Ekaterina Dadachova, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Radiology
Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Sylvia and Robert S. Olnick Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research

E. Dadachova received her Bachelor of Chemistry degree in 1986 from Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia where among other subjects she obtained training in radiochemistry. Russia is one of very few countries where radiochemistry is still taught as a part of Bachelor of Chemistry curriculum. After obtaining her PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1992 from the same institution she emigrated to Australia where in 1993 she started postdoctoral work under the mentorship of late Dr. Richard Lambrecht at the Biomedicine and Health Program, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO). She was given a task to develop a separation procedure for production of radiolanthanides for medical applications. In 1995 she was invited as a Guest Scholar to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), TN where she worked for 6 months at the production of isotopes in nuclear reactor and at the radiolabeling of antibodies for cancer treatment with Dr. S. Mirzadeh. On return to ANSTO from ORNL she was promoted to Research Scientist position. In 1998 E. Dadachova was invited by Dr. Martin Brechbiel, National Cancer Institute, NIH to join his Radioimmune and Inorganic Chemistry Section as a Visiting Associate. During her 2 years at NIH she participated in all aspects of pre-clinical development and evaluation of radiopharmaceuticals from radiolabeling to animal therapy and toxicity studies. In 2000 E. Dadachova was recruited by the Department of Nuclear Medicine, AECOM as Assistant Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Director of Radiochemistry. She is currently Sylvia and Robert Olnick Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research and Professor of Radiology and Microbiology and Immunology. She was recently recognized as one of the 10 top researchers at AECOM.