FACULTY
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PROF IRENE VIRGOLINI

Professor
Department of Nuclear Medicine
Medical University of Innsbruck
Innsbruck, Austria
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Irene Virgolini was appointed as a University lecturer (venia docendi ) for Experimental Nuclear Medicine in 1992 with her work on functional liver scintigraphy and then 1995 in Internal Medicine (venia docendi) with her work on oncological receptor scintigraphy at the Medical University of Vienna. In 2000, Virgolini became the Director of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine at the Vienna City Hospital Lainz. In 2003, she was appointed Director of the University Clinic of Nuclear Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck and became the Full Professor of Nuclear Medicine. Since then the further expansion of the Innsbruck University Clinic for Nuclear Medicine in Clinic, Research and Teaching has taken place.

Irene Virgolini's focus in clinical research lies in the development and preclinical validation of new radiopharmaceuticals for Nuclear Medicine for diagnosis and therapy. Under the lead of Virgolini several new Nuclear Medicine tracer procedures have been clinically established.

The Nuclear Medicine Department of the Medical University Innsbruck is involved in national and international co-operation, including the participation in expert committees as well as in scientific projects of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), both in preclinical development and in the clinical application of radiopharmaceuticals both for diagnosis and therapy. Virgolini`s work is also concerned with the patient-related "quality of life" within the scope of individualized high-dose radionuclide therapy. Her clinical work and recent research has focused on the treatment of metastasized neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancer. Irene Virgolini was the President of the World Association of Radiopharmaceutical and Molecular Therapy (WARMTH) in 2018-2019, an international non-profit organization that extends its activities throughout the world. She still serves Nuclear Medicine as the Past President on the globe.
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Virgolini has published more than 350 papers, her total impact factor is around 1000, the Hirsch Index 45 (based on Web of Science) which makes her a world-leading expert in the field of Nuclear Medicine. She presented >500 lectures on the topics of molecular imaging and therapy worldwide.