Archive
A legacy of DOE research has made it possible for today's doctors to rely on nuclear medicine to care for patients. Nuclear medicine truly helps patients everywhere in healthcare.
Historical Highlights [Expanded Timeline (1929-1998)]
- Highest-resolution PET scanner in the world (1986)
- First PET camera built for human studies, (1974) see History of PET and MRI
- Beginning of emission-computed tomography (1959)
- Technetium-99m generator invented (1958), widely used medical radionuclide
- Birth of positron imaging (1953)
- Hal Anger invents gamma camera (1952), the "workhorse" of nuclear medicine for 50 years
- Benedict Cassen invents rectilinear scanner (1951), the start of imaging in nuclear medicine
Publications
- A Brief History of DOE's Molecular Nuclear Medicine Research
- "A Vital Legacy" [PDF] (1997) — a progress report on the revolutionary program that gave rise to the Human Genome Project
- "Converting Energy to Medical Progress" [PDF]— an introduction to the unique nuclear medicine research funded by the Medical Sciences Division, Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy
- "A Medical Field Arising from the Atomic Age" [PDF] (2003) — poster featuring a historical timeline and overviews of current projects
