Mach Honored with SNMMI 2022 Paul C. Aebersold Award

Robert H. Mach, PhD, was named as the 2022 recipient of the prestigious Paul C. Aebersold Award during the June SNMMI Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Mach is the Britton Chance Professor of Radiology and director of the PET Radiochemistry Program at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). Mach has spent the majority of his career developing PET radiotracers to study the molecular basis of disease, and his research has spanned the fields of substance abuse, neurology, oncology, and cardiovascular disease. His major contributions to the field include the use of PET to identify the effects of socially derived stress on dopamine receptor function; identification of the role of a ternary complex among the sigma-2 receptor/TMEM97, LDL receptor, and progesterone receptor membrane component 1 in providing the high levels of cholesterol needed to support tumor cell proliferation; and the use of computational chemistry methods to study small molecule–protein interactions in the design of PET radiotracers. Several ongoing clinical trials focus on radiotracers developed in his lab.

Robert H. Mach, PhD, receives Aebersold Award. From left: Richard Wahl, MD; Carolyn Anderson, PhD; Mach; and Heather Jacene, MD.

Vasken Dilsizian, MD, chair of the SNMMI Committee on Awards, congratulated Mach on this achievement: “Robert is a truly deserving recipient of this esteemed award. His work with radiotracers has been the basis of many important research studies that have advanced the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging over the years.”

Mach received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the State University of New York (SUNY; Potsdam) in 1978 and a doctorate in medicinal chemistry from the SUNY School of Pharmacy (Buffalo) in 1985. He later served as a professor, director of the cyclotron facility, and head of the Radiological Chemistry Lab at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (MO).

An active member of the nuclear medicine and molecular imaging community, Mach is a past president of the SNMMI Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council and a former board member of the Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences. He received the SNMMI Michael J. Welch Award in 2018 and a Distinguished Investigator Award from the American Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research in 2019. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and holds 28 patents on radiotracer development. Mach is currently the principal investigator for 2 research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has served on numerous review panels for NIH and the Department of Energy.

The Aebersold Award is named for Paul C. Aebersold, PhD, a pioneer in the biologic and medical application of radioactive materials and the first director of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of Isotope Development. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in basic science applied to nuclear medicine and was first presented in 1973. The SNMMI Committee on Awards selects the recipient.

“It truly is an honor to be recognized by my colleagues and SNMMI for the Aebersold Award,” said Mach. “This would not have been possible without the contributions of a very talented group of graduate students, postdocs, and research collaborators over the course of my career.”