IGCT T32 Training Program Faculty Mentors

Dr. Bankson earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. As Professor in the Department of Imaging at MD Anderson, he leads the Magnetic Resonance Engineering Laboratory and serves as Deputy Director of the Small Animal Imaging Facility. 

Dr. Bankson’s research interests are focused on the advancement of healthcare through technological innovations in magnetic resonance imaging involving detector design, RF and systems engineering, pulse sequences, signal encoding, and signal and imaging processing. Through SAIF, he has come to enjoy close collaboration with physician/scientists, radiologists, oncologists, and basic cancer researchers to explore new opportunities and identify critical needs to ensure that imaging science advances alongside novel therapeutic approaches to improve the next generation of clinical care. His academic focus is on quantitative imaging, including dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI and the development and application of metabolic imaging using hyperpolarized (HP) substrates such as [1-13C]-pyruvate. His ultimate goal is to identify and address key technical limitations to these technologies and facilitate their translation into routine use for evaluating disease and response to therapy in clinical care for cancer.

Dr. Brock earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences from the University of Michigan. She is the Executive Director for the Image Guided Cancer Terapy (IGCT) Research Program at MD Anderson, Director of the Morfeus Laboratory, and MPI of the IGCT T32 Training Program. She is board certified by the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Medical Physics. 

Dr. Brock's primary research interest in the interaction of human modeling and radiation therapy. She has investigated the ability of biomechanical models to enhance the veracity of human deformable modeling, and has evaluated the accuracy of deformable alignment methods applied to radiation oncology problems such as contour propagation and dose accumulation. Dr. Brock developed MORFEUS, a comprehensive system for deformable modeling, and leads several investigations in its use on radiation therapy, interventional radiology, surgery, correlative pathology, and in other areas of interest. Over the past few years, Dr. Brock's work has expanded the biomechanical models to describe anatomical response to radiation, including volume changes and position within the human body. 

Dr. Brock's research is focused on development of deformable image registration, artificial intelligence (AI), bimechnaical modeling and image-guided cancer therapy technologies for strategic research collaboration and deployment into the clinical setting. Dr. Brock's Lab is a highly collaborative research training environment in a state-of-the-art imaging facility and world-class resources.

Ongoing projects seeking postdocs include:

• Image-guided surgery
• Image-guided head and neck surgery
• Cancer risk assessment and outcomes prediction using artificial intelligence
• Validating in vivo imaging signals using correlative pathology (NIH/NCI P30 core)
• Image-guided focal liver ablation (NIH/NCI R01)
• Dose accumulation and response assessment for personalized adaptive radiation therapy (NIH/NCI R01)
• Biomedical modeling of the human breast (NIH/NIBIB R01)
• Modeling normal tissue toxicity to identify patients most likely to benefit from proton therapy (NIH/NCI P01)

Dr. Chung’s clinical practice includes the treatment of primary and secondary CNS neoplasms. Her primary research interests have focused on personalized image-guided approaches for the management of brain tumors and metastases. Specifically, this includes the investigation of novel combinations of systemic therapy and radiosurgery for brain metastases and the evaluation of imaging biomarkers of both response and toxicity following treatment. With a translational approach, her preclinical work has included the investigation of conformal radiation in combination with targeted anti-angiogenic therapy in a murine intracranial brain tumor model with serial multiparametric MRI and biofluid measures to discover promising biomarkers of response to guide personalized treatment of brain tumors. The findings from this preclinical work has led to several ongoing clinical trials evaluating serial MRI biomarkers in patients treated with radiosurgery as well as a Phase I dose-escalation trial of anti-angiogenic agent (Sunitinib) in concurrently with radiosurgery. In terms of image-guided therapy, Dr. Chung has also lead the early clinical evaluation of a novel image-guided Gamma Knife radiosurgery unit that incorporates cone-beam CT and infrared intrafraction motion-monitoring. In addition to tumor directed therapy, Dr. Chung is investigating imaging measures and potential treatments of radiation injury in the brain through her translational research and as the principal investigator of a multi-centre Phase II randomized clinical trial of bevacizumab + steroids vs. placebo + steroids through the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology collaborative group.

Dr. Chung was recruited to join MD Anderson in 2016 as an Assistant Professor and Director of MR Research to build a program that would facilitate collaborative research studies of MRI­ guided radiotherapy including the use of MRI for target delineation, real-time MR image guidance of radiation delivery and imaging biomarkers of treatment response and normal tissue toxicity. She is the lead PI for the Tumor Measurement Initiative, a multi-million dollar institutionally funded priority project. As the Director of the Advanced Imaging Initiative within the Radiation Oncology Strategic Initiative, she has established a standardized, clinically operational MR simulation program within Radiation Oncology that enables MR imaging in treatment position across all major tumor sites. This has been complemented with an MR-guided therapy program utilizing the MR-linac.

Dr. Court’s original training and employment were in medical imaging, after which he trained in radiation oncology. He developed CT-guided radiotherapy techniques, and image-registration software and was responsible for the clinical introduction of intensity- modulated radiotherapy, and many image-guided treatment setup techniques. He was also responsible for many clinical physics tasks, including quality assurance and coordination of network clinics. He moved back to MD Anderson in 2010 and is currently leading a research group with 8+ PhD students and several faculty and computational scientists, focusing on two research areas: the applications of image analysis in oncology, including creation of models to predict overall survival based on clinical and imaging factors, and the development of tools to support access to radiation therapy in low-resource settings (including automated treatment planning). Dr. Court also chairs the Medical Physics Graduate Program Admissions Committee, which focuses on recruiting for diversity and holistic admissions review.

Dr. Erik Cressman is an Associate Professor of Interventional Radiology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Cressman received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Utah in 1989 and his Doctorate in Medicine from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1999. He completed his residency in diagnostic radiology as well, and was the inaugural B. Leonard Holman Scholar. Dr. Cressman did his fellowship training in interventional radiology, also at Indiana University, after which he began his career at the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in 2005 where he served as Fellowship Program Director. In 2013, he joined MD Anderson Cancer Center and currently serves as a Research Advisor for the MD Anderson UTHealth Houston GSBS Ph.D. Advisory Committee. He was Chair for the Society of Interventional Radiology Grants and Research Division, was elected a Fellow for the Society of Interventional Radiology, and is a past President of the Society of Thermal Medicine. Dr. Cressman served as the scientific program chair for the 2015 Society of Thermal Medicine annual meeting and as Scientific Vice Chair (2022) and Workshop Chari (2023) of the Society of Interventional Radiology. He is a chater member of the Image-Guided Intervetions and Sugery (IGIS) study stion for the National Institutes of Health.  His clinical interests are in Embolization and Ablation, focused on primary liver cancer and metastatic disease. His research interests are in Tumor Heterogeneity and Metabolism, Thermochemistry, Cell Stress, Cancer Immunology, Thermal Imaging, and Mass Spectrometry Imaging. His goal is to improve patient care and outcomes by developing new approaches to minimally invasive, image-guided oncologic interventions based on the basic science of cancer and cell stress.

Dr. Cressman uses minimally invasive image-guided techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. His background as a chemist with industrial experience prior to becoming an interventional radiologist provides a unique perspective to see opportunities not otherwise apparent. He views the body as a flask in which to perform reactions in situ with diagnostic and therapeutic purpose. He invented the concept of in vivo thermochemistry, a means to deliver the therapy using image guidance, and seeks to understand and exploit the full potential of picotechnology. He established the Image-Guided Chemistry Lab (ICGL) and has built a group with collaborations in essential areas such as thermal imaging and stress responses. His work in thermochemical ablation and thermoembolization opens new frontiers in minimally invasive therapies with multiple simultaneous angles of attack against solid tumors. He has established the new field of convergent orthogonal stress biology. Key to this effort is quantifying the quality of drug delivery with image-guidance and evaluating the impact of interventions. Imaging by CT, fluoroscopy and MRI for both guidance and monitoring is essential. Knowledge of the biological ramifications of these interventions will enable the optimization of the long-term therapeutic benefit. Since few drugs are fluorescent, mass spectrometry imaging is now also an essential component of his work.

Ongoing projects seeking postdocs include:

• In vivo covalent modification of endothelium to sutdy cell trafficking, signaling, and protein-protein interactions
• Restoring an immune permisive mciroenvironment in tumors
• Large animal tumor model development (Oncopig) with image characterization and correlative pathology
• Thermoembolization for rapid and complete transarterial treatment of solid tumors
• Biopsy tract sealing device with magnetic resonance and x-ray image contrast (NIH/NCI R01) 
• Simultaneous Thermal and Osmotic Stresses in Tumor Ablation: Imaging and Biology (NIH/NCI R01) 
• Characterization of endovascular ablative therapies with computational modeling (NIH/NCI R21)

Dr. Fuller's research focus remains development of evidence-based "personalized radiotherapy" techniques by incorporation of novel imaging methodologies. To date, the bulk of his work has focused on improving multimodality (e.g. PET-CT, MRI, US) imaging for target delineation in the multi-institutional setting. He has had specific and singular expertise in imaging physics and human imaging trial design, analysis and execution, acquired as part of his Ph.D. and post-doctoral training. As a formal component of the MD Anderson K12 Paul Calabresi Clinical Trial training program, in addition to direct instruction in clinical trial design and imaging informatics, he has completed ABME board subspecialty certification in Clinical Informatics in addition to primary ABR certification in Radiation Oncology. As a radiation oncologist with informatics certification and formal medical physics training, and is uniquely positioned to execute image-guided radiotherapy clinical trials.

Stephen Y. Lai, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and board-certified head and neck cancer surgeon. He serves as the Quality Officer for the Department of Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Lai received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his medical and doctorate degrees from The University of California, San Francisco. He performed his residency at The University of Pennsylvania and completed his fellowship in oncologic head and neck/cranial base surgery at The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His clinical expertise is in head and neck cancers with a special emphasis on oral cavity cancer, thyroid and parathyroid disease, salivary gland neoplasms, conservation laryngeal surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery. Dr. Lai takes a multidisciplinary approach to the management of head and neck cancer patients with active participation in cutting-edge treatment protocols.

Dr. Lai’s clinical expertise is in head and neck cancers with as special emphasis on oral cavity, thyroid and parathyroid disease, salivary gland neoplasms and conservation laryngeal surgery. He takes a multidisciplinary approach to the management of head and neck cancer patients with active participation in cutting edge treatment protocols. He has developed a research program focused on developing more effective treatment options for head and neck cancers, including ATC and HNSCC. In that effort, he has been working to employ a variety of imaging modalities to assess the effectiveness of targeted therapies in a preclinical platform utilizing xenograft murine models of thyroid and head and neck cancer. His lab has been using this system to identify quantifiable imaging-based biomarkers that may serve to predict tumor response to a specific treatment regimen, resulting in multiple clinical and technical publications. His work has often times required the assembly of a team of co-investigators across a number of scientific and clinical disciplines to complement our scientific knowledge and skills to advance this research directly in the clinical setting. He has also worked closely with trainees and other faculty members to develop researchers focused on head and neck cancers. In his educational role, he has mentored and educated many trainees and fellow in both the clinical and laboratory setting across the entire spectrum of basic, translational and clinical research.

Frederick Lang, M.D., is the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of the Brain Tumor Research Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He joined the faculty in 1996 after completing the Neurosurgical Oncology Fellowship with the Neurosurgery department. He is an NIH-funded, translational researcher who has published extensively on gene, viral, and cellular therapies for brain tumors, and is the principal investigator on multiple clinical trials that investigate these new approaches. He is a past president of the Society of Neuro-Oncology and past chair of the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors. Dr. Lang was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2017. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and has served on the editorial board of several prominent journals. Currently, he serves as the PI for MD Anderson’s Brain Cancer SPORE grant, one of only five such federally funded grants in the country, and co-leader of MD Anderson’s Glioblastoma Moon Shot™. 

Dr. Lang’s research focuses on developing novel biological agents (genes, viruses, stem cells, exosomes, siRNA) for the treatment of brain tumors with the goal of translating these new therapeutic approaches to the clinic. Initial work with adenoviral-mediated p53 gene therapy culminated in a unique phase I trial exploiting histological analyses of post-treatment specimens that demonstrated the need to improve delivery methods for these types of biological therapies. Subsequent work led to the “bench to bedside” development of a novel replication-competent, tumor-selective, tropism-enhanced oncolytic adenovirus, Delta-24-RGD, which demonstrated clinical benefit in 20% of GBM patients in a phase I clinical trial. Delta-24-RGD works by directly killing tumor cells and by activating the immune system. Additional work is now being conducted to develop and test next-generation oncolytic viruses and to understand the mechanisms by which Delta-24-RGD exerts its immune effects. A clinical trial of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) carrying Delta-24-RGD is ongoing. Dr. Lang’s work also evaluates the clinical application of exosomes derived from MSCs as novel biological nanoparticles that can deliver a therapeutic payload. He has shown that ex vivo-cultured MSCs can be engineered to package anti-glioma microRNA into exosomes which home to gliomas and deliver the microRNA to brain tumors after systemic infusion, resulting in killing of tumor cells. Defining the ideal microRNA/siRNA cargoes to be loaded into these exosomes, developing strategies for combining anti-glioma exosomes with Delta-24-RGD, and translating these approaches to the clinic are current goals.

Dr. Lin is a Physician-Scientist and Radiation Oncologist who specializes in thoracic malignancies. His laboratory is committed to developing approaches that will enhance traditional cancer therapies. They have developed a novel radiation sensitizer screen approach to identify in a high throughput manner targeted therapies that could immediately be translated to the clinical setting. Through this effort, two phase I clinical trials have been launched and accruing as a direct result of this research. Dr. Lin continues to apply novel approaches to identify other drivers of treatment resistance, and seek innovative strategies to counterbalance the resistance mechanisms. He is applying candidate gene knockdown or knockout screens to identify immunomodulators or radiation sensitivity modulators. The focus is on clinical translation, taking potential drug candidates and testing them in preclinical studies to validate the utility of combining radiation sensitizers or immunomodulators with standard of care chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy alone approaches for the management of lung and esophageal cancer. Promising agents are brought to the clinic as investigator-initiated trials.

Dr. Lin’s primary research interest focused on ways to enhance radiotherapy cure rates in thoracic cancers, particularly lung and esophageal cancers. One approach is through identifying and developing predictive biomarkers for therapy responsiveness. This could come in the form of functional imaging or blood/tissue-based biomarkers. His lab has discovered a strong association of high-grade lymphopenia and poor clinical outcomes in patients that appears to be related to certain patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics. Efforts are underway to identify strategies to mitigate this treatment related toxicities. Recently they have completed a trial in esophageal cancer that evaluated the utility of Diffusion Weighted MRI on CRT responsiveness. His long-term goal is to develop and validate the aforementioned advanced imaging techniques and translational biomarkers early on in therapy to target non-responders early on in therapy using either radiation enhancing drugs or dose escalated radiation schedules to enhance local control rates.

Dr. Maitra is a Professor of Pathology and Translational Molecular Pathology, and Scientific Director of the Sheikh Ahmed Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (since August 2013). Dr. Maitra is the Principal Investigator of an NCI-funded laboratory dedicated to pancreatic cancer research. Dr. Maitra has trained over three dozen postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, many of whom are now in independent faculty positions in the United States or worldwide.

The arc of his research career has been defined by contributions made in the spheres of genetics and molecular pathology of pancreatic cancer and its precursor lesions, in both human and cognate mouse models of pancreatic neoplasia. Dr. Maitra is deeply committed towards identifying and implementing translational research opportunities in pancreatic cancer that can improve the survival of patients stricken with this disease, with a particular focus on early detection and cancer interception. Dr. Maitra has been a leader on numerous programmatic efforts in pancreatic cancer, funded through both the NCI and foundations such as Stand-Up-To-Cancer/AACR.

Dr. Odisio serves as an Associate Professor and Co-Director of Research at the Department of Interventional Radiology, Division of Diagnostic Imaging. Dr. Odisio also serves as one of the medical directors of the Image Guided Cancer Therapy (IGCT) Research Program. Dr. Odisio's main area of clinical practice and research encompass the use of several minimally invasive local therapies methods for the treatment and palliation of primary and secondary liver malignancies, with an emphasis on the use of percutaneous ablative therapies as a curative-intent treamtnet option for patients with diverse types of liver cancers. Additionally, Dr. Odisio lab investigates the use of novel advanced imaging methods for improving and predicting outcomes of minimally invasive procedures such as chemoembolization and liver ablation, as well as its potential use in combination with hepato-biliary surgical procedures.  He earned his M.D. at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Recife, Brazil) and completed his Clinical Residency in Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging and a Clinical Fellowship in Non-Vascular Interventional and Emergency Radiology at the Hospital das Clinicas Sao Paolo University Medical School (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Dr. Odisio also completed a Clinical Fellowship in Advanced Interventional Radiology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is board certified in Diagnostic Radiology and Interventional Radiology.

Dr. Odisio’s main area of clinical and research interest is the use of loco-regional therapies for the treatment and palliation of primary and secondary liver malignancies. Additionally, Dr. Odisio investigates the use of advanced imaging technologies for improving and predicting outcomes after minimally invasive procedures such as chemoembolization and liver ablation, as well its potential use in combination with hepatobiliary surgical procedures. He is MPI on an NIH-funded R01 investigating the improvement in local control using advanced image guidance for focal ablation of malignancies in the liver. 

The tools of molecular imaging can provide spatially- and temporally-resolved information on biological structures and functions. Because investigators have increasingly recognized the importance of context in the study of gene expression and protein function as well as understanding regulatory mechanisms within cellular micro-environments, many have turned to non-invasive imaging technologies to advance research on human health and disease. These non-invasive imaging strategies can interrogate protein processing, protein-protein interactions, gene expression and flux through metabolic pathways in real-time in cells and live animals, and are increasingly useful in understanding signal transduction and pathobiology of human diseases, including cancer, to facilitate development of effective therapies. His group has used these approaches to investigate mechanisms of regulation of IkB/NFkB signaling, b -catenin processing, multidrug resistance, EGFR signaling, and innate immunity. They have developed high fidelity molecular-specific pharmacodynamic reporters of several anti-cancer drugs useful in whole animal models. They have created a widely-used luciferase protein fragment complementation platform, dual-color protein interaction switches, and fusion reporters for bioluminescent analysis of protein processing in living animals, each with broad applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. By making these constructs and methods freely available, the team helped catalyze the application of genetically-encoded molecular imaging approaches to diverse medical and basic biological questions in a variety of fields. On other fronts, Piwnica-Worm’s group has moved several of their scientific discoveries from bench to bedside, facilitating the goals of precision medicine by translating novel PET tracers and cell-penetrating activatable peptides toward clinical imaging applications.

Dr. Piwinica-Worms develops tools of molecular imaging that can provide spatially- and temporally resolved information on biological structures and functions. His work focuses on the importance of context in the study of gene expression and protein function, as well as understanding regulatory mechanisms within cellular micro-environments, by developing non-invasive imaging technologies to advance research on human health and disease. These non-invasive imaging strategies can interrogate protein processing, protein-protein interactions, gene expression and flux through metabolic pathways in real-time in cells and live animals and are increasingly useful in understanding signal transduction and pathobiology of human diseases, including cancer, to facilitate development of effective therapies. He has been involved in biochemistry and molecular imaging research for over 25 years and has successfully administered research projects and center grants, trained fellows and students, collaborated with a broad cohort of researchers, and produced many peer-reviewed publications directly relevant to this field.

Ongoing projects seeking postdocs include :

Membrane Permeant Peptides for Imaging Cell Function (NIH/NEI R01)
First-in-Human Imaging of Innate Immuntiy Activiation with a Redox-Tuned PET Reporter (NIH/NCI R21)
[18F]4FN PET Imaging of Innate Immunity Activation During Immuntherapy-Induced Adverse Events (NIH/NCI R01) 
[18F]FAZA PET/CT for Monitoring Target Engagement of a Novel Complex I Inhibitor (NIH/NCI R01)
 

Dr. Sawakuchi’s research is at the interface of radiobiology, metabolism, DNA repair, and immunology and currently focuses on understanding how novel compounds that target metabolic and DNA damage response pathways can be leveraged to radiosensitize tumors and activate the immune system to combat cancer. His laboratory studies how different forms of clinical radiation including photons, protons, carbon ions and alpha particles modulate oxidative stress, DNA damage, DNA repair and immune activation.

Dr. Andrew Sikora is a Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Sikora's clinical expertise is in head and neck cancers with a special emphasis on oropharyngeal (throat) cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV)-releated head and neck cancer. He has dedicated much of his profesional career to understanding the immunology of HPV associated oropharynx cancer (HPVOPC) and leveraging this knowledge to develop innovative therapeutic approaches. As a cancer immunologist, his laboratory-based research is focused on identifying and reversing mechanisms of tumor-associated immune suppression, often using preclinical models of HPVOPC. His clinical research efforts are similarly directed towards understanding the interactions of the immune system with standard of care therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation in HPVOPC patients; and testing nomel immune-based therapeutic approaches. 

Dr. Sikora’s clinical expertise is in head and neck cancers with a special emphasis on oropharyngeal (throat) cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV)-related head and neck cancer. He has dedicated much of his professional career to understanding the immunology of HPV-associated oropharynx cancer (HPVOPC) and leveraging this knowledge to develop innovative therapeutic approaches. As a cancer immunologist, his laboratory-based research is focused on identifying and reversing mechanisms of tumor-associated immune suppression, often using preclinical models of HPVOPC. His clinical research efforts are similarly directed towards understanding the interactions of the immune system with standard of care therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation in HPVOPC patients; and testing novel immune-based therapeutic approaches.