The O’Dorisio Memorial Lecture, 2026

The late Tom O’Dorisio, MD, and Sue O’Dorisio, MD, were leaders in the field of neuroendocrine tumors (NET) research and treatment, establishing an NIH-funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant within the UI’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2015. This was quickly followed by a designation as a Center of Excellence, the first in North America, by the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society. It is still the only such center in the United States today.

The O’Dorisio Memorial Lecture was first established by the department to honor the memory of Tom O’Dorisio, after his death in 2022. The lecture has been renamed now to honor Sue O’Dorisio as well after her death in 2025. Lecture organizer Joseph Dillon, MD, professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism, and a longtime collaborator of both O’Dorisios in the SPORE, invited Michael K. Schultz, PhD, to deliver this year’s lecture.

Schultz is the co-founder and chief science officer of Perspective Therapeutics and an associate professor emeritus of radiology and free radical and radiation biology at the University of Iowa. The work he came to Iowa to discuss got its start, he explained, because of Sue O’Dorisio’s encouragement and mentorship. That work, across two decades and more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, primarily has focused on alpha-particle radionuclide therapy for NETs.

Schultz shared his personal and professional journey and the results currently in multiple clinical trials with both the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at their Thursday morning Grand Rounds and then with the larger department later that day at Internal Medicine Grand Rounds.