Euro-BioImaging Visits the NORMOLIM Node at the 2026 180°N Conference 

In April 2026, the Med-Hub Head of Operations Alessandra Viale attended the 2026 180°N Conference, held at the beautiful Nye Hjorten Teater in Trondheim.

180°N is the Norwegian Nuclear Medicine Consortium, aiming at strengthening research in nuclear medicine by using the equipment donated by the Trond Mohn Foundation and Tromsø Research Foundation to the universities and hospitals in Trondheim, Tromsø and Bergen. The Trondheim (NTNU) and Bergen (University of Bergen) facilities of the NORMOLIM Node are also part of this consortium and the current Head of the Node, Prof. Tone Frost Bathen, was involved in the organization of the 2026 conference.

This event brought together members and affiliates of the 180°N research consortium, as well as some invited external speakers and companies, to present insights and progress of ongoing research and emerging trends in the field of nuclear medicine, including advancements in PET imaging for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases diagnosis, the development and production of novel PET tracers and radiopharmaceuticals, and advances in radiotheranostics and targeted radionuclide therapy. The conference also highlighted the integration of PET with proton therapy, emerging approaches to adaptive treatment, and translational research bridging laboratory discoveries and clinical applications.

The event was a good chance to get insights into the ongoing research and development activities in Norway and provided a good overview of the national nuclear medicine community.

It was also a good opportunity to meet the representatives of the three sites of the NORMOLIM Node - Trygve Andreassen, Jin Li and Tone Frost Bathen from NTNU (Trondheim), Frits Alan Thorsen from the University of Bergen and Lili Zhang from the Oslo University Hospital -, who were all attending the conference, as well as Prof. Olav Haraldseth, who has been the founder of the Node and is now one of the Norwegian representatives in the Euro-BioImaging Board.

Alessandra Viale and the Node staff met in the library of the PoMo Museum, adjacent to the Nye Hjorten Teater, ahead of the 180°N conference, and discussed about opportunities provided by Euro-BioImaging to its Nodes and users and updates on research and service provision at the Node, including interesting new funded projects and ongoing development of novel procedures e.g. for image analysis and Mass Spectrometry Imaging acquisition on organoid models. In addition, the basis for organizing a full national imaging community meeting in 2027 was set.

Nicely, the trip to Trondheim ended with a short but interesting visit to the preclinical imaging facility at NTNU. NTNU provides access to different preclinical imaging techniques such as PET, optical and ultrasound imaging, with a major focus and expertise in MRI. Indeed, it is equipped with a state of the art 7T MR scanner with cryoprobe as well as 600MHz NMR spectrometers which nicely complement the MR imaging facility and the MSI platform for metabolic studies, overall a great opportunity for local researchers and Euro-BioImaging users to receive support with their research projects.

The visit provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen links with the NORMOLIM Node and the wider Norwegian imaging community, while laying the groundwork for future collaborations. Euro-BioImaging looks forward to continuing to support these initiatives and to working closely with the Node as it further develops its services and research activities.