Jan Bucerius new professor of nuclear medicine at Med Uni Graz

On 2 May 2025 Jan Bucerius was appointed University Professor of Nuclear Medicine at the Medical University of Graz. The internationally renowned expert has also taken over as head of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the Department of Radiology at University Hospital Graz. With his comprehensive expertise in nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapy— especially in the field of positron emission tomography (PET/CT) and nuclear cardiology he gives new momentum to research, education and patient care at Med Uni Graz.

Scientific career with international experience

Jan Bucerius was born in Cologne in 1971 and graduated with a medical degree from the University of Cologne, where he also finished his doctorate in 2002. After gaining his first clinical experience —at the University Clinic of Cardiac Surgery at Heart Center Leipzig at the University of Leipzig, among others—he completed his specialist training in nuclear medicine at the University of Bonn, where he finished his habilitation in 2010.

Active in international research and teaching, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Associate Professor at the Department of Nuclear Medicine (where he was also a clinical senior physician) of Maastricht University Medical Center and at the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) in the Netherlands. From 1 September 2019 until his departure at the end of April 2025, he was University Professor of Nuclear Medicine and director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University Medical Center Göttingen.

Jan Bucerius is also an active member of the German Society of Nuclear Medicine, the European Association of Nuclear Medicine and the German Cardiac Society.

Research focus and scientific goals

In his research, Jan Bucerius focuses on the following areas:

• PET imaging in atherosclerosis—development and application of medical imaging for early detection of cardiovascular disease
• Systemic inflammation diagnostics—use of nuclear medicine procedures to represent systemic inflammatory processes throughout the body
• Whole body diagnostics of inter-organ axes with PET—combination of molecular imaging with e. g. biomarker screenings for early and precise clarification of pathological inter organ relations (for example Heart-Brain-Axis).
• Translational research on patient-centered therapy planning—targeted use of radioactive tracers in individually adapted (systemic) therapy

With these focus areas, Jan Bucerius is pursuing the goal of developing nuclear medicine as an integral part of personalized, interdisciplinary, precision- and patient-oriented medicine.

Vision for Med Uni Graz

Jan Bucerius sees the future of nuclear medicine in inter-organ diagnostics and therapy. Furthermore, he would like to help identify patients with systemic elevated (inflammatory) biomarkers early on and provide a specific diagnosis using innovative PET imaging.

"My goal is to use modern whole body PET and innovative tracer technologies to uncover the causes of disease on a very early stage so that it’s possible to provide treatment—across different medical disciplines," says the newly appointed professor.

From his perspective, the Division of Nuclear Medicine and its team at University Hospital Graz offer the ideal conditions for this vision. Along with Med Uni Graz colleagues, not least the other imaging disciplines, he would like to develop the division into an internationally visible center for systemic and inter-organ nuclear medicine diagnostics that provides a strong impetus for research, education, clinical care and interdisciplinary cooperation.