1^st World Congress on Ga-68 and Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRNT), June 23–26, 2011, Zentralklinik Bad Berka, Germany

Since the decoding of the human genome a decade ago, medicine has been rapidly moving toward a preventive and personalized mode focused on genetic and molecular diagnostics and targeted, individualized therapies.

Theranostics is the emerging field of molecular targeting of vectors which can be used for both therapies and diagnosis, when modified accordingly. This term was specifically used in the context of certain radiopharmaceuticals, so that the same pharmaceutical (e.g., a peptide), when labeled with a positron emitter can be used for diagnosis using PET/CT, and when labeled with a beta emitter may be used for therapy of a particular disease, targeted specifically by that radiopharmaceutical. The importance of Theranostics is that it takes into account personalized management of disease. Theranostics embodies both molecular and personalized medicine.[1,2]

The 1^st World Congress on Gallium-68 and Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRNT) taking place in Bad Berka, Germany, from June 23 to 26, 2011, is co-organized by the Department of Nuclear Medicine/PET Center, Zentralklinik Bad Berka, and the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. Target audience include chemists, physicians, and investigators dealing with generators, PET radiochemistry as well as molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy.

The congress plans to both educate and offer a unique forum for high-level scientific discussions on the recent developments in the exciting field of Theranostics. A special focus is the rapidly developing research and clinical applications of Ga-68 and other generator-produced PET radioisotopes, new PET radiopharmaceuticals as well as PRRNT.

For ⁶⁸Ga radiopharmaceutical chemistry, this World Congress intends to reflect the first decade of the renaissance of ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga radionuclide generators. The last 10 years of commercially available ionic generators have stimulated both systematic chemical research and clinical applications of promising tracers.[3,4]

Outstanding speakers from all over the world will be giving their fascinating insights into their research and clinical work, creating new ideas and concepts on the way to personalized medicine. Within the next decade, further and rapid developments may be expected.

A considerable number of companies are participating in the Trade Exhibition, presenting the latest technological developments in generator technology and Ga-68 modules, devices and labeling strategies.

In addition, a “Hands-on Training Course” on ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generators for learning the practical principles of ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga radionuclide generator elution for all types of today's available commercial systems, for eluate post-processing and ⁶⁸Ga labeling procedures as well as for product purification, combined with those of analogue ⁹⁰Y and ¹⁷⁷Lu chemistry is offered (for a limited number of participants) on June 27-28, 2011, at the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. In addition, this Training Course - as well as the World Congress itself - realizes the idea of transferring novel technologies to the member states of the IAEA, thus contributing to the concept of translating ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generators and PPRNT all over the world.