Dear SIT members,

Let us leave 2020 behind and focus on this New Year! Every year, people make New Year’s resolutions, hoping to spark positive change: exercise more, save more money, travel more, publish, have success. But, how long do those last?

This year, I really need some change, and I guess everyone wishes the same! Still, the opportunity to think about future possibilities is rare. This is the time to ask yourself different questions, to observe and think about new things. Look around, think of new investigative methods, analyze and compare what others have done. It is time to think differently to begin 2021; you won’t have many opportunities when we return to normality. You have the power to turn 2020’s difficult moments into something that changes your scientific life and your career. There is a need for positivity and rebirth. Be an innovator, because it is innovation that modern radiation research needs!

Take good care of yourself, your family and your colleagues.

All the best, 

Julie Constanzo

SIT Committee Member

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I have always had a great affinity for science based on my insatiable curiosity and my will for understanding the processes of life. Comprehending the mechanisms behind the ability to modify biological functions, and eventually "cheat" death through drug treatment fascinates me. That’s the reason why I decided to pursue a degree in Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) back in Spain, my home country. An Erasmus Fellowship brought me to France, where my Master’s studies in Cancer Biology (University of Montpellier) and my University Diploma in Therapeutic Innovations in Cancerology (University of Paris-Sud) introduced me to radiation research.

Currently, I am a PhD student in Dr Jean-Pierre Pouget’s lab at INSERM, Montpellier, France. My research focuses on Targeted Radiotherapy. Working in Dr. Pouget lab gives me the chance to learn alongside a multidisciplinary team where communication and collaboration are essential, integrated by biologists, chemists, physicists, nuclear medicine clinicians and radiopharmacists, offering me a vision of both fundamental and translational radiation research. I have to reckon that this 1^st year of PhD did not go as planned, such as participating in my first RRS virtually, but I feel the pandemic has brought us together in some way. Moreover, being far from home has not been easy. The team support and motivation to keep science going on even in these difficult times have been essential. Despite COVID, on the bright side, I am proud to have been awarded with the Young Researcher ePoster Prize from the French "Cancéropôle GSO 2020 meeting" for my work entitled "Potentiation of Targeted Radionuclide Therapy using Gadolinium-based Nanoparticles". An exciting final touch for this complicated year, which stimulates and inspires me for what is to come!

After my PhD, I want to transition to industry, hopefully on the development of new radiopharmaceuticals, a thrilling field and potential tool to design forthcoming directions for cancer radiation research, find new therapeutic targets and improve the current outcomes.

Shrestha S, Gupta A C, Bates J E, Lee C, Owens C A, Hoppe B S, Constine L S, Smith S A, Qiao Y, Weathers R E, Yasui Y, Court L E, Paulino A C, Pinnix C C, Kry S F, Followill D S, Armstrong G T and Howell R M. 2020. Development and validation of an age-scalable cardiac model with substructures for dosimetry in late-effects studies of childhood cancer survivors. Radiotherapy and Oncology.

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The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) funds study and research visits to universities and non-university research institutions in Germany.
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