Nuclear Medicine

Martin Auerbach, MD
Director of Nuclear Medicine at the Westwood and Santa Monica UCLA Hospitals, and Associate Professor in Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Auerbach received his MD degree from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, and began his career at UCLA with a Research Fellowship, moving into Nuclear Medicine in 2002. Apart from attending physician responsibilities, Dr. Auerbach’s active research includes clinical studies investigating the role of molecular imaging with PET/CT to gain insights into malignant disease processes, and monitoring of cancer treatment.

Shadfar Bahri, MD
Assistant Professor of UCLA Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division. Dr. Bahri received his medical degree from the University of Goettingen, Germany in 2002. He subsequently started training in the Department of Radiology in Goettingen before relocating to Irvine, CA where he became an Associate Project Scientist at UC Irvine, Center for Functional Onco-Imaging. Dr. Bahri completed his Internship in General Surgery at UC Irvine in 2014, followed by Nuclear Medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and completed his Nuclear Medicine residency at UCLA before joining the ranks as a faculty. Dr. Bahri is primarily involved in prostate cancer imaging research with PSMA tracers and it's further application to provide better treatment options including theranostic approaches. More >

Matthias Benz, MD
Assistant Professor at the Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. Dr. Benz received his MD degree from the Technical University of Munich (Germany) in 2007. He completed his Radiology and Nuclear Medicine residency at the University Hospital of Basel (Switzerland). His primary research interests are centered on prognostic and predictive imaging biomarkers to predict treatment response and outcome.

Jeremie Calais, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor at the Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. Dr. Calais received his MD degree from the University of Paris-Diderot in 2010. He subsequently trained in nuclear medicine and cancer imaging at the Henri Becquerel Cancer Center of the University of Rouen and was board certified by the French Society of Nuclear Medicine in 2014. His work focuses on improving the outcomes of cancer patients by translating and applying novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. He uses PET/CT imaging for cancer phenotyping, radiation therapy planning and therapy response assessment. He leads the clinical theranostics research program at UCLA that combines radionuclide therapy and imaging.

Johannes Czernin, MD
Professor and Vice Chair of the UCLA Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Chief of the Ahmanson Translational Imaging. He received his MD degree from the University of Vienna, Austria, and started his career at UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Heinrich Schelbert’s lab. Dr. Czernin’s work focuses on improving the outcomes of cancer patients by developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. He has served as the President of the Academy of Molecular Imaging, has published more than 240 manuscripts, and currently serves as the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. More >

Katharina Lückerath, PhD
Assistant Professor at the UCLA Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. Dr. Lückerath is a biomedical scientist who obtained her PhD at the Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy (Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt a. M., Germany). She served as head of the research group Experimental Oncology in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Würzurg (Germany) before transferring to UCLA. Dr. Lückerath’s research focuses on experimental and translational theranostics. Specifically, Dr. Lückerath investigates mechanisms underlying failure of radionuclide therapy with the goal to develop rationally chosen, translatable radionuclide therapy-based combination regimens that improve quality of life and survival of cancer patients.

Christine Mona, PhD
Adjunct Assistant Professor at the UCLA Ahmanson Translational Theranostic Division (ATTD). Dr. Christine Mona received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 2016 from Université de Sherbrooke. She joined UCLA in 2016 as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Nuclear Medicine in the research group of Professor Johannes Czernin. In early 2020, Dr. Mona was promoted to Adjunct Assistant Professor. Dr. Mona is a translational researcher at the edge of Chemistry, Pharmacology and Nuclear Medicine, animated by applying modern scientific discoveries to the practice of medicine for the benefit of patients. Her program pioneers research in targeted nuclear medicine in different cancer paradigms and covers a broad field of preclinical research and translation to clinical discoveries.

Andrew Quon, MD
Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, and is the Medical Director of the Clinical PET/CT Program at UCLA. Dr. Quon received his medical degree from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School at Dallas and completed this residency and fellowship training at UCLA. Dr. Quon's focus is on radionuclide-based imaging and therapy for malignancy with particular emphasis on lymphoma, neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancers. More >

Hans David Ulmert, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor in Residence in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and the Institute of Urologic Oncology. Dr. Ulmert obtained his medical degree at Lund University in Sweden. He began a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2010 and has served as a Senior Research Scientist in the Medical Pharmacology Program and as the Technical Director for the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy since 2014. Dr. Ulmert’s clinical research is focused on the study of risk factors and biomarkers related to clinically diagnosed prostate cancer and definitive end-points in non-screened cohorts. The findings of these studies extend into my translational research, which center on development of novel in vivo strategies targeting enzymes regulated by the molecular pathways that drive the disease. The overarching goal is to apply these specific tissue targeting vehicles for multimodal molecular imaging strategies, as well as for carriers of therapeutic agents.