October
Mason Lab Congratulates Bushra Afzal on the Birth of Her Baby Girl
Read the Full Announcement
August
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
Read the Full AnnouncementMay
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
Read the Full AnnouncementMay
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
Read the Full AnnouncementMarch
Post doc Bushra Afzal presented her work at the annual Radiology Research day at UT Southwestern on 15th May 2024
Read the Full AnnouncementMarch
Dr. Mason attended EMIM in Porto followed by presentations in Liverpool and Cambridge
Read the Full AnnouncementNovember
Delighted to continue long term collaboration with Professors Kevin Pinney and Mary Lynn Trawick at Baylor university: latest study just published
Read the Full AnnouncementNovember
Postdocs Hashini Wanniarachchi and Bushra Afzal Showcase Innovative Research at One Health Symposium
Read the Full Announcement
October
Celebrating Excellence: Hashini Wanniarachchi Receives Best Postdoctoral Associate Poster Award
Read the Full AnnouncementOctober
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
Read the Full AnnouncementOctober
Celebrating Ricardo's Outstanding Contributions and New Beginnings
Read the Full Announcement
September
Revolutionizing Lung Cancer Treatment: Dr. Liu's Breakthrough Study ICRR 2023
Read the Full Announcement
September
National Postdoc Appreciation Week : Spotlight on Mason Lab's Postdoctoral Trailblazers
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July
Mason named Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Read the Full Announcement
April 2023
Dr. Wang and Dr. Wanniarachchi give presentations during Radiology Trainee Research Day
Read the Full Announcement
April 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Tianyuan Wang on being a awarded a highly competitive CDMRP Kidney Cancer post-doctoral award.
Read the Full AnnouncementApril 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
Read the Full AnnouncementApril 2023
Collaboration Between SMU and Baylor University Teams Yields Exciting New Discovery on Iridium's Role in Enhancing Chemiluminescence
Read the Full Announcement
February 2023
Dr. Bushra Afzal joins lab as postdoctoral fellow
We're excited to welcome Dr. Bushra Afzal to our lab as a postdoctoral fellow. With a strong background in nanotechnology and a track record of publishing in prestigious journals, Dr. Afzal will be focusing her research on delivering nanoparticles to promote angiogenesis and restore muscle function in mice as a model of Peripheral Artery Disease at UT Southwestern Medical Center. We look forward to the impact she will make in advancing medical research.
Read the Full Announcement
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.
Read the Full AnnouncementNovember 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.
Read the Full Announcement
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.
Read the Full AnnouncementJuly 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
Read the Full AnnouncementOctober 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.
Read the Full AnnouncementSeptember 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.
Read the Full AnnouncementApril 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.
Read the Full AnnouncementApril 2021
New review highlights imaging the activities of vascular disrupting agents
The review considers technological strengths and weaknesses.
Read the Full AnnouncementApril 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.
Read the Full AnnouncementApril 2021
Dr. Hashini Wanniarachchi joins lab as postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Hashini Wanniarachchi has joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow.
Read the Full AnnouncementNovember 2020
Productive New Collaboration with Harvard
In vivo hypoxia characterization using blood oxygen level dependent magnetic resonance imaging in a preclinical glioblastoma mouse model
Read the Full Announcement
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”.
His research has already led to three papers
“Tomographic Breathing Detection- A Method to Noninvasively Assess in situ Respiratory Dynamics”, D. O'Kelly, H. Zhou, R. P. Mason, J. Biomed. Optics, 23(5), 056011 (May 2018)
“Evaluating Online Filtering Algorithms to Enhance Dynamic Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography” D. O’Kelly, Y. Guo, and R. P. Mason, Photoacoustics, 19, 100184 2020
“A Scalable Open-Source MATLAB Toolbox for Reconstruction and Analysis of Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography Data” Devin O’Kelly, James Campbell III, Jeni L. Gerberich, Paniz Karbasi, Venkat Malladi, Andrew Jamieson, Liqiang Wang, Ralph P. Mason- submitted
Devin will be starting at BioHPC as a Computational Scientist on Jan 4, 2021
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.
The findings, published online in Cancer Research, highlight the use of this novel visualization tool as well as the promise of these drugs for NSCLC, a disease that remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. despite decades of research.
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.
View Published ManuscriptMay 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
View Published PaperFebruary 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.
View the ScheduleAugust 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.
View the ProgramSeptember 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.
June 2018
Congratulations to the team--3 new papers in one month!
Tomographic breathing detection: a method to noninvasively assess in situ respiratory dynamics. O'Kelly D, Zhou H, Mason RP. J Biomed Opt. 2018 May;23(5):1-6. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.23.5.056011.
MR-CBCT image-guided system for radiotherapy of orthotopic rat prostate tumors. Chiu TD, Arai TJ, Campbell III J, Jiang SB, Mason RP, Stojadinovic S. PLoS One. 2018 May 30;13(5):e0198065. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198065. eCollection 2018
Energy transfer chemiluminescence for ratiometric pH imaging. An W, Mason RP, Lippert AR. Org Biomol Chem. 2018 May 22. doi: 10.1039/c8ob00972d. [Epub ahead of print]
May 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Heling Zhou
Congratulations to post doc Heling Zhou on being recognized at the Radiology Research Day for Best Basic Science e-Presentation.
Heling has also been awarded a prestigious data engineering summer fellowship in the Insight Data Fellows Program, New York.
April 2018
Congratulations to Devin O'Kelly and the winning team at the 2018 Computational and Systems Biology retreat
Graduate student Devin O'Kelly (second from left) and the rest of the winning team of the puzzle hunt at the recent Computational and Systems Biology retreat held April 12, 2018 at the Filter Building at White Rock Lake.
April 2018
We welcome new visiting fellows from Chongqing, China
We are pleased to welcome new members to the laboratory; visiting fellows from Chongqing, China who will work with Dr. Li Liu for the coming year:
Jingyu Chen holds a doctorate in imaging and nuclear medicine from Chongqing Medical University and currently serves as a deputy chief physician in the Department of Ultrasound, children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Her research interests include nanobubbles and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) in ablation of breast tumors and ultrasonic speckle analysis techniques in HIFU ablation for liver tumors.
Shigen Zhong is a Ph.D. candidate in Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Chongqing Medical University. He is currently an attending physician of ultrasound in the Department of Ultrasound at the General Hospital of Chongqing. His thesis is entitled: Ultrasound molecular imaging of myocardial scars with CNA35 collagen-targeting phase-shift perfluorocarbon nanoparticles.
January 2018
New subcontracts on collaborative research projects.
The Mason research team receives new subcontracts on collaborative research projects.
In collaboration with Dr. Evan Unger and NuvOx Pharma LLC we will assess modulation of glioma hypoxia as part of a Randomized Prospective Phase II Clinical Trial of NVX-108 in Association with Chemoradiation sponsored by NIH/NCI: 2R44CA144817.
In collaboration with Dr. Alex Lippert of SMU we will assist in the development of Triggered Energy Transfer Chemiluminescence for In Vivo Imaging, sponsored by a CAREER grant from the NSF: 1653474.
December 2017
Mason Lab moves to J2/G2
The Mason lab relocated to new facilities on J2 in April and Drs. Mason, Liu and Melody Reeves have now moved into new offices in G2.232 adjacent to the labs.
June 2017
Congratulations to Mo Yang on receiving the award for Best Basic Science e-Poster presentation at the 2017 Radiology Research Day.
Mo's winning e-Poster is entitled: Oxygenation Responses to Hypoxic Respiratory Challenge in 13762NF Rat Breast Tumor
May 2017
Congratulations to Jeni Gerberich for 10 years of service.
Congratulations to our lab manager, Jeni Gerberich, on ten years of service with UTSW!
April 2017
Congratulations to Dr. Heling Zhou
Congratulations to Dr. Heling Zhou, who has been elected as Co-Trainee Representative for the MR of Cancer Study Group of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. She will be appointed during the upcoming 2017 ISMRM Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Honolulu.
MR of Cancer Study GroupMarch 2017
The Mason lab will present 7 e-posters at the upcoming ISMRM meeting in Hawaii at the end of April.
Members of the lab will present 7 e-posters at the upcoming ISMRM meeting in Hawaii at the end of April. Dr. Mason will also present an educational talk on 19F NMR. Congratulations to Drs. Heling Zhou, Tatsuya Arai and Donghan Yang for successfully competing for travel awards to attend the meeting.
"Evaluation of tumor oxygenation following radiation and PS-targeting antibody therapy in an orthotopic lung cancer model" H. Zhou, O. Belzile, Z. Zhang, D. Saha, J. Wagner, B. Sishc, R. Brekken, R. P. Mason
"Exploring flow effects on BOLD MRI with oxygen challenge in orthotopic lung tumor model" H. Zhou, Z. Zhang, J. Campbell, Z. Zhang, D. Saha, S. Zhang, M. Takahashi, R. P. Mason
"Multiparametric MRI assessment of tumor physiological changes during hypofractionated SABR" H. Zhou, Z. Zhang, R. Denney, J. S. Williams, J. Gerberich, S. Stojadinovic, D. Saha, J. M. Shelton, R. P. Mason
“Probing Tumor Oxygenation Response to Hypoxic Gas Breathing.” D. M. Yang, T. J. Arai, J. Campbell, and R. P. Mason
”Characterization of Intratumoral Heterogeneity Based on BOLD Effect: A Study in 13762NF Breast Tumor”, D. M. Yang, T. J. Arai, J. Campbell, and R. P. Mason
“Numerical Model of Bi-Exponential T2 Decay-Based Magnetic Resonance Oximetry Imaging”, T. J. Arai, D. M. Yang, J. Campbell, R. P. Mason
"Comparison of Quantitative Specific Ventilation Imaging in the Lung with Oxygen Enhanced 1H and 3He Multibreath MRI," T. J. Arai, F. C. Horn, G. J. Collier, M. R. Rao, R. J. Theilmann, R. C. Sá, G. K. Prisk, J. M. Wild
November 2016
Ralph returned to alma mater, Churchill College in October 2016 where he received MA from Cambridge University
Ralph was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts at a congregation in the Senate House of Cambridge University on 22 October 2016.
November 2016
Ralph was presented with an Outstanding Teacher Award at ISMRM annual meeting in Singapore.
Ralph was recognized "for a significant contribution to excellence in teaching" by the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). The organization presented Dr. Mason with an Outstanding Teacher Award for his course on "Quantitative Physiology: Imaging Oxygenation, Part 2," which he presented at the ISMRM annual meeting in Singapore. Each year, the Annual Meeting Program Committee acknowledges the highest rated speaker in each educational course. Award recipients are determined by the evaluation scores which attendees give to the speakers.
October 2016
Heling Zhou, PhD, wins NanoHybrids Imaging Research Contest
Heling Zhou, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Mason Lab, has been selected the NanoHybrids Imaging Research Contest Winner for her proposal to address breast cancer brain metastases with targeted spherical gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). NanoHybrids, an Austin-based nanotechnology company, will supply its top gold nanoparticles to assist Dr. Zhou in her research goals. The company's gold nanoparticles are used in imaging, tumor targeting, lateral flow assays, microscopy, SERS, drug delivery research, sensors and several other high-technology applications within the fields of life science and materials science.
September 2016
Ralph Mason and Devin O'Kelly at 2016 WMIC in New York.
Devin O’Kelly and Ralph Mason attended the iThera workshop at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center followed by the WMIC in New York. They presented/co-authored 4 posters and a talk focusing on multi spectral optoacoustic tomography.
Image: Devin O'Kelly presents his poster at 2016 WMIC in New York.
September 2016
We welcome three new team members to the pre-clinical imaging section.
We welcome three new team members to the pre-clinical imaging section:
Dr. Miaoping Li, a physician scientist, a visiting research fellow from Chongqing, China
Dr. Sharda Kumari, an expert molecular biologist, who is Dr. Liu’s first post-doctoral fellow and will work on novel therapeutic approaches to lung cancer
and David Saucier, a new student in BME, who will pursue his first research rotation in our labs.
August 2016
CIP-BME 2016-2017 Seminar Schedule
The 2016-2017 Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) schedule has been announced. The list of speakers has been established for this joint program between UT Southwestern and the biomedical engineering programs at UT Arlington and UT Dallas. All presentations will be at noon Fridays in room K2.610, unless otherwise noted.
Please contact Ralph Mason, Ph.D., at 214-648-8926 for more information.
August 2016
Congratulations to post doc Donghan “Mo” Yang on presentation “Multi-parametric MRI!
Congratulations to post doc Donghan “Mo” Yang on presentation “Multi-parametric MRI for Intratumoral Heterogeneity and Oxygenation Profile in Rat Breast Tumor” at In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Gordon Research Conference, Andover, NH and receiving Outstanding Poster Award.
July 2016
Dr. Mason has been invited as Keynote speaker at the "1st International Biophotonics Conference" 25-27 July, 2016 in Singapore.
Ralph Mason, Ph.D., has been invited to present the keynote address at the 1st International Biophotonics Conference in Singapore, where he will speak about "Assessing Tumor Vascular Targeted Therapy with Optical Imaging." He will also attend the International Forum of Nanomedicine and present the keynote address at the Second Xiangya Hospital Central South University in China. While in China, he will present two lectures in Jiangxi on "Optical Imaging as part of an Imaging Armamentarium" and "Imaging Tumor Oxygenation."
July 2016
Congratulations to team member Dr. Heling Zhou on presenting two posters at SNMMI in San Diego.
Congratulations to team member Dr. Heling Zhou on presenting two posters at SNMMI in San Diego.
“Exploring a fluorescent blood pool agent in photoacoustic imaging” H. Zhou, J. Campbell, D. O'Kelly, J. Gerberich, R. P. Mason, SNMMI San Diego, CA June 2016, poster 1214
“Monitoring Tumor Response to Vascular Disrupting Agent Using Photoacoustic Tomography and Multiparametric MRI” H. Zhou, J. Campbell, Z. Zhang, D. Saha, M. L. Trawick, K. G. Pinney, R. P. Mason, SNMMI San Diego, CA June 2016, poster 1408
June 2016
2016 Summer Interns
Welcome summer interns: high school teacher Jeff Bivins from Richardson ISD for second year; student Hope Anderson from Lewisville ISD; and Elisa Lin, a UTSW medical student.
June 2016
Heling Zhou, PhD, receives third place at ISMRM Conference in Singapore.
The MR of Cancer Study Group selected five finalists, from among 20 applicants, to give oral presentations on the theme "MRI Wins." Dr. Heling Zhou, a postdoctoral researcher in the Mason Lab, was awarded third place. Congratulations, Heling!
January 2016
Spring 2016 CIP-BME Seminar Schedule
The 2016-2017 Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) seminar schedule has been announced. The list of speakers has been established for this joint program between UT Southwestern and the biomedical engineering programs at UT Arlington and UT Dallas. All presentations will be at noon Fridays in room K2.610, unless otherwise noted.
Please contact Ralph Mason, Ph.D., at 214-648-8926 for more information.
December 2015
Ralph Mason, PhD, was invited as a visiting professor to the Hubei University of Medicine (HUM)
Ralph Mason, PhD, was invited as a visiting professor to the Hubei University of Medicine (HUM) (http://english.hbmu.edu.cn/structure/index.htm) as part of its "Famous Scientists Lecture Program in Hubei Province." (http://www.szshzyl.com/msg_detail.jsp?msg_info_id=20151021144714000001) He gave lectures in Shiyan and Suizhou, China. Dr. Li Liu acted as interpreter and also gave lectures at each institution. Following the visit to Hubei they were invited to give presentations to the Department of Urology at Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical Center in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Afterwards there was an opportunity for a brief vacation in Beijing including a visit to the Great Wall.
Please contact Ralph Mason, Ph.D., at 214-648-8926 for more information.
July 2015
Ralph Mason was invited to participate in the ISMRM Global Outreach Workshop in Wuhan, China
Ralph Mason was invited to participate in the ISMRM Global Outreach Workshop n Wuhan, China earlier this month in collaboration with the Chinese Society of Radiology.Please contact Ralph Mason, Ph.D., at 214-648-8926 for more information.
June 2015
We welcome new group members
Dr. Donghan "Mo" Yang has joined the laboratory as a post-doctoral research fellow having trained with Professor Ackerman at Washington University, St. Louis. He seeks to develop, enhance and apply the new MOXI technique to investigate tumor pathophysiology. We also welcome two STARS summer interns: High School teacher Jeff Bivins and High School student Luis Vazquez Delgado.
April 2015
Student Derek White selected to give oral presentation on his doctoral research at 57th Annual Meeting AAPM, Anaheim CA, July 2015.
Congratulations to Derek White who will present “Developing a non-invasive MRI prognostic biomarker to predict response to Hypofractionated Radiotherapy”, representing studies in collaboration with the Department of Radiation Oncology and German Cancer Center, Heidelberg. Co-authors are Zhang Zhang, Li Li, Jeni Gerberich, Heling Zhou, Zhongwei Zhang, Debu Saha, Peter Peschke, Ralph P Mason
April 2015
Mason lab hosts visiting students from Italy and Spain as junior research fellows
Antonella Belfatto from the Politecnico di Milan joined LPR for 6 months to apply mathematical modeling methods to assess tumor radiation response. Nuria Arias Ramos from the University of Barcelona won a prestigious award from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to develop experience in pre-clinical imaging methods.
March 2015
Spring 2015 Cancer Imaging Program (CIP)
The Spring 2015 Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) schedule has been announced. The list of speakers has been established for this joint program between UT Southwestern and the biomedical engineering programs at UT Arlington and UT Dallas. All presentations will be at noon Fridays in room K2.610, unless otherwise noted.
Please contact Ralph Mason, Ph.D., at 214-648-8926 for more information.
August 2014
Mason lab awarded major CPRIT grant
Mason lab awarded major research funding to examine and exploit hypoxia in cancer therapy
CPRIT announced new research grant awards; Mason lab to receive $895,820 to develop new methods for measuring tumor hypoxia. “Noninvasive Identification of Prostate Tumor Hypoxia as a Prognostic Biomarker of Radiation Response “ Mason noted “hypoxia is recognized as crucial factor in success of radiation therapy. The new method should allow us to identify tumor hypoxia and allow radiation dose to be tailored to the special characteristics of the prostate cancer”.
In a second project the Mason lab will receive a subcontract from colleagues Drs. Kevin Pinney and Mary Lynn Trawick at Baylor University to examine novel agents designed to overcome hypoxia in breast cancer. The Baylor team has designed unique hypoxia activated agents and the Mason lab will examine their efficacy in human breast tumor xenografts. The project “Targeting Hypoxia in Breast Cancer with Highly Potent Small-Molecule Anticancer Prodrugs” builds on a highly productive and successful previous collaboration.
Please contact Ralph Mason, Ph.D., at 214-648-8926 for more information.
June 2014
Mason Lab team member wins Magna Cum Laude Merit Award at ISMRM-ESMRMB
Zhongwei Zhang, MD, PhD, won ISMRM Magna Cum Laude Merit Award for outstanding abstract, which was also selected by both the MR of Cancer and Molecular Imaging Study Groups for oral presentation. The study entitled “Tracking tissue oxygenation status and response using Diffusion-Weighted functional MRI” was presented at Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB in Milan, Italy in May 2014.
April 2014
Mason Lab doctoral student Derek White wins AAPM award
The Mason Lab is proud to announce that our doctoral student, Derek White, PE, of the joint Biomedical Engineering graduate program, won the 2nd place award for his presentation entitled “Non-invasive Pre-Clinical MR Imaging of Prostate Tumor Hypoxia for Radiation Therapy Prognosis“, presented at the Young Investigator Symposium of the SWAAPM (Southwest Chapter of AAPM) annual meeting in San Antonio, TX.
March 2014
Ralph Mason, PhD elected as the Chair-Elect of MR Cancer Study Group
Mason elected as Chair-Elect of the MR Cancer Study Group of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Stephanie M. Haaf, Director of Membership & Study Groups, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) & Section for Magnetic Resonance Technologists (SMRT) informed Dr. Ralph Mason that he had been elected to a two year post, ending in 2016. His post will begin during the upcoming 2014 ISMRM/ESMRMB Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Milan, Italy, at which time new officers will be introduced.
February 2014
ISMRM 2014 Presentations
We are proud to announce that we will have six presentations at the upcoming ISMRM-ESMRMB Joint Annual Meeting in Milan, Italy:
"A role for DCE MRI in predicting tumor radiation response" R. Hallac, H. Zhou, R. Pidikiti, K. Song, S. Stojadinovic, D. Zhao, V. Kodibagkar, P. Peschke, T. Solberg, R. P. Mason. Proc. Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB, Milan, Italy, May 2014.
"Correlating multi-parametric MRI with Gleason score in human prostate cancer" H. Zhou, R. R. Hallac, Q. Yuan, Y. Ding, F. Francis, R. D. Sims, G. Raj, R. P. Mason, Proc. Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB, Milan, Italy, May 2014.
"Assessment of tumor physiological changes following hypo-fractionated SBRT using multi-parametric MRI" H. Zhou, R. Denney, Z. Zhang, D. Saha, R. P Mason, Proc. Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB, Milan, Italy, May 2014.
"Evaluation of tumor oxygenation in response to an indole-based vascular disrupting agent using 19F MRI" H. Zhou, R. R. Hallac, R. Denney, L. Li, R. Lopez, L. Liu, E. E. Graves, M. L. Trawick, K. G. Pinney, R. P. Mason, Proc. Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB, Milan, Italy, May 2014.
"Tracking tissue oxygenation status and response using Diffusion-Weighted functional MRI" Z. Zhang, R. R. Hallac, Q. Yuan, P. Peschke, and R. P. Mason, Proc. Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB, Milan, Italy, May 2014.
“Imaging Tumor Hypoxia” R. P. Mason, Proc. Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB, Milan, Italy, May 2014.
December 2013
Oxygen decelerates many cancer tumors when combined with radiation therapy
UT Southwestern scientists led by Dr. Ralph Mason reported in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine that countering hypoxic and aggressive tumors with an "oxygen challenge" – inhaling oxygen while monitoring tumor response – coincides with a greater delay in tumor growth.
December 2013
Research advances fight against kidney cancer
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered genetic pathways to starve selectively kidney cancer cells.