Fernando Hueso, CSIC researcher at the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC), located at the University of Valencia Science Park, has been awarded with the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group (PTCOG) Physics Research Award 2024. This recognition highlights his innovative research project entitled "Proof of concept of coaxial monitoring of prompt gamma-rays for range verification at a clinical proton treatment room"
The project of this IFIC researcher, who also counts with the collaboration of Antonio Fernández Prieto, Iris García Rivas and Pablo Vázquez Regueiro from the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics (IGFAE), focuses on the development of a compact, lightweight and low-cost detector for proton range verification in proton therapy. This technology aims to overcome the limitations of current devices, which are expensive and bulky, and to facilitate their integration in any treatment room.
The award, endowed with €9,000, will enable Hueso and his team to improve the detector electronics to support very high count rates without saturation, based on the findings obtained in the test performed at the ELBE accelerator in October 2023. In addition, the award will also fund a test experiment at a proton therapy clinical center in Dresden, Germany, with realistic treatment plans.
The award ceremony took place during the PTCOG General Assembly held during the 62nd Annual PTCOG Conference in Singapore on Thursday, June 13. The award was presented by Marco Durante, President of PTCOG, who emphasized that, although the prize money is modest, its prestige is considerable, given that only 10% of the applicants receive it. The proposals were evaluated by a committee, which included Harald Paganetti, Director of Physical Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School.
This award is particularly significant in the current context of Spain, where the first eleven public proton therapy centers are being built.
About Fernando Hueso
Fernando Hueso González studied the Master in Advanced Physics at the Universitat de València in 2011-2012. The following four years he was at the proton therapy center of the Technische Universität Dresden (OncoRay), pursuing a PhD in real-time therapy monitoring from fast gamma rays. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital to transform a gamma spectrometer from a 'laboratory' to a clinical prototype for first application with patients. He is currently continuing his research at IFIC through the GenT (GVA) program in the IRIS Medical Physics group. In 2022, he received the Bruce H Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award.
Learn more about Fernando Hueso, collaborator in the campaign 'Be Water, My Parc'