Department News

Postdoctoral research associate wins Jack Krohmer Junior Investigator Competition

Jian Wu, PhD, shown with the type of head-and-neck images that would be used for the prediction model.

Jian Wu, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate who works with Washington University medical physicist Hua Li, PhD, at Siteman Cancer Center, has won the Jack Krohmer Junior Investigator Competition at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). He was one of 187 young investigators who applied for the honor, which is given to the author of an abstract that is determined to be at the highest level of innovation and potential impact. He will be recognized for the achievement July 30 at the AAPM’s 60th annual meeting, in Nashville.

Wu’s abstract, “Selecting Predictive Genomic Biomarkers for Oropharyngeal Cancer Treatment Prediction by Use of Advanced Machine Learning Method,” discusses the development of a method to select optimal biomarkers – based on a patient’s HPV status and microRNA expression – to predict oropharyngeal cancer recurrence. The research was a collaborative effort between the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Engineering at Washington University and researchers at the University of Rouen in Rouen, France.