Dr Alan Perkins BSc MSc PhD Hon FRCP

University of Nottingham

Biography

Alan C Perkins is an Emeritus Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Nottingham.

He has over 25 years of experience in medical physics, particularly in the areas of medical imaging and radiation physics. His work includes extensive research in nuclear medicine techniques, gamma scintigraphy for drug delivery studies, and the development of high-resolution imaging systems for surgical and bedside applications.

Professor Perkins has collaborated with various departments and institutions, including the Space Research Centre at Leicester University and the Department of Chemistry at the Open University. His research interests also cover targeted radionuclide therapies for cancer treatment and the use of aptamer complexes for improved tumour penetration.

He is the Clinical Director and acting CEO of Gamma Technologies Ltd, a spin-out company from the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham, focusing on developing hybrid imaging systems for intra-operative cancer detection.

The winding road from laboratory to surgery through academic, clinical and Industrial partnerships

Advances in medical imaging can lead to improvements in clinical practice and patient treatment. Nuclear medicine is a long-established physics based clinical specialty, that has benefited from improved imaging technologies. We will discuss how an academic and clinical partnership transformed instrumentation originally developed for imaging in X-ray astronomy by the University of Leicester, for use in portable hand-held hybrid imaging in the nuclear medicine clinics at Nottingham University Hospitals. The long journey from the research laboratory to the operating theatre presented many challenges including funding, licencing, regulatory and ethical requirements.

Multidisciplinary collaborations were essential for the success of the project.
The ups, downs, trials and tribulations, setbacks and successes will be discussed.
Advances were based on trust, scrutiny and determination.

The final imaging technology was further exploited with commercial investment which led to clinical use in the United States and finally to the operating theatre for breast surgery at the University of Malaya Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.