Gerald L. DeNardo, MD, 1932–2024

doi:10.2967/jnumed.124.267679

Gerald L. DeNardo, MD, professor emeritus of internal medicine and radiology at the University of California–Davis, died at his home in Lincoln, CA, on February 11, 2024. With his wife, Sally J. DeNardo, MD, DeNardo pioneered the federally funded radioimmunotherapy program at the University of California–Davis and in 1985 treated the first patient in the United States to undergo a radioimmunotherapy procedure for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His decades-long career paralleled the development of nuclear medicine, from early scintigraphy studies to sophisticated combined molecular imaging and therapy.

He was born in Charleroi, PA, and moved with his family to California in 1944. He graduated from Santa Clara University and received his medical degree from the University of California–San Francisco School of Medicine. DeNardo served in the U.S. Army as a physician from 1957 to 1965, when he retired as a major to join the faculty of the Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1970, he became a professor of radiology, internal medicine, and pathology at the new University of California–Davis School of Medicine and was the founding chair of nuclear medicine there.

In addition to his own team’s research in both translational and clinical molecular imaging, DeNardo was a strong national advocate for expanding the scope of nuclear medicine to realize the full potential of radioimmunotherapy in combination with other therapies, with more than 300 publications in the peer-reviewed literature from 1962 to 2013. He served as president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (now the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging) in 1981 and 1982. The Gerald and Sally DeNardo Lectureship, established through an endowment by the DeNardos at Santa Clara University, provides a platform for presentations in the health sciences. The couple’s legacy also continues through the Science Research Scholars program and a Senior Prize at Santa Clara, which recognize outstanding research by undergraduates pursuing careers in the health science industry. The DeNardo Education and Research Foundation also established support for students and lectureships at the Doisy College of Health Sciences at St. Louis University.

DeNardo will be remembered for his ingenuity, inventiveness, compassion, and good humor. On his retirement in 2009, he reflected on his career: “I’ve had a thrilling ride—growing, building, learning much, and translating from bench to bedside with the help of many others.”