Congratulations to Dr. Ralph Mason on His Retirement
With deep appreciation, we celebrate Dr. Ralph Mason’s remarkable 38-year career and his lasting impact on our lab and the field of research. His dedication, leadership, and passion have shaped countless discoveries and inspired many along the way.
While we will greatly miss his guidance and expertise, we are excited for him as he embarks on this well-earned new chapter. Dr. Mason’s legacy will continue to influence our work, and we are grateful for the foundation he has built.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Mason on his retirement and wishing him all the best in this next phase of life!
2024 Dr. Liu Awarded Synergy Grant
UT Southwestern proudly recognizes Dr. Liu as a recipient of the prestigious Synergy Grant! This award highlights groundbreaking collaboration and innovative research aimed at advancing scientific discovery.
Congratulations to Dr. Liu and all recipients for their dedication to pushing the boundaries of medical research!
August 2024
We were delighted to host Summer 2024 interns again this year
Mason Lab and interns 2024 (left to right): Ricardo, Lorena, Dr. Wanniarachchi, Dr. Mason, Julia, Steven, Dr. Liu, Dr. Wang, Dr. Afzal
May 2024
It is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of Professor Eric Hahn (*ERIC HAHN), an inspirational mentor and good friend. Professor Hahn spent several years at UTSW as a member of the Faculty and consultant assisting in the development of investigations regarding tumor hypoxia and radiation response
May 2024
Dr. Mason attended the ISMRM meeting in Singapore and was an invited speaker at the pre-clinical imaging consortium meeting at the CU Anschutz center in Denver
March 2024
Post doc Bushra Afzal presented her work at the annual Radiology Research day at UT Southwestern on 15th May 2024
March 2024
Dr. Mason attended EMIM in Porto followed by presentations in Liverpool and Cambridge
November 2023
Delighted to continue long term collaboration with Professors Kevin Pinney and Mary Lynn Trawick at Baylor university: latest study just published
November 2023
Postdocs Hashini Wanniarachchi and Bushra Afzal Showcase Innovative Research at One Health Symposium
October 2023
Celebrating Excellence: Hashini Wanniarachchi Receives Best Postdoctoral Associate Poster Award
October 2023
We are delighted to be contributing to two presentation at CPRIT this week. Research led by our long time collaborators Drs Pinney and Trawick at Baylor University
October 2023
Celebrating Ricardo's Outstanding Contributions and New Beginnings
September 2023
Mason Lab's Impact at WMIC 2023 in Prague
September 2023
Revolutionizing Lung Cancer Treatment: Dr. Liu's Breakthrough Study ICRR 2023
September 2023
National Postdoc Appreciation Week : Spotlight on Mason Lab's Postdoctoral Trailblazers
August 2023
Lab members enjoyed working with STARS and SURF interns 2023
July 2023
Mason named Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
April 2023
Dr. Wang and Dr. Wanniarachchi give presentations during Radiology Trainee Research Day
April 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Tianyuan Wang on being a awarded a highly competitive CDMRP Kidney Cancer post-doctoral award.
April 2023
Exciting new Collaboration with Professor Leo Cheng and his Team at MGH/Harvard: NIH-Sponsored Study to Quantify Polyamine Synthesis in Rat Prostate Using Advanced NMR Techniques
April 2023
Collaboration Between SMU and Baylor University Teams Yields Exciting New Discovery on Iridium's Role in Enhancing Chemiluminescence
February 2023
Dr. Bushra Afzal joins lab as postdoctoral fellow
December 2022
Post doc Tianyuan Wang and Professor Li Liu led presentations at the recent Radiation Research Society Annual meeting in Hawaii
Tian presented ““Using multispectral optoacoustic tomography to evaluate heme targeting agent - radiation combination therapeutic strategy against lung cancer“ and Li presented ““Potentially enhanced radiation response in lung cancer by combination with heme-targeting agents evaluated using multimodality imaging”” Both studies represent progress in a productive collaboration with Professor Li Zhang at UTD and the Department of Radiation Oncology at UTSW.
November 2022
Team made two presentations at WMIC in Miami Beach September 2022. Studies examined novel vascular disputing agents using dynamic bioluminescence imaging and photo acoustics.
September 2022
Tianyuan Wang wins Best Postdoctoral Associate Poster Award at the Inaugural Workshop on Imaging and Data Science
The Workshop on Imaging and Data Science brings together the investigators at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and builds strong collaborations between UTD and UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW). The workshop brings engineers, computer scientists, surgeons, radiologists, and clinicians together and translates innovative imaging and surgical technologies from our engineering laboratories at UTD to clinical settings at UTSW with the goal of improving human health.
July 2022
Lab Welcomes New Research Assistant
Ricardo Rayas joined the team in July 2022 to support investigations of novel vascular disrupting agents in therapeutic combinations to treat kidney cancer
October 2021
Two papers describe latest research in the PIRL
A long-term collaboration with Dr. Kevin Pinney and Dr. Mary Lynn Trawick of Baylor University has resulted in an exciting new therapeutic approach that exploits vascular disruption.
September 2021
Lab welcomes new manager, postdoc
The Mason Lab recently welcomed Lorena Arango, B.S., as lab manager and research assistant, and Tianyuan Wang, Ph.D., as a postdoctoral researcher.
April 2021
Oxygen-sensitive MRI could help personalize cancer radiation therapy
A type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that shows the level of oxygen in tumors may predict which ones will respond well to radiation therapy, research led by UT Southwestern scientists suggests.
April 2021
New review highlights imaging the activities of vascular disrupting agents
The review considers technological strengths and weaknesses.
April 2021
Lab members enjoyed working with STARS interns
Members of the Mason Lab were delighted to welcome Jasmine Jones and Aaron Chila as STARS interns in the PIRL this summer.
April 2021
Dr. Hashini Wanniarachchi joins lab as postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Hashini Wanniarachchi has joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow.
November 2020
Productive New Collaboration with Harvard
In vivo hypoxia characterization using blood oxygen level dependent magnetic resonance imaging in a preclinical glioblastoma mouse model
November 2020
Congratulations Devin O'Kelly!
Congratulations to Devin O’Kelly on the successful defense of his PhD dissertation entitled: “Development of Applications and Quantitative Frameworks for Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography”.
October 2020
We welcome new research assistant, Regan Schuetze to the lab.
The PIRL lab welcomes new research assistant Regan Schuetze. Regan is from San Antonio, TX and recently graduated from Furman University with a BS in Neuroscience.
September 2020
Attacking Tumors From the Inside
Drs. Ralph Mason, Li Liu, and Yihang Guo, and researcher Jeni Gerberich used a new tool called multispectral optoacoustic tomography to examine non-small cell lung cancer tumors growing in mice. The study showed two experimental drugs can normalize the tumor microenvironment, helping to suppress a tumor's growth and spread.
August 2020
New Grad Student
We welcome Natalie Bell to pursue a research rotation in our lab.
August 2020
Introduction to the Predictive Imaging Research Lab
July 2020
New R01 to support development of novel vascular disrupting agent in combination with HIF2 antagonist for effective treatment of kidney cancer.
We are excited to have been awarded a new R01 from the National Cancer Institute "Vascular Image-Guided Optimization of Response (VIGOR)to Therapy in Kidney Cancer" to develop effective therapy using a novel vascular disrupting agent in combination with the HIF2 antagonist. The project continues a collaboration with Professor Kevin Pinney and Dr. Mary Lynn Trawick of Baylor University who originally invented OXi8007. It exploits non-invasive bioluminescence imaging and the latest multispectral optoacoustic tomography to evaluate new tumor models developed by the UTSW Kidney SPORE.
June 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Li Liu and team on new manuscript published in Cancer Research.
The study nicely exploits MSOT and BLI to explore mechanisms of action of two new potential cancer therapeutics.
May 2020
Graduate Student Devin O'Kelly's paper accepted in Photoacoustics
“Evaluating Online Filtering Algorithms to Enhance Dynamic Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography” D. O’Kelly, Y. Guo, and R. P. Mason, Photoacoustics, accepted 2020
February 2020
Dr. Li Liu is awarded CPRIT Grant funding
Congratulations Dr. Li Liu on CPRIT grant funding for "Optimizing Therapeutic Strategies Against Lung Cancer Using Multimodality Imaging."
December 2019
2019-2020 CIP-BME Seminar Schedule
Announcing the new 2019-2020 CIP-BME Seminar Series Schedule.
August 2019
Welcome Visiting Fellows
We are delighted to welcome Drs. Honghong Wang and Yihang Guo to the lab as guests of Dr. Li Liu.
Dr. Yihang Guo M.D., Ph.D. is a visiting fellow from Xiangya Medical School of Central South University.
Dr. Honghong Wang is a visiting fellow from Tongji Hospital associated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology
July 2019
New year’s trifecta: papers accepted in Magn Reson. Med, JMRI and NMRBiomed in 2019
Four new manuscripts have been accepted on oxygen sensitive MRI in 2019 including:
“The effect of flow on BOLD (R2*) MRI of orthotopic lung tumor” H. Zhou, O. Belzile, Z. Zhang, J. Wagner, C. Ahn, J. A. Richardson, D. Saha, R. A. Brekken and R. P. Mason, Magn. Reson. Med., Early View on 29 January, 2019 2019 DOI:10.1002/mrm.27661
“Oxygen-Sensitive MRI Assessment of Tumor Response to Hypoxic Gas Breathing Challenge”, D. M. Yang, T. J. Arai, J. W. Campbell III, J. L. Gerberich, H. Zhou, and R. P. Mason, NMRBiomed, 32 (7) e4101 July 2019
“Translating pre-clinical magnetic resonance imaging methods to clinical oncology” D. A. Hormuth, II, G. Sorace, J. Virostko, R. G. Abramson, Z. M. Bhujwalla, P. Enriquez-Navas, R. Gillies, J. D. Hazle, R. P. Mason, C. Chad Quarles, J. A. Weis, J. G. Whisenant, J. Xu, T. E. Yankeelov, JMRI accepted March 2019 DOI:10.1002/jmri.26731
“Examining Correlations of Oxygen Sensitive MRI (BOLD/TOLD) with [18F]FMISO PET in Rat Prostate Tumors”, H. Zhou, S. Chiguru, R. R. Hallac, Yang, G. Hao, P. Peschke, R. P. Mason, Am J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2019 Apr 15;9(2):156-167. eCollection 2019
Kudos to Dr. Heling Zhou who was author of three papers.
October 2018
Schedule for CIP-BME Seminar Program announced.
The speakers for the 2018-19 joint BME-Cancer Imaging Program have been announced.
September 2018
Dr. Donghan "Mo" Yang is leaving the lab on September 17.
Dr. Donghan “Mo” Yang is leaving the lab for a new opportunity as a data scientist in the Quantitative Biomedical Research Center at UT Southwestern. We wish Mo every success in his future career and look forward to continued collaboration.
September 2018
Dr. Li Liu will give lecture and present posters at 2018 WMIC
Congratulations to Dr. Li Liu who will be busy at the upcoming 2018 World Molecular Imaging Conference (WMIC) in Seattle, WA. Dr. Liu will give a lecture on September 11th at the iThera workshop immediately preceding the WMIC meeting entitled: Evaluation of Vascular Disrupting Agents (VDAs) using Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography.
On September 15th, Dr. Liu will moderate a session on Oncology: New Biology.
She will also present two posters at the conference:
#219: Assessing Combretastatin A-4 Phosphate Activity for Lung Cancer by Multimodality Imaging
#152: Preclinical Photoacoustic Tomography of Tumor Vascular Response After Treatment with Microtubule Inhibitor BPR0L075
September 2018
Dr. Heling Zhou is leaving the lab for a new opportunity at Vanguard.
Following a competitive fellowship with Insight Technologies in New York this summer, Dr. Heling Zhou has secured an exciting opportunity with Vanguard. We wish Heling every success in her future career and thank her for her contributions to our research, excellent productivity and spirit of collegiality!
June 2018
Research led by post doc Mo Yang receives Magna cum laude Merit Award at 2018 ISMRM
Research led by post doc Donghan "Mo" Yang was awarded Magna cum laude recognition at the 2018 ISMRM annual meeting being held in Paris, France June 16-21, 2018. Mo's submission is entitled: Assessing Tumor Hypoxia Based on Hypoxic Gas Breathing.
Donghan Yang, James Campbell III, Jenifer Gerberich, Heling Zhou, Ralph Mason
Tumor response to hypoxic gas breathing challenge was explored using oxygen-sensitive MRI in rat 13762NF breast tumors and compared with the more conventional hyperoxic gas breathing challenge. In viable tumor regions, blood oxygenation decreased with 16% O2breathing (demonstrated by an increase in R2*). A unique “on-and-off” pattern in T1-weighted signal intensity, which was closely related to tumor hypoxia level, was triggered by 16% O2 breathing but not 100% O2 breathing. When combined with hypoxic gas breathing, oxygen-sensitive MRI may reveal tumor hypoxia threshold, which is important for assessing the efficacy of hypoxia-activated prodrugs.