Simon Williams Senior Scientist: Biomedical Imaging Profile | Education/Background | Top Scientific Papers | Awards & Honors

"I joined Genentech's Neuroscience group in 1995 to help establish magnetic resonance imaging as a tool for the Research organization. I was attracted to the proactive commitment Genentech showed to acquiring and then applying new technologies to interesting biomedical problems. After diverse projects in brain, heart, vascular, developmental, lipid, tumor and other physiologic imaging with MRI, I turned my attention to the challenges of molecular imaging, first with single-photon (SPECT), and more recently with positron emission tomography (PET)."

Current Projects "My lab is busy developing and using whole-body molecular imaging methods focused on three basic questions of targeted therapies: "where is my target," "where is my drug," and "what happened when my drug hit the target?" We have projects in oncology, the immune system, cell death, and angiogenesis. My time is split between guiding translational efforts with established methods that inform clinical decision-making on the one hand, and exploratory research trying to identify and exploit new molecular imaging methods on the other."

Collaborations "Most all of the work in my lab is performed in collaboration with other groups. We work literally alongside colleagues in Translational Oncology to plan and execute our PET studies as a joint effort. Collectively, my lab's various projects touch every single department in the Research organization as we work on the design, preparation, characterization and evaluation of imaging techniques and reagents. These easy and productive interactions without boundaries are one of the joys of Genentech. Outside of Genentech my group has joint projects as well as more informal links with academics at UCSF, UC Davis, Stanford and elsewhere."

Inspiration/Vision "Every day I consciously enjoy an inspiring view of the San Francisco Bay as I walk to my lab. My own interests lie in seeing science and technology advance the practice of medicine for the benefit of all. Many commendable benefits to society can be quietly taken for granted: being more confident in a diagnosis, bringing new medicines to market sooner, making medical care more cost-effective, choosing the right treatments first time; and yet there is a great satisfaction in advancing this cause by pursuing scientific truth. It's great to be able to do that with so many talented and motivated friends and colleagues."