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As Director of the Lawson Cyclotron and PET Radiochemistry Facility, I lead a self-funded, multi-faceted clinical research program by producing Positron Emitting Radiopharmaceuticals (PERs) for clinical imaging procedures and to support our clinical and pre-clinical PET imaging research programs. As a Scientist working within a hospital setting, our research program has become adept at translating PERs truly from bench to bedside. Our facility holds a Health Canada Establishment License which certifies that we are GMP compliant, and permitted to manufacture and distribute PERs throughout Southern Ontario. In addition to holding our own market authorization for [¹⁸F]FDG, we were the first site (of 2 currently) in Canada to produce Florbetapir and Flortaucapir as a contract manufacture for Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc. for Alzheimer’s Disease imaging with PET. In addition, we currently support a number of clinical PET imaging studies with the PERs [¹⁸]FEPPA (neuro inflammation), [¹⁸F]sodium fluoride (bone imaging), [¹³N]ammonia (myocardial perfusion imaging), [¹⁵O]water (perfusion imaging). We produce a larger number of PERs for preclinical use such as [¹¹C]HED, [¹¹C]PHNO, [¹¹C]DTBZ, [¹⁵O]Oxygen gas, and many more. Since opening in 2010, we have demonstrated excellent competency of developing new PERs, getting them into preclinical imaging models, and ultimately translating them into clinical studies in human subjects.

My research program is focused on radionuclide production utilizing solid phase cyclotron targets. We have developed a high current, solid phase target system for the GE PETtrace cyclotron that includes automated target transfer, dissolution, and separation chemistry in a GMP compliant manner for [^99mTc]NaTcO₄. With the clinical trials data we collected from a total of 60 patients on two different sites, we are in the process of submitting a New Drug Submission to Health Canada for market authorization of cyclotron produced pertechnetate. This project, along with our partners in Hamilton ON and Vancouver BC, was awarded the Brockhouse Prize by the Governor General in 2015 for the best interdisciplinary research collaboration in the Canada. Our current efforts are focused on expanding the utility of this target system, in particular the production of the PET radiometals ⁶⁸Ga and ⁸⁹Zr.

MD, FRCP, FACP, AAHIVMed, Chair of Infectious Diseases, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, Chief of Infectious Diseases for SJHC and LHSC, Associate Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute.

Dr. Silverman received his medical degree and Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. He carried out his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and an HIV post-doctoral fellowship (1991-2) at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. He established the Positive Care Clinic in Whitby, Ontario (the regional HIV/Hepatitis clinic) and the Durham Regional Tuberculosis Clinic in Ajax. He was a consultant in Infectious Diseases at Rouge Valley Hospital in Ajax and Lakeridge Health in Oshawa. He was Director of Infection Control in Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan (2004-2005). He has extensive experience conducting research and doing Humanitarian medical relief in developing countries including Guyana, South America; Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Thailand. He is currently Chair of Infectious Diseases Division, Western University; Chief of Infectious Diseases for LHSC and SJHC, Medical Director of the HIV Clinic, St Joseph’s Hospital, London; Co-Director of Infection Control, London Health Sciences Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital; POEM Scientist in the Department of Medicine; Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Western University, Assistant Professor of Global Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and Associate Member, School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto.

He is an Associate Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute, London, and his research interests include Fecal Microbial transplantation for C.difficile and for metabolic syndrome; Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in developing countries and Prevention of Inappropriate Antibiotic use in community outpatient practice.

Dr. Silverman is a pioneer in the field of Fecal Microbial Transplantation for treatment of Clostridium difficile. He was one of the first to perform the procedure in North America. He was recently (2015) awarded a grant ($116,000) by AMOSO for Fecal Microbial Transplantation in the Metabolic Syndrome. He holds ICES Grant (2015) on Prevention of Antibiotic overprescribing in community practice. He is a site PI on several multinational RCT’s including in HIV care and community acquired influenza. He is a substudy PI on a 2014 the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) sponsored a study of progesterone supplementation in pregnant HIV infected mothers ($200,000) and a CIHR Grant in 2013 for the study of Sex hormone drug levels induced by Antiretroviral Drugs and the Impact on Low Birth weight Birth and another CHIR grant in 2012 for HIV co-morbidities ($2,500,000).

He is a member of several Professional Organizations including the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (AMMI), Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR), American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

Dr. O’Reilly was born in Northern Ireland and studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin. Before emigrating to Canada in 1984, he completed specialty training in Internal Medicine and subsequently in Psychiatry. 

Dr. O’Reilly also completed a partial residency in Psychiatry at Western University and obtained a specialty qualification in Psychiatry from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1986.

Robert Teasell MD FRCPC

Dr. Robert Teasell is Professor, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, former Chair-Chief and current Research Director of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Director of the Stroke Rehabilitation Program, Parkwood Institute, St. Joseph’s Health Care London and Clinical Researcher with Lawson Health Research Institute, Parkwood Institute Research. 

Dr. Teasell is editor of the internationally acclaimed Stroke Rehabilitation Evidence-Based Review (17 editions), Acquired Brain Injury Evidence-Based Review (12 editions) and co-editor of Spinal Cord Injury Evidence-Based Review (6 editions).  He is Co-Chair of the Canadian Best Practice Guidelines Committee in Stroke Rehabilitation.  Dr. Teasell has authored 335 peer-reviewed articles, 335 published abstracts, 22 book chapters, over 1,500 (including 700 international or national) posters/presentations and over 10,000 citations on SCOPUS.  He has been involved in over $19 million in research funding and has won many awards, most recently the 2018 Lawson Health Research Institute Impact Scientist of the Year Award and the 2018 Post-Acute Stroke Award of Excellence from the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the National Stroke Association (U.S.). 

Research interests include:

1. Clinical Application of Best Evidence in Neurorehabilitation utilizing the Evidence-Based Reviews and associated Guidelines
2. Stroke Rehabilitation in the Community in association with a model system of stroke outpatients out of Parkwood Institute in conjunction with the Southwestern Ontario Local Integrated Health Network
3. The role of Obsessive Personality Traits as in coping with Chronic Pain, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Post Concussion Syndrome and Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injuries and how that influences, anxiety, stress, depression, disability and use of opioid medications. 

Dr. Ruby Grewal received her MD degree at the University of British Columbia. Following completion of her orthopedic surgery residency at the University of British Columbia, she spent 2 years sub-specializing in upper extremity reconstruction and trauma.

Her first fellowship was at the Hand and Upper Limb Centre in London, ON and her second fellowship was at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia. During her fellowship in London, she also completed a master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics.

In 2006, she joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Western Ontario and is a co-director of the clinical research lab within the Hand and Upper Limb Center (HULC). Dr. Grewal is the Recipient of the 2013 Schulich Dean's Award for Excellence.

Dr. Savita Dhanvantari received a B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Guelph, an M.Sc. in Zoology from Western University, and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Toronto. She carried out her post-doctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD under the supervision of Dr. Y. Peng Loh.

In 2002, she joined the Lawson Health Research Institute where she is a scientist in both the Metabolism and Diabetes Program and the Imaging Program. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario, and cross-appointed to the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.