Thomas J. Meade, the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Chemistry, and member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP) at Northwestern University, was awarded the World Molecular Imaging Society’s highest honor. The 2020 Gold Medal Award recognizes Meade’s “pioneering work in the fields of magnetic resonance and optical molecular imaging, providing solutions for deep tissue imaging and for advancing quantitative and biologically specific interrogation of living systems.” Meade, Professor of Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, will receive the award during the World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC Virtual 2020), October 7-9, 2020.
Meade is widely recognized for his pioneering work in the field of conditionally activated magnetic resonance (MR) agents and the development of probes for MRI and optical imaging. In collaboration with the CLP, Professor Meade designed the Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging to perform transdisciplinary research from molecule to whole animal. He is the former President of the Society of Molecular Imaging and founder of Imaging in 2020, a biannual conference focusing on all aspects of imaging.
Meade received his master’s in Biochemistry and PhD in inorganic chemistry. After completing a NIH fellowship in Radiology at Harvard Medical School, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. In 1991, he joined the Division of Biology and the Beckman Institute at Caltech. In 2002 he moved to Northwestern University, where he is the Director of the Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging (CAMI).
Professor Meade’s research focuses on coordination chemistry and its application in bioinorganic problems that include biological molecular imaging, electron transfer processes and the development of electronic biosensors for the detection of DNA and proteins. He has received numerous awards and in 2009 was a Miller Professor at the University of California Berkeley. He holds more than 100 US patents and has founded five biotech companies, Clinical Micro Sensors, Meataprobe, PreDx, Ohmx and DetEctz, which are developing hand-held detection devices for protein and DNA detection and bioactivated MR contrast agents for clinical imaging.