Assistant Professor in Residence
Edward and Pearl Fein Endowed Professor in Precision Care for Memory Disorders
Neurology
Renaud La Joie, PhD, is the Edward and Pearl Fein Endowed Professor in Precision Care for Memory Disorders at UCSF. He is a neuroscientist and neuroimaging expert whose research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that drive Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Using advanced brain imaging techniques, fluid biomarkers, and neuropsychological measures, Dr. La Joie seeks to unravel the drivers of clinical heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. He has established strong collaborations with neuropathologists to help bridge in vivo and post mortem measures of brain pathology and guide a rigorous interpretation of biomarker data to improve diagnostic precision and prognosis for patients with cognitive decline.
Dr. La Joie originally studied medicine in his native Normandy, France, before earning a master’s degree in neuroscience from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He completed his PhD in neuropsychology under the mentorship of Drs. Gaël Chételat and Béatrice Desgranges, where he studied Alzheimer’s disease using multimodal PET and MRI imaging. After a year as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley with Dr. William Jagust, Dr. La Joie joined UCSF as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Gil Rabinovici’s lab at the Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center in 2016. He transitioned to a faculty position in 2021. In 2022, he became co-lead of the neuroimaging core for UCSF’s NIA-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), and in 2023, he joined the faculty at the Global Brain Health Institute.
Dr. La Joie has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Young Investigator Award at the Human Amyloid Imaging Conference, the 2020 de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging, and the 2024 Christopher Clark Award for his contributions to Alzheimer’s imaging research. He is an elected member of several national and international steering committees and continues to advance precision care for patients through his innovative research. He also received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars from the UCSF Graduate Division and Office for Postdoctoral Scholars in 2020.
Dr La Joie has co-authored 200 peer-reviewed manuscript and was included in the 2024 Clarivate’s list of most influential scientists, along with 47 other researchers at UCSF.
Publications
Modernizing diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: A review of global trends and Asia-specific perspectives.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Tau PET positivity in individuals with and without cognitive impairment varies with age, amyloid-ß status, APOE genotype and sex.
Nature neuroscience
Changes of a Cerebral Cavernous Malformation Associated With Lecanemab Therapy in a Patient With Alzheimer Disease.
Neurology. Clinical practice
Association of [ 18 F]Flortaucipir-PET and plasma p-tau217 with tau neuropathology in AD and other neurodegenerative disorders.
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
Medial temporal lobe structural changes when Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease collide.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Harmonized Protocol for Subfield Segmentation in the Hippocampal Body on High-Resolution in vivo MRI from the Hippocampal Subfields Group (HSG).
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
Sex differences in amyloid PET in a large, real-world sample from the Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) Study.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Detection Bias in EHR-Based Research on Clinical Exposures and Dementia.
JAMA network open
Amyloid PET in Sporadic Early- Versus Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease: Comparison of the LEADS and ADNI Cohorts.
Annals of neurology
Considerations in the clinical use of amyloid PET and CSF biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
18F-MK-6240 tau PET in patients at-risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Molecular neurodegeneration
Dissociable spatial topography of cortical atrophy in early-onset and late-onset Alzheimer's disease: A head-to-head comparison of the LEADS and ADNI cohorts.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Characterizing and validating 12-month reliable cognitive change in Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease for use in clinical trials.
The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease
Correction to: Co-pathology may impact outcomes of amyloid-targeting treatments: clinicopathological results from two patients treated with aducanumab.
Acta neuropathologica
Detection of Alzheimer Neuropathology in Alzheimer and Non-Alzheimer Clinical Syndromes With Blood-Based Biomarkers.
JAMA neurology
Machine learning prediction of tau-PET in Alzheimer's disease using plasma, MRI, and clinical data.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Role of tau versus TDP-43 pathology on medial temporal lobe atrophy in aging and Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Differences in baseline cognitive performance between participants with early-onset and late-onset Alzheimer's disease: Comparison of LEADS and ADNI.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Longitudinal cognitive performance of participants with sporadic early onset Alzheimer's disease from LEADS.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Centiloid recommendations for clinical context-of-use from the AMYPAD consortium.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
A (sub)field guide to quality control in hippocampal subfield segmentation on high-resolution T2-weighted MRI.
Human brain mapping
A machine learning-based prediction of tau load and distribution in Alzheimer's disease using plasma, MRI and clinical variables.
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
Predicting brain atrophy and cognitive aging trajectories with baseline subjective cognitive concerns in cognitively normal older adults.
Neurobiology of aging
Tau Positron Emission Tomography for Predicting Dementia in Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment.
JAMA neurology
Comorbid neuropathology and atypical presentation of Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Head-to-Head Comparison of Tau and Amyloid Positron Emission Tomography Visual Reads for Differential Diagnosis of Neurodegenerative Disorders: An International, Multicenter Study.
Annals of neurology
Molecular neuroimaging in dominantly inherited versus sporadic early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Brain communications
Neuropsychiatric profiles and cerebral amyloid burden in adults without dementia.
Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders
Biomarker-based staging of Alzheimer disease: rationale and clinical applications.
Nature reviews. Neurology
Comparison of approaches to control for intracranial volume in research on the association of brain volumes with cognitive outcomes.
Human brain mapping
Highly Accurate Blood Test for Alzheimer's Disease Comparable or Superior to Clinical CSF Tests.
Nature medicine
Considerations for use of blood-based biomarkers in epidemiologic dementia research.
American journal of epidemiology
Demographic, clinical, biomarker, and neuropathological correlates of posterior cortical atrophy: an international cohort study and individual participant data meta-analysis.
The Lancet. Neurology
Spatiotemporal characteristics of neurophysiological changes in patients with four-repeat tauopathies.
Annals of clinical and translational neurology
Scalable plasma and digital cognitive markers for diagnosis and prognosis of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Genetic risk score for Alzheimer's disease predicts brain volume differences in mid and late life in UK biobank participants.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Novel avenues of tau research.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
A (Sub)field Guide to Quality Control in Hippocampal Subfield Segmentation on Highresolution T2-weighted MRI.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
[18F]PI-2620 Binding Patterns in Patients with Suspected Alzheimer Disease and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.
Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
Longitudinal clinical, cognitive and biomarker profiles in dominantly inherited versus sporadic early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Brain communications
Head-to-head comparison between plasma p-tau217 and flortaucipir-PET in amyloid-positive patients with cognitive impairment.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
Co-pathology may impact outcomes of amyloid-targeting treatments: clinicopathological results from two patients treated with aducanumab.
Acta neuropathologica
Amyloid and tau-PET in early-onset AD: Baseline data from the Longitudinal Early-onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS).
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Determinants of cognitive and brain resilience to tau pathology: a longitudinal analysis.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Influence of amyloid and diagnostic syndrome on non-traditional memory scores in early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Sex and APOE ε4 carrier effects on atrophy, amyloid PET, and tau PET burden in early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers in the Longitudinal Early-onset Alzheimer's Disease Study.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
White matter hyperintensities are higher among early-onset Alzheimer's disease participants than their cognitively normal and early-onset nonAD peers: Longitudinal Early-onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS).
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Alzheimer's pathology is associated with altered cognition, brain volume, and plasma biomarker patterns in traumatic encephalopathy syndrome.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
Psychological stress is associated with arterial inflammation in people living with treated HIV infection.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Network anatomy in logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia.
Human brain mapping
Baseline neuropsychiatric symptoms and psychotropic medication use midway through data collection of the Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS) cohort.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Profiling baseline performance on the Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS) cohort near the midpoint of data collection.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Network anatomy in logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia.
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
Prevalence, Timing, and Network Localization of Emergent Visual Creativity in Frontotemporal Dementia.
JAMA neurology
Robustness of CSF A�42/40 and A�42/P-tau181 measured using fully automated immunoassays to detect AD-related outcomes.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Medial Temporal Lobe Tau Aggregation Relates to Divergent Cognitive and Emotional Empathy Abilities in Alzheimer's Disease.
Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
Amyloid, tau and metabolic PET correlates of cognition in early and late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
AD and non-AD mediators of the pathway between the APOE genotype and cognition.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Increasing empathic concern relates to salience network hyperconnectivity in cognitively healthy older adults with elevated amyloid-� burden.
NeuroImage. Clinical
Sex-specific effects of microglial activation on Alzheimer's disease proteinopathy in older adults.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy interacts with neuritic amyloid plaques to promote tau and cognitive decline.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Multi-feature computational framework for combined signatures of dementia in underrepresented settings.
Journal of neural engineering
Multimodal Biomarkers of Repetitive Head Impacts and Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome: A Clinico-Pathological Case Series.
Journal of neurotrauma
Imaging Alzheimer's pathology stage by stage.
Nature aging
Tau Beats Amyloid in Predicting Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer Disease: Implications for Prognosis and Clinical Trials.
Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
Regional Aß-tau interactions promote onset and acceleration of Alzheimer's disease tau spreading.
Neuron
Cortical hypometabolism reflects local atrophy and tau pathology in symptomatic Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Quantification of amyloid beta and tau PET without a structural MRI.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Dissecting the clinical heterogeneity of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Molecular psychiatry
Diagnostic Accuracy of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measures of Brain Atrophy Across the Spectrum of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal Degeneration.
JAMA network open
The many dimensions of human hippocampal organization and (dys)function.
Trends in neurosciences
Fusiform gyrus phospho-tau is associated with failure of proper name retrieval in aging.
Annals of neurology
Social Behavior Observer Checklist: Patterns of Spontaneous Behaviors Differentiate Patients With Neurodegenerative Disease From Healthy Older Adults.
Frontiers in neurology
Effect of the Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor FRM-0334 on Progranulin Levels in Patients With Progranulin Gene Haploinsufficiency: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
JAMA network open
Plasma phosphorylated tau 217 and phosphorylated tau 181 as biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a retrospective diagnostic performance study.
The Lancet. Neurology
Comorbid neuropathological diagnoses in early versus late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Neuroimaging in Frontotemporal Dementia: Heterogeneity and Relationships with Underlying Neuropathology.
Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics
A multicenter comparison of [18F]flortaucipir, [18F]RO948, and [18F]MK6240 tau PET tracers to detect a common target ROI for differential diagnosis.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
Retinal imaging demonstrates reduced capillary density in clinically unimpaired APOE ε4 gene carriers.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Multimodal neuroimaging of sex differences in cognitively impaired patients on the Alzheimer's continuum: greater tau-PET retention in females.
Neurobiology of aging
Heterogeneous distribution of tau pathology in the behavioural variant of Alzheimer's disease.
Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
The Rapid Naming Test: Development and initial validation in typically aging adults.
The Clinical neuropsychologist
Crossed cerebellar diaschisis on 18F-FDG PET: Frequency across neurodegenerative syndromes and association with 11C-PIB and 18F-Flortaucipir.
Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
Detecting Alzheimer's disease biomarkers with a brief tablet-based cognitive battery: sensitivity to Aβ and tau PET.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
Association of remote mild traumatic brain injury with cortical amyloid burden in clinically normal older adults.
Brain imaging and behavior
Comparing ATN-T designation by tau PET visual reads, tau PET quantification, and CSF PTau181 across three cohorts.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
Plasma Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Levels Differ Along the Spectra of Amyloid Burden and Clinical Disease Stage.
Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
Spatial Relationships between Molecular Pathology and Neurodegeneration in the Alzheimer's Disease Continuum.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
Diagnostic Accuracy of Amyloid versus FDG PET in Autopsy-Confirmed Dementia.
Annals of neurology
18F-flortaucipir PET to autopsy comparisons in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Evaluation of a visual interpretation method for tau-PET with 18F-flortaucipir.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
The impact of demographic, clinical, genetic, and imaging variables on tau PET status.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
Plasma tau and neurofilament light in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer's disease.
Neurology
Investigating the clinico-anatomical dissociation in the behavioral variant of Alzheimer disease.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
Hippocampal subfield volumetry from structural isotropic 1?mm3 MRI scans: A note of caution.
Human brain mapping
Worth the Wait: Delayed Recall after 1 Week Predicts Cognitive and Medial Temporal Lobe Trajectories in Older Adults.
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS
Symptomatic amyloid-related imaging abnormalities in an APOE e4/e4 patient treated with aducanumab.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Sex-related differences in the relationship between ß-amyloid and cognitive trajectories in older adults.
Neuropsychology
Normalization of CSF pTau measurement by Aß40 improves its performance as a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
BHA-CS: A novel cognitive composite for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
An update on blood-based biomarkers for non-Alzheimer neurodegenerative disorders.
Nature reviews. Neurology
Temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia in C9orf72 repeat expansion carriers: two case studies.
Brain imaging and behavior
Diagnostic value of plasma phosphorylated tau181 in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
Nature medicine
Association of Cognitive and Behavioral Features Between Adults With Tuberous Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia.
JAMA neurology
A molecular gradient along the longitudinal axis of the human hippocampus informs large-scale behavioral systems.
Nature communications
Morphometric network differences in ageing versus Alzheimer's disease dementia.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Plasma biomarkers of astrocytic and neuronal dysfunction in early- and late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Spatial patterns of tau deposition are associated with amyloid, ApoE, sex, and cognitive decline in older adults.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
Distinct tau PET patterns in atrophy-defined subtypes of Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Plasma Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Levels Differ Along the Spectra of Amyloid Burden and Clinical Disease Stage.
Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
Prospective longitudinal atrophy in Alzheimer's disease correlates with the intensity and topography of baseline tau-PET.
Science translational medicine
Cortical developmental abnormalities in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia with dyslexia.
Brain communications
Tau PET and multimodal brain imaging in patients at risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
NeuroImage. Clinical
Alzheimer's pathology targets distinct memory networks in the ageing brain.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Cross-sectional and longitudinal characterization of SCD patients recruited from the community versus from a memory clinic: subjective cognitive decline, psychoaffective factors, cognitive performances, and atrophy progression over time.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
Progress update from the hippocampal subfields group.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
An Opioid-Related Amnestic Syndrome With Persistent Effects on Hippocampal Structure and Function.
The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Medial Temporal Lobe Disconnection and Hyperexcitability Across Alzheimer's Disease Stages.
Journal of Alzheimer's disease reports
Tau covariance patterns in Alzheimer's disease patients match intrinsic connectivity networks in the healthy brain.
NeuroImage. Clinical
Distinct Interplay Between Atrophy and Hypometabolism in Alzheimer's Versus Semantic Dementia.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
Effect of off-target binding on 18F-Flortaucipir variability in healthy controls across the lifespan.
Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
18F-flortaucipir (AV-1451) tau PET in frontotemporal dementia syndromes.
Alzheimer's research & therapy
Is there a specific memory signature associated with Aß-PET positivity in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment?
Neurobiology of aging
Longitudinal tau accumulation and atrophy in aging and Alzheimer's disease.
Annals of neurology
The SCD-Well randomized controlled trial: Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention versus health education on mental health in patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD).
Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.)
Superior explicit memory despite severe developmental amnesia: In-depth case study and neural correlates.
Hippocampus
Multisite study of the relationships between antemortem [11C]PIB-PET Centiloid values and postmortem measures of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Brain properties predict proximity to symptom onset in sporadic Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Associations between [18F]AV1451 tau PET and CSF measures of tau pathology in a clinical sample.
Neurology
Tau pathology and neurodegeneration contribute to cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Regional patterns of gray matter volume, hypometabolism, and beta-amyloid in groups at risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Neurobiology of aging
Subjective cognitive decline and ß-amyloid burden predict cognitive change in healthy elderly.
Neurology
Association between educational attainment and amyloid deposition across the spectrum from normal cognition to dementia: neuroimaging evidence for protection and compensation.
Neurobiology of aging
Qualitative and quantitative assessment of self-reported cognitive difficulties in nondemented elders: Association with medical help seeking, cognitive deficits, and ß-amyloid imaging.
Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Distinct white matter injury associated with medial temporal lobe atrophy in Alzheimer's versus semantic dementia.
Human brain mapping
Subjective cognitive decline in cognitively normal elders from the community or from a memory clinic: Differential affective and imaging correlates.
Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Atrophy, hypometabolism and clinical trajectories in patients with amyloid-negative Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Hippocampal Subfield Volumetry and 3D Surface Mapping in Subjective Cognitive Decline.
Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
FDG-PET Contributions to the Pathophysiology of Memory Impairment.
Neuropsychology review
Atrophy patterns in early clinical stages across distinct phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease.
Human brain mapping
Cognitive and Brain Profiles Associated with Current Neuroimaging Biomarkers of Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Anosognosia in Alzheimer disease: Disconnection between memory and self-related brain networks.
Annals of neurology
The behavioural/dysexecutive variant of Alzheimer's disease: clinical, neuroimaging and pathological features.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Why musical memory can be preserved in advanced Alzheimer's disease.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Existing Pittsburgh Compound-B positron emission tomography thresholds are too high: statistical and pathological evaluation.
Brain : a journal of neurology
Are AD-Typical Regions the Convergence Point of Multiple Pathologies?
Frontiers in aging neuroscience
Effects of age and Alzheimer's disease on hippocampal subfields: comparison between manual and FreeSurfer volumetry.
Human brain mapping
Imaging brain effects of APOE4 in cognitively normal individuals across the lifespan.
Neuropsychology review
Toward a better understanding of the injured hippocampus: multimodal imaging in functionally relevant substructures.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Gene-environment interactions: lifetime cognitive activity, APOE genotype, and ß-amyloid burden.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Hippocampal subfield volumetry in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease and semantic dementia.
NeuroImage. Clinical
Readiness to change and brain damage in patients with chronic alcoholism.
Psychiatry research
Amyloid imaging in cognitively normal individuals, at-risk populations and preclinical Alzheimer's disease.
NeuroImage. Clinical
Impaired decision-making and brain shrinkage in alcoholism.
European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists
Region-specific hierarchy between atrophy, hypometabolism, and ß-amyloid (Aß) load in Alzheimer's disease dementia.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Age effect on the default mode network, inner thoughts, and cognitive abilities.
Neurobiology of aging
The hippocampus remains activated over the long term for the retrieval of truly episodic memories.
PloS one
Using PET with 18F-AV-45 (florbetapir) to quantify brain amyloid load in a clinical environment.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging