Lale Kostakoglu Shields, MD, MPH

Lale Kostakoglu Shields, MD, MPH, is a professor of radiology and medical imaging at UVA, where she is director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine. Before arriving at UVA, she was a professor of radiology and chief of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Shields is a recognized leader in the use of molecular imaging with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), which provides a detailed look at what is happening in the body at the cellular level. She is also well regarded for her expertise in the radionuclide treatment of various cancers. This therapy uses a radioactive drug to target cancer cells.

Shields has had a longstanding interest in evaluating patient response to cancer treatments like these and others. Her research interests include investigating new radiopharmaceutical therapies of cancer directed by molecular imaging, and ways to integrate them into an individualized cancer management plan. Shields sees a wide range of patients from oncology, cardiology and neurology, among other specialties.

Shields earned her medical degree from Ege University Faculty of Medicine in Izmir, Turkey. She then moved to the United States to complete her residency in nuclear medicine, followed by a fellowship in nuclear medicine and immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. While in New York, she also received a Master of Public Health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.