Personnel
Leadership Team
Rong Zhou, PhD
Professor of Radiology, Full member of Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Zhou was trained as a biophysicist and has a strong track record in developing in vivo quantitative imaging tools that can be translated to the clinic. She has integrated these imaging tools in the development of novel therapeutic approaches targeting cancer microenvironment, bioenergetics and glutamine metabolism in mouse models. She will co-lead the development of this imaging resource that includes (1) optimization of the preclinical quantitative MRI methods for probing tumor microenvironment, (2) conducting the co-clinical trial (in mice and in human) in which the utilities of imaging tools will be examined, and finally (3) outreaching to research community via sharing of data and resources developed in this project.
Peter O’Dwyer, MD
Director, Developmental Therapeutics Program, Abramson Cancer Center
Peter O’Dwyer, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Presbyterian Medical Center of Philadelphia. Dr. O’Dwyer received his MD from The University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in 1975. He was a Resident in Pediatrics from Waterbury Hospital, Waterbury, Connecticut (1976-1979), and a Resident in Internal Medicine, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland (1979-1981). Dr O’Dwyer specializes in gastrointestinal oncology, and is an expert at the Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center.
Mark A. Rosen, MD, PhD
Division Chief, Abdominal Imaging, Hospital Of The University Of Pennsylvania
Dr. Mark Rosen is a radiologist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and has been in practice for more than 20 years. He specializes in diagnostic radiology and is an expertise at Functional Tumor MR Imaging research and Morphologic Tumor Response Evaluation.
Coinvestigators
Stephen Pickup, PhD
Director, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Sub-Core
pickup@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-746-1423
Dr Pickup has been responsible for the support and maintenance of MR spectrometers for preclinical in vivo MRI/S since 1999 and has served as the technical director of the Small Animal Imaging Facility (SAIF) in the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania since it was founded in spring of 2006. Dr Pickup also serves as the Director of the magnetic resonance sub core of SAIF and has been responsible for a major modernization and expansion of the magnetic resonance facilities. Under his direction and with the successful development/optimization of a variety of MR imaging/spectroscopic techniques, the use of the core resource has grown steadily. He has worked with and trained numerous graduate students, post doctoral students and faculty members. Dr Pickup has mentored three PhD students and coauthored approximately 75 publications.
Hee Kwon Song, PhD
Associate Professor of Radiologic Science in Radiology
Dr. Song is a biomedical engineer with a strong background in MRI physics and expertise in various areas of MRI engineering. Dr. Song has extensive experience in developing novel dynamic imaging strategies in MRI. For over a decade, his research has focused on the development of dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-) MRI strategies based on novel radial data acquisition and reconstruction methods that allow ultra-rapid dynamic imaging at both high spatial and high temporal resolutions. Utilizing the golden angle radial acquisition strategy, Dr. Song also developed and implemented effective strategies to retrospectively compensate for respiratory motion in DCE-MRI.
Thomas Karasic, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr Karasic was A graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Karasic was an intern and resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he subsequently completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology. Dr. Karasic specializes in gastrointestinal malignancies, with a focus on liver and pancreatic cancers.
Emma Furth, MD
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Emma Furth, MD is an anatomic & clinical pathology specialist in Philadelphia, PA and has been practicing for 28 years. She graduated from University Of Chicago/The Pritzker School Of Medicine in 1984 and specializes in anatomic & clinical pathology and pathology.
Cynthia Clendenin, VMD
Scientific Director, Pancreatic Cancer Mouse Hospital at University of Pennsylvania
Dr Clendenin received her VMD at Penn Veterinary Hospital. She is currently the scientific director at Mouse Hospital at Unviersity of Pennsylvania. The Pancreatic Cancer Mouse Hospital of the Abramson Cancer Center was established as a facility to conduct preclinical trials on mice. She oversees quality standard and operations of mice research.
Jinbo Chen, PhD
Professor Of Biostatistics In Biostatistics And Epidemiology
Dr. Chen’s research focuses primarily on the development of statistical methods for designing and analyzing two-phase epidemiologic studies, on methodological and collaborative work in genetic-association studies of complex diseases, and on the development and evaluation of risk-prediction models.
Yong Fan
Assistant Professor of Radiology
yong.fan@uphs.upenn.edu
Dr. Fan’s interests are in the field of imaging analytics, machine learning, and pattern recognition, and more generally in computational imaging. Much of his work has been focusing on development and application of advanced machine learning techniques that quantify morphology and function from medical images. On the clinical side, his primary focus is on applications in clinical neuroscience, in cancer, and in chronic kidney disease, aiming to develop precision diagnostic tools using machine learning and pattern analysis.
James Gee
Associate Professor of Radiologic Science and Computer and Information Science
Dr. Gee directs the Penn Image Computing and Science Laboratory (PICSL). PICSL is known internationally for methodological innovations, and for accomplishments in highly acclaimed open-source software including ITK-SNAP, ANTs, DTI-TK, N4ITK and ITK, which are consistently ranked as the best performing and most widely used applications intranslating research.
Contact Us
Penn Quantitative Imaging Resource for Pancreatic Cancer
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
3620 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email: U24MRI@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-746-8747
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