Scientific
Advisors

Dr. Ghassan El-Haddad is the Section Head for the Radionuclide Therapy Program at Moffitt Cancer Center. He is an Associate Member in the Diagnostic Imaging & Interventional Radiology Program and Cancer Physiology Program at Moffitt Cancer Center and an Associate Professor of Radiology and Oncologic Sciences at the University of South Florida.

Dr. El-Haddad received his MD from the Lebanese University in Beirut, Lebanon. After his internship at SUNY Upstate Medical University, he completed his residency in Nuclear Medicine as well as a fellowship in Nuclear Oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Following 2 years of practice at the PET center of the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, he completed a Radiology Residency at St Vincent’s Medical Center/University of Connecticut in Bridgeport, CT, followed by a fellowship in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. El-Haddad is double board certified by the American Board of Nuclear Medicine (ABNM) and the American Board of Interventional Radiology/Diagnostic Radiology (ABR). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the ABNM. He is a founding member of the Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO), an active member of multiple medical societies, including the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), and more. He is a member of the Targeted Radioisotope Therapy Outreach Working Group for the SNMMI, as well as a member of several committees including the Nuclear Medicine/Molecular Imaging Scientific Program Subcommittee for the ARRS.

Dr. El-Haddad is also an investigator/co-investigator on several phase I/II and III multicenter randomized clinical trials. His research interests include optimization of liver directed therapies to improve outcomes and reduce hepatotoxicity, as well as the development of novel targeted radiopharmaceutical therapies including alpha targeted therapy for metastatic uveal melanoma and neuroendocrine tumors. His clinical interests are to promote the role of individualized image-guided therapies as part of a multidisciplinary approach to provide the most effective treatment for patients with cancer while maintaining an optimal quality of life.

Dr. Bobby N. Koneru is a board-certified radiation oncologist recognized for his expertise in advanced cancer treatments. He currently serves as the Director of Radioligand Therapy at Urological Associates in the Quad Cities, where he provides radioligand therapies such as Xofigo and Pluvicto to prostate cancer patients.

In addition to his role at Urological Associates, Dr. Koneru is the Chief of Radiation Oncology for the FHN Health Network, overseeing cancer treatment at the Leonard C. Ferguson Cancer Center in Freeport, Illinois. He is also a Faculty Member at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, where he treats patients and contributes to academic medicine.

Dr. Koneru is also a key opinion leader for industry. He serves on the community advisory board for Novartis. He is also on the advisory board for Varian Medical Systems.

Suzanne E. Lapi, Ph.D. is the Emmet O’Neal II Professor, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and Professor of Radiology and Chemistry and Cyclotron Facility Director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is also the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology.  Her research interests are in the development and translation of new PET radionuclides and molecular imaging agents.  She has over 150 peer- reviewed publications and is PI on active research grants from NIH and DOE as well as industry partners. She oversees production of PET radionuclides and imaging radiopharmaceuticals for preclinical research and clinical trials.  Her group holds >15 approved INDs and supplies 64Cu, 89Zr, 203Pb and other isotopes to groups across the USA and internationally.  She is a Fellow of the SNMMI and a strong advocate of radiopharmaceutical sciences and the training of future nuclear and radiochemists at the graduate, postdoctoral and faculty levels.  In 2024 she received the Michael J Welch award from the SNMMI for her scientific and mentorship activities in the field of radiopharmaceutical chemistry.

Dr. Zachary Morris is an Associate professor and Chair of the Department of Human Oncology. Originally from Rockford, IL, Dr. Morris completed his undergraduate studies at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis. After his undergraduate work, he earned two Master’s degrees (Medical Anthropology and History of Science, Medicine, and Technology) at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He completed his MD at Harvard Medical School and his PhD at Harvard University in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, where he performed thesis research in the laboratory of Prof. Andrea McClatchey.

He completed a preliminary year internship in internal medicine at the University of Hawaii and then completed his residency training in radiation oncology at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. Under the American Board of Radiology’s Holman Pathway, he spearheaded a collaborative research project during his residency in the labs of Prof. Paul Sondel and Prof. Paul Harari.

Dr. Morris joined the faculty at UW SMPH in 2016 as a physician-scientist in the Department of Human Oncology. His translational research laboratory examines the radiobiology of radiopharmaceuticals and the mechanisms and pre-clinical testing of treatment approaches that combine radiation and immunotherapies to drive anti-tumor immune responses. He was a 2017 recipient of the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award and a co-PI on a NIH Cancer Moonshot Initiative U01 grant. More recently, Dr. Morris co-led a UW team in the successful application for a NIH P01 program project grant that focuses on the interaction between radiopharmaceutical therapies and immunotherapies. He is a project leader for the UW NIH Head and Neck SPORE grant, overseeing the preclinical and clinical investigation of novel radiopharmaceutical therapy in combination with immune checkpoint inhibition. He is co-director of the Initiative for Theranostics and Particle Therapy at the University of Wisconsin and co-leader of the NCI Radiation-Immunotherapy Working Group.

Michael L. Nickels, Ph.D., earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under Professor John Katzenellenbogen. After completion of an industrial post-doctoral appointment researching both medicinal and the related process chemistry. In 2010, Dr. Nickels joined the Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty and accepted the role of Technical Director of the Radiochemistry Core Laboratory, later becoming the Director of the Core. In 2019, Dr. Nickels joined the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) within the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) as Associate Professor of Radiology. Dr. Nickels currently serves as the Director of the MIR WUSM Cyclotron Facility and Nuclear Pharmacy where he oversees the development of new radiochemistry techniques, production of preclinical imaging agents, solid target production/distribution, cGMP compliance, translational projects, theranostic agent development and the production of human use radiopharmaceuticals. As an organic chemist, the typical research endeavors that Dr. Nickels has undertaken encompass the development of new and novel radiopharmaceuticals and the necessary labeling techniques used to incorporate radionuclides, such as Ac-225, F-18, C-11, I-124, Ga-68, Cu-64/67, Tc-99m and Zr-89.

Dr. Luke Nordquist is a practicing Medical Oncologist with recognized expertise in prostate cancer. He is the Founder & CEO of XCancer®, an internationally acclaimed community cancer center in Omaha, Nebraska, which has gained distinction for its high-performing clinical research program—characterized by rapid trial start-ups, high patient accrual, and exceptional data quality and efficiencies.

Dr. Nordquist has personally enrolled nearly 2,000 patients in clinical trials and served as Principal Investigator on several hundred Phase 1–3 studies, including 22 First-in-World trials. He currently provides care to over 450 prostate cancer patients each month from 43 states and multiple countries.

A key focus of Dr. Nordquist’s work is in radiopharmaceutical research. He and his team at XCancer® have conducted more than 50 imaging and therapeutic, phase 0-3, Theranostic trials involving agents such as Ra-223, Lu-177, Ac-225, Th-227, Pb-212, Zr-89, In-111, Cu-64, and Cu-67. Dr. Nordquist is also the Founder of TheranosticTrials.Org, a global digital platform dedicated to expanding education and access to Theranostic clinical trials worldwide.

Through the XCancer® Research Network, he is actively collaborating with community-based cancer centers to develop and implement Theranostic clinical trial programs—expanding the reach of cancer innovations.

Professor Oliver Sartor is a medical oncologist and translational researcher with a special focus on prostate cancer over the past 33 years. He completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology in 1989 at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda and is currently Director of Radiopharmaceutical Clinical Trials at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

His productivity in research is documented by his scholarly output in terms of publications and presentations. He has over 500 peer review publications and has led or co-lead multiple national and international advanced prostate cancer trials including those pivotal for FDA approval with samarium-153 EDTMP, cabazitaxel, radium-223 and PSMA Lu-177. He has lectured widely, having given invited lectures in over 30 countries. In addition, he has been the oncology chair of the NRG GU committee and helping to co-PI trials such as RTOG 0521 and 0621.

His translational focus on prostate cancer is devoted to improving the care of prostate cancer patients and a variety of translational efforts have been devoted to ensuring that the mechanistic and scientific understanding of prostate cancer provides the underpinnings for the next generation of clinical trials.

Prof. Sartor has received the Tulane Medical Alumni Association Outstanding Alumnus Award and the Tulane, Deming Department of Medicine Award for Research (Hematology/Oncology). He is also involved in multiple new prostate cancer clinical trials, some of which may change practice.