treatment response with emphasis on new targeted therapies. She received her PhD in Medical Physics from the Silesian University, Poland. Afterwards, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Health, USA, and was then appointed as an assistant professor at Indiana University, USA.

Her post-doctoral work at the NCI resulted in the development of a new approach for non-invasive assessment of HER2 expression in breast cancer using PET imaging and radiolabelled HER2-specific Affibody molecules. The publication arising from this initial body of work was selected to receive the 2008 Annual European Association of Nuclear Medicine Springer Prize for best basic science paper.

In addition, one of her papers showing that Affibody molecules could be used to monitor possible changes in HER2 expression in response to therapeutic intervention was the subject of an Invited Opinion (editorial) in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, press releases by the NIH and the Society for Nuclear Medicine, and was featured in the October 2009 issue of RSNA News.

In May 2012, Molecular Imaging News featured her most recent paper showing that ¹⁸F-labeled, HER2-specific Affibody allows early detection of HER2-positive pulmonary metastases with more specificity than ¹⁸F-FDG (Kramer-Marek et al. J Nucl Med 2012). This publication has been also announced by the editors of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine to be the best basic science investigation manuscript published in their journal in 2012.

Dr Kramer-Marek has been an invited speaker at several national and international meetings and has won a variety of scientific awards over the course of her career, including in 2010 Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow of the NCI. She has also a strong commitment to training and mentoring students at both graduate and undergraduate educational levels.

Dr Kramer-Marek is a member of the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre, which brings together leading researchers in engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and medicine to develop innovative ways to address challenges in cancer.

Convergence Science Centre