Description of Research Expertise

During my Masters in Translational Research (MTR), the focus of my thesis was imaging of small animal models of thoracic malignancy and, through the graduate level courses in cell biology, genetics and cancer biology and under the guidance of Dr. Wafik El-Deiry, M.D. Ph.D. an internationally recognized and accomplished physician-scientist, I have established and characterized working animal models of human thoracic malignancy. Using these animal models I generated clinically relevant hypotheses regarding the variables that may impact imaging biomarkers. Thus far my research has centered on FLT-PET as a marker of therapeutic response.

As part of the MTR program, I have been trained in the basics of clinical research protocol design, the regulatory process, and studied the ethical issues in clinical research. With this training, I wrote two pilot clinical trial protocols resulting in the performance of the first-in-man FLT-PET exam at the University of Pennsylvania several years ago.

Current projects are focused on defining the variables that impact on FLT-PET as a marker of therapeutic response in non-small cell lung cancer.

Description of Clinical Expertise

My clinical expertise is focused on thoracic radiology with a special emphasis on cancer imaging and measures of therapeutic response in thoracic oncology. Through my clinical training background I also have expertise in MRI and cardiovascular imaging.