Samuel Achilefu, PhD, the Michel M. Ter-Pogossian Professor of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been selected to serve on the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The council advises the leadership of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the NIH. He is one of 11 bioimaging experts nationwide to be appointed to the advisory council, which provides guidance on priorities and policies related to research, training and communication of health information in the fields of biomedical imaging and engineering.

Achilefu, also a professor of medicine, of biomedical engineering and of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, directs the Optical Radiology Laboratory at Washington University. He is an international expert in the design, development and evaluation of new molecular imaging agents and therapies in cells and organisms. Achilefu and his team have developed high-tech glasses that, with an injected dye, can be used to help surgeons visualize cancer cells, which glow blue when viewed through the eyewear. The goal is to make it easier for surgeons to distinguish cancer cells from the surrounding healthy tissue, helping to ensure that the entire tumor is removed during the procedure.

He serves as the vice chair of innovation and entrepreneurship at Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology. He also directs the university’s Molecular Imaging Center and the Center for Multiple Myeloma Nanotherapy, and he co-leads the oncologic imaging program at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

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