Prof. LÜTFİYE ÖZLEM ATAY

Prof. L.Ö. Atay is leading Nuclear Medicine Department in the Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University. She is focused on the first in country applications and technologies. As Molecular Imaging is one of the most growing area regarding new innovations, she has been working hard not only to make them available, from the beginning, in the country but also takes part on the initiating working groups of European Association of Nuclear Medicine. She is a pioneer on the Neuroimaging having strong collaboration with Neurology Society.

     Before getting her professor degree, she worked in The Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She took several roles as committee member and chairperson within the European and Turkish Society of Nuclear Medicine. She is also on the editorial board of European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Prof. Atay is the leader of the team that enabled the first Dopamine Transporter (DAT) imaging in Turkey. Under her visionary leadership, the first PET/MR scanner in Turkey was established at Gazi University. Gazi University Hospital Department of Nuclear Medicine is involved in a prospective, multi-center study involving early Alzheimer's patients that will involve amyloid imaging for the first time in Turkey (Project Flute-16-02: Investigation of Occult Small Vessel Disease and Its Functional Effects in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Functional Imaging Methods. 2020-2022). Health Institutes of Türkiye (TUSEB) Project: An Intelligent National Diagnostic Model Based on Multi-Parametric Evaluation for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2023-2025.

Prof. Atay is sayed " In terms of neuroimaging, PET/MR technology will be the most important imaging modality of the future, especially with the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals targeting pathological proteins, such as amyloid and tau.