Collaboration EARL

Published 13 July 2016

News Item

EARL and EATRIS have joined forces and signed a collaboration agreement regarding the establishment of a Zirconium PET/CT accreditation programme in July 2014.

For further information about EANM please visit www.eanm.org.

For further information about EANM/EARL please visit www.eanm.org and http://earl.eanm.org.

Despite advances on research at the molecular level with enhanced understanding of the underlying mechanism of diseases researchers continue to struggle with the process of advancing research findings towards healthcare products in development. In recognition of this, EATRIS (www.eatris.eu) was founded in 2008 and entered operations in 2013 after being awarded permanent ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) legal status, a sign of the commitment of the 8 European countries participating in the initiative. EATRIS is a distributed infrastructure comprising over 70 non-profit and academic translational research institutions, collaborating to overcome bottlenecks in the development of drugs and diagnostics. One of the core activities focuses on the evaluation of new (targeted) antibody therapies.

EARL and EATRIS are aware of the need for an accreditation programme for Zr-PET/CT. Dedicated PET imaging studies are performed using 89Zr labeled antibodies allowing to study the pharmacodynamics and kinetics of antibodies as well as the level of specific targeting (in tumors). To this end it is essential that all PET/CT imaging devices within the EATRIS network and beyond are cross-calibrated and have harmonized image characteristics such that imaging data collected within the network can be shared and pooled and are of sufficient quantitative accuracy. The latter can be achieved by setting up a Zr-PET/CT accreditation program similar to the already existing FDG PET/CT accreditation.

The set-up of this programme is split into several phases (Preparatory Phase, Testing/Validation Phase, Pilot Phase and Running Phase) in order to ensure a high quality outcome. The accreditation programme should be opened for everyone at the latest per Q2/2016.

At the EANM’14 EATRIS will present the infrastructure that encompasses the complete translational pipeline up to clinical proof-of-concept, offering access to valuable infrastructure such as GMP manufacturing, high-end (molecular) imaging facilities, regulatory and clinical expertise and patient cohorts. EATRIS shares the goals of EARL-EANM to improve and advance scientific initiatives as well as clinical research projects. Together with EARL-EANM, EATRIS will develop strategies towards harmonisation and standardisation of (multimodal) PET imaging to improve the quality and speed of transnational access to multicentre clinical trial activities, involving (molecular) imaging to support innovative first in man trials involving PK/PD and mode of action studies as a distinguished feature of the infrastructure.

For further information about the congress please visit http://eanm14.eanm.org/.

The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) is the umbrella organisation of nuclear medicine in Europe and represents the sector towards the European Institutions. Within this role, the EANM aims at advancing science and education in nuclear medicine for the benefit of public health as well as at promoting and co-ordinating, throughout Europe and beyond, discussion and exchange of ideas and results relating to the diagnosis, treatment, research and prevention of diseases through the use of unsealed radioactive substances and the properties of stable nuclides in medicine. The goal of the EANM is thus to provide a suitable medium for the dissemination and discussion of the latest results in the field of nuclear medicine and related subjects.