Congratulations to our newest PhD! Dr. Fiona Ruiz successfully defended her thesis on Thursday, November 14, 2019. Dr. Ruiz’s thesis, Investigating biological mechanisms of radiation resistance in advanced stage cervical cancer, was completed under the direction of Julie Schwarz, MD, PhD, Vice Chair for Research and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology.
The Cancer Biology Division had an impressive number of presenters and attendees at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society.
Dennis Hallahan, MD, FASTRO, Elizabeth H. and James S. McDonnell III Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, has been awarded two research grants from the National Institute of Health. The first is for one year and is entitled “Design and Development of Targeted-Liposome for drug delivery to lung cancer by exploiting a vulnerability induced by radiotherapy”. The second research award is for two years and is entitled “Humanization, Production, and PK/PD Characterization of anti-TIP1 antibody against Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer”.
Deshan Yang, PhD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, was awarded an R03 grant from the National Institute of Health for his research entitled “An interactive deep-learning method to semi-automatically segment abdominal organs to support stereotactic MR guided online adaptive radiotherapy (SMART) for abdominal cancers”
PhD student Kinan Alhallak won the Best Poster Award at the international meeting for nano-drug delivery systems, NanoDDS! Held at MIT in Boston, Kinan got this award for his cutting-edge research in improving immunotherapy using drug delivery and biomedical engineering approaches. Kinan is a member of the Azab Lab.
US News recently highlighted the research findings of Dr. Srivastava, Resident Physician. His findings noted that as many women’s health clinics across America have closed, cervical cancer screening rates fell and deaths from the disease rose.
At the 2019 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium in Glasgow, Scotland, Chris Pacia, member of the Chen Lab and mentee of Hong Chen, PhD, was awarded the Student Paper Award! This is the most prestigious student award in the ultrasound field. His paper is entitled “Feasibility and Safety of Focused Ultrasound-Enabled Brain Tumor Liquid Biopsy (FUS-LBx) in a Porcine Model”.
Dr. William Kennedy, Resident Physician, has had two recent journal publications. The first is the Green Journal with Dr. Robinson, Dr. Bradley and Dr. Roach on reirradiation with lung SBRT for isolated local recurrences. The second is research published in Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO) with Dr. Zoberi on long-term outcomes of external beam APBI.
Dr. David Curiel has received multiple research grants from the NIH this summer, including: $1.46M over 4 years for “Novel Vector Platform for Gene Therapy”, $3.3M over 3 years for “A 3D In Vitro Disease Model of Atrial Conduction”, and $2.2M over 3 years for “Endothelial-Targeted Adenovirus for Organ-Selective Gene Editing In Vivo”
The research of Dr. Clifford Robinson and Dr. Phillip Cuculich was reported Sept. 15 at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Dr. Hallahan is being recognized for his success in producing technologies that impact society and for demonstrating substantial training and mentoring of the next generation of inventors. This is the first time that any member of the faculty within our department has been recognized by any of the four national academies: science, medicine, engineering and inventors. Dr. Hallahan is also the first radiation oncologist in the world to be elected into the National Academy of Inventors!
Recently published in Pharmaceutical Research is Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology Kareem Azab, PhD, and the Azab Lab: azablab.wustl.edu for their work in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy. Read the abstract here: bit.ly/31D1Yuj
Hyun Kim, MD and Justin Park, PhD, were both invited lecturers at the MR Symposium last month at Catholic University St. Mary’s Hospital in Korea. They were appointed as Research Technical Consultants for the MR Research Program, with a service period of two years. In addition they were honored to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Asia ViewRay Referral Center at St. Mary’s Hospital.
Our partnership with LIGA/INCAN in Guatemala is making huge strides! In our continuing effort to help modernize radiation therapy for the underserved in Guatemala, and with a grant from USAID, the Varian Halcyon, similar to what we use here at Siteman Cancer Center has just been installed.Also, a massive container full of office furniture and supplies donated by BJH and Washington University also made it through customs in Guatemala last week and has been very appreciated.More updates to come! Full backstory: bit.ly/2UFdRg7
Following up on the tremendous success of last year’s event with over 180 participants from around the world, we are pleased to invite you to the 2nd Annual Symposium for Noninvasive Radioablation (SNORAD) to be held in St. Louis, MO from September 11-12, 2019.
This two day event is targeted toward heart rhythm specialists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and other health professionals who are interested in learning more about the use of noninvasive radioablation for arrhythmia treatment.
Medical Physics resident Nichole Maughan has published her findings in AAPM’s Journal of Medical Physics.
The Office of Technology Management honored 2018 Patent Awardees at a Celebration of Inventors. Dr. Dennis Hallahan was recognized for the 2 patents he received last year, and he now holds 33 total in the US and many more worldwide. He also has several patents pending.
The clinical team at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has treated its 1,000th patient using MRIdian MR-guided radiation therapy.
Dr. Hiram Gay discusses disaster preparedness in the wake of Maria and lessons learned from the hurricane.
Dr. Rudra’s research “Using adaptive magnetic resonance image‐guided radiation therapy for treatment of inoperable pancreatic cancer” has been published in the journal Cancer Medicine and imagery from the research has been chosen for this issue’s front cover.
Radiation Therapy Workflow and Dosimetric Analysis from a Phase 1/2 Trial of Noninvasive Cardiac Radioablation for Ventricular Tachycardia
A new study led by Brian Baumann, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, found that proton therapy (bottom of photo) is associated with fewer severe side effects than conventional X-ray radiation therapy (top of photo) for many cancer patients.
Hong Chen, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, received a $470,500 research grant from the Office of Naval Research to develop sensors for investigating microcavitation as a potential mechanism for traumatic brain injury.
Julie K. Schwarz, MD, PhD, has been appointed vice chair for research in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.