• 

  Issam EL Naqa

  Issam EL Naqa

  • Title
    Associate Professor
  • Affiliation
    University of Michigan - Radiation Oncology, Medical School
  • Phone
    734-936-4290
  • Email
    ielnaqa@umich.edu
  • Website

  • Reasearch Keywords
  • Biography
  • Research Program
  • Publications

  Biofinormatics; Multimodality Image-guided and Adaptive Radiotherapy; Radiobiological Modelling

  Issam El Naqa received his B.Sc. (1992) and M.Sc. (1995) in Electrical and Communication Engineering from the University of Jordan, Jordan and was awarded a first place young investigator award for his M.Sc. work. He worked as a software engineer at the Computer Engineering Bureau (CEB), Jordan, 1995G1996. He was awarded a DAAD scholarship to Germany, where he was a visiting scholar at the RWTH Aachen, 1996G 1998. He completed his Ph.D. (2002) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA, receiving highest academic distinction award for his PhD work. He completed an M.A. (2007) in Biology Science from Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA, where he was pursuing a postGdoctoral fellowship in medical physics and was subsequently hired as a Instructor (2005G2007) and then an Assistant Professor (2007G2010) at the departments of radiation oncology and the division of biomedical and biological sciences and was an adjunct faculty at the department of Electrical engineering. He is currently an Associate Professor at McGill University Health Centre/Medical Physics Unit and associate member of at the departments of Physics, Biomedical Engineering, and Experimental medicine. He is certified Medical Physicist by the American Board of Radiology. He is a recognized expert in the fields of image processing, bioinformatics, computational radiobiology, and treatment outcomes modeling and has published extensively in these areas. He is an acting member of several academic and professional societies, which include IEEE, AAPM, ASTRO, ESTRO, and COMP and participates in their meetings and serves in their task groups. His research has been funded by several federal and private grants and serves as a peerGreviewer and associate editor for several leading international journals in his areas of expertise. He is currently a designated FRSQ and CIHR scholar.

  Our lab’s general research interests are in the areas of oncology bioinformatics, multimodality image analysis, and treatment outcome modeling. The primary motivation is to design and develop novel approaches to unravel cancer patients’ response to chemoradiotherapy treatment by integrating physical, biological, and imaging information into advanced mathematical models. These models could be used to personalize cancer patients’ chemoradiotherapy treatment based on predicted benefit/risk. Our group’s research interests involve three themes:

  Bioinformatics: design and develop datamining methods and software tools to identify robust biomarkers of treatment outcomes from clinical and preclinical data.

  Multimodality image-guided and adaptive radiotherapy: design and develop methods and algorithms for multimodality registration/segmentation, feature extraction, and real time     treatment planning optimization.

  Radiobiological modeling: design and develop predictive models of tumor and normal tissue response to radiotherapy by exploring physical and biological interactions using systemG based and machine learning approaches. Design and development of therapeutic interventions for protection of normal tissue toxicities

  Recent publications:

  1. I El Naqa, “Machine learning methods for predicting tumour response in lung cancer,” WIRES: Datamining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 2, no. 2, pp 99 – 192, 2012
  2. Manushka Vaidya, Kimberly M. Creach, Jennifer Frye, Farrokh Dehdashti, Jeffrey D. Bradley, and Issam El Naqa, “Using FDG-PET/CT Image Characteristics for Predicting Radiotherapy Response in Lung Cancer,” Radiotherapy and Oncology, 2012 Feb;102(2):239-4
  3. Kimberly M. Creach, Issam El Naqa, Jeffrey D. Bradley, Jeffrey R. Olsen, Parag J. Parikh, Robert E. Dryzmala, Charles Bloch, Clifford G. Robinson, “Dosimetric predictors of chest wall pain after lung stereotactic body radiotherapy,” Radiotherapy and Oncology, 2012 Jul;104(1):23-7
  4. Habib Zaidi, Carolina Llina Fuentes, and Issam El Naqa, “Comparative methods for PET image segmentation in pharyngolaryngeal squamous cell carcinoma,” Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging, 2012 May;39(5):881-91
  5. Sangkyu Lee, Gabriela Stroian, Neil Kopek, Mahmood AlBahhar, Jan Seuntjens and Issam El Naqa, Analytical modeling of regional radiotherapy dose response of lung, Phys. Med. Biol. 57 3309–3321, 2012.
  6. Issam El Naqa, Piotr Pater, Jan Seuntjens, Monte Carlo Role in Radiobiological Modeling of Radiotherapy Outcomes, Phys. Med. Biol. 57 R75-R97, 2012.
  7. Beth Kidd, Issam El Naqa, Siegel BA, Dehdashti F, Grigsby PW, FDG-PET-based prognostic nomograms for locally advanced cervical cancer, Gyn Onc, 2012 Oct; 127 (1):136-40
  8. Matthew E. Johnson, Gisele C. Pereira, Issam M. El Naqa, S. Murty Goddu,
     Rawan Al-Lozi, Aditya Apte, David B. Mansur, “Determination of planning target volume for whole stomach irradiation using daily megavoltage CT images,” Practical Radiation Oncology 2(4), e85-e88, October 2012.
  9. B. White, T. Zhao , J. Lamb , S. Wuenschel , J. Bradley , I. El Naqa , D. Low, “Distribution of Lung Tissue Motion During Free Breathing,” Medical Physics, Med Phys. 2013 Apr;40(4).
     10. C. Robinson, T. DeWees, I. El Naqa, K. Creach, J. Olsen, T. Crabtree, B. Meyers*, V. Puri, P. Parikh, J. Bradley, “Patterns of Failure and Survival after Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy or Lobar Resection for Clinical Stage I Non-small-cell Lung Cancer,” Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO), 2013 Feb;8(2):192-201
  10. Daniel Markel, Habib Zaidi, Issam El Naqa, “Novel Multimodality Segmentation using Level Sets and Jensen-Renyi Divergence,” Medical Physics, 40, 121908 (2013).
  11. El Naqa I., “The role of quantitative PET in predicting cancer treatment outcomes,” Special issue on Trends in PET Quantification, Clinical and Translational Imaging, 2014 (invited).
  12. El Naqa I., “”Biomedical informatics and pharmacogenomics,” WIRES: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 2014 (invited).
  13. Ola M Maria, Ahmed M Maria, Norma Ybarra, PhD, Krishinima Jeyaseela, Sangkyu Lee, Jessica Perez, Shirley Lehnert, Sergio Faria, Monica Serban, Jan Seuntjens, Issam El Naqa, “Investigation of Stem-like Cells Role in Regional Radiosensitivity of the Lung,” Radiation Oncology, submitted.
  14. M. Hatt, J. Lee, C. Caldwell, I. El Naqa, C.R. Schmidtlein, E. De Bernardi, W. Lu, U. Nestle, D. Visvikis, T. Shepherd, S. Das, O. Mawlawi, V. Gregoire, H. Schöder, R. Jeraj, A. Pugachev, E. Spezi, M. MacManus, X. Geets, H. Zaidi, A.S. Kirov, “Report of AAPM TG211: Classification and evaluation strategies of auto-segmentation approaches for PET, Medical Physics, submitted.
• 

  Jay Nadeau

  Jay Nadeau

  • Title
    Professor - Scientific Researcher
  • Affiliation
    California Institute of Technology - Aerospace - Firestone Laboratory
  • Phone
    626-395-2405
  • Email
    jnadeau@caltech.edu
  • Website
    http://www.caltech.edu/

  • Reasearch Keywords
  • Biography
  • Research Program
  • Publications

  Molecular Biophysics; Microbiology; Immnology

  Jay L. Nadeau is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Physics at McGill University (2004Gpresent) whose research interests include nanoparticles, fluorescence imaging, and development of instrumentation for detection of life elsewhere in the Solar System. Her group was the first to label bacteria with quantum dots, and to explore the possibility of using fluorescent labels as tools for detection of traces of extraterrestrial life. Every year she travels to the Canadian High Arctic to do field work at the McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS), a Mars analog site at nearly 80 degrees North latitude. She has published over fifty papers on topics ranging from theoretical condensed matter physics to experimental neurobiology to development of antiGcancer drugs, in the process using almost every single one of the techniques described in this book. Her work has been featured in New Scientist, Highlights in Chemical Biology, Radio Canada’s Les Années lumière, Le Guide des Tendances, and in educational displays in schools and museums. Her research group features chemists, microbiologists, roboticists, physicists, and physicianG scientists, all learning from each other and hoping to speak each other’s language. A believer in bringing biology to the physicists as well as physics to the biologists, she has created two graduate level courses: Methods in Molecular Biology for Physical Scientists and Mathematical Cellular Physiology. She also teaches Pharmacology in the medical school and is actively involved in creating and improving multipleGmini interviews (MMIs) for medical school admission. She received her PhD in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1996.

  The   research in the Nadeau lab focuses on design of nanomaterials with photophysical properties that allow them to push the boundaries of biological sensing and targeting. By creating probes that are brighter, longerGlasting, sensitive to novel processes and at smaller spatial scales, we will be able to create therapeutic agents as well as to address critical biological questions such as how networks of cells communicate, how bacterial biofilms form, and what signals are critical for inducing cell death. Specific projects  include: biofunctionalization of heavyGmetalGfree semiconductor quantum  dots  (QDs) for  in  vivo  theranostics;  generation  of targeted  gold  nanoparticle  conjugates for clinical trials in melanoma and other cancers; development of radiosensitizing nanoparticles for cancer therapy; and development and testing of techniques and instruments for realGtime, 3D cellular imaging, including holographic microscopy and photoacoustic imaging.

  Recent publications:

  1. Photoluminescence of cerium fluoride and cerium-doped lanthanum fluoride nanoparticles and investigation of energy transfer to photosensitizer molecules.
     Cooper DR, Kudinov K, Tyagi P, Hill CK, Bradforth SE, Nadeau JL. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2014 May 28;16(24):12441-53. doi: 10.1039/c4cp01044b.
  2. Immobilized phage proteins for specific detection of staphylococci. Chibli H, Ghali H, Park S, Peter YA, Nadeau JL. Analyst. 2014 Jan 7;139(1):179-86. doi: 10.1039/c3an01608k. Epub 2013 Nov 20.
  3. Comparison of cytotoxicity and expression of metal regulatory genes in zebrafish (Danio rerio) liver cells exposed to cadmium sulfate, zinc sulfate and quantum dots.
     Tang S, Allagadda V, Chibli H, Nadeau JL, Mayer GD. Metallomics. 2013 Oct;5(10):1411-22. doi: 10.1039/c3mt20234h.
  4. Cadmium sulfate and CdTe-quantum dots alter DNA repair in zebrafish (Danio rerio) liver cells. Tang S, Cai Q, Chibli H, Allagadda V, Nadeau JL, Mayer GD. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2013 Oct 15;272(2):443-52.
  5. Differential effects of β-mercaptoethanol on CdSe/ZnS and InP/ZnS quantum dots.
     Georgin M, Carlini L, Cooper D, Bradforth SE, Nadeau JL. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2013 Jul 7;15(25):10418-28. doi: 10.1039/c3cp50311a. Epub 2013 May 17.
  6. Uptake and processing of semiconductor quantum dots in living cells studied by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). Carlini L, Nadeau JL. Chem Commun (Camb). 2013 Feb 28;49(17):1714-6. doi: 10.1039/c3cc36326k.
  7. InP/ZnS as a safer alternative to CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots: in vitro and in vivo toxicity assessment. Brunetti V, Chibli H, Fiammengo R, Galeone A, Malvindi MA, Vecchio G, Cingolani R, Nadeau JL, Pompa PP. Nanoscale. 2013 Jan 7;5(1):307-17. doi: 10.1039/c2nr33024e. Epub 2012 Nov 19.
  8. Conductance switching in the photoswitchable protein Dronpa. Korpany KV, Langat P, Kim DM, Edelman N, Cooper DR, Nadeau J, Blum AS. J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Oct 3;134(39):16119-22. doi: 10.1021/ja306031n. Epub 2012 Sep 19.
  9. Solubilization and bio-conjugation of quantum dots and bacterial toxicity assays by growth curve and plate count. Park S, Chibli H, Nadeau J. J Vis Exp. 2012 Jul 11;(65):e3969. doi: 10.3791/3969.
  10. Comparative cytotoxicity of gold-doxorubicin and InP-doxorubicin conjugates.
      Zhang X, Chibli H, Kong D, Nadeau J. Nanotechnology. 2012 Jul 11;23(27):275103. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/23/27/275103. Epub 2012 Jun 19.
  11. Tunable oscillations and chaotic dynamics in systems with localized synthesis.
      Naqib F, Quail T, Musa L, Vulpe H, Nadeau J, Lei J, Glass L. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Apr;85(4 Pt 2):046210. Epub 2012 Apr 16.
  12. Cytotoxicity of InP/ZnS quantum dots related to reactive oxygen species generation. Chibli H, Carlini L, Park S, Dimitrijevic NM, Nadeau JL. Nanoscale. 2011 Jun;3(6):2552-9. doi: 10.1039/c1nr10131e. Epub 2011 Apr 21.
  13. Antimicrobial activity and cellular toxicity of nanoparticle-polymyxin B conjugates. Park S, Chibli H, Wong J, Nadeau JL. Nanotechnology. 2011 May 6;22(18):185101.
  14. Ultrasmall gold-doxorubicin conjugates rapidly kill apoptosis-resistant cancer cells. Zhang X, Chibli H, Mielke R, Nadeau J. Bioconjug Chem. 2011 Feb 16;22(2):235-43.
  15. Photosensitization of CdSe/ZnS QDs and reliability of assays for reactive oxygen species production. Cooper DR, Dimitrijevic NM, Nadeau JL. Nanoscale. 2010 Jan;2(1):114-21. doi: 10.1039/b9nr00130a.
• 

  Slobodan Devic

  Slobodan Devic

  • Title
    Assistant Professor
  • Affiliation
    McGill University, Medical Physics Unit
  • Phone
    514-340-8222 x2595
  • Email
    slobodan.devic@mcgill.ca
  • Website
    http://www.mcgill.ca/medphys/

  • Reasearch Keywords
  • Biography
  • Research Program
  • Publications

  Radiochromic Flim Dosimetry; Brachytherapy Physics; PET Imaging in Radiotherapy

  Slobodan Devic obtained his M.Sc. degree in nonGideal plasma physics and his Ph.D. degree in Solid State Physics in 1997 at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. He moved to the USA in 1998 where he worked as a Research Associate in Radiation Oncology Physics at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, Missouri. Subsequently, he moved in 2000 to the Montreal General Hospital and McGill University where he was enrolled into the Medical Physics Residency program. Upon finishing his residency in 2002 he joined the Medical Physics Unit at the McGill University and, in 2008, he moved to his current position at the SMBD Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. He is a Fellow of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine and his major research interests are radiochromic film dosimetry and its applications, image guided brachytherapy with particular interest in preGoperative endorectal brachytherapy, and the incorporation of the functional imaging information into radiotherapy treatment planning process. Dr. Devic is also teaching Physics in Nuclear Medicine course at the McGill University and as of 2009 he became a member of the Editorial board of the Medical Physics journal.

  Research program of Slobodan Devic revolves around:

  1. radiochromic film dosimetry,
  2. implementation of MRI and functional imaging for radiotherapy treatment planning,
  3. preGoperative endorectal brachytherapy
  4. design and output verification of radiobiological experiments

  Recent publications:

  1. Tomic N, Quintero C, Whiting BR, Aldelaijan S, Bekerat H, Liang L, DeBlois F, Seuntjens J, Devic S. (2014) Characterization of calibration curves and energy dependence GafChromic(TM) XR-QA2 model based radiochromic film dosimetry system. Med Phys. 2014 Jun;41(6):062105. doi: 10.1118/1.4876295
  2. H Bekerat, S. Devic, F. Deblois, K. Singh, A. Sarfhenia, J Seuntjens, S.Shih, X. Gyu, and D. Lewis (2014) Improving the Energy Response of External Beam Therapy (EBT) GAFCHROMIC™ Dosimetry Films at Low Energies (≥100 keV), Med Phys 41(2):022101. doi: 10.1118/1.4860157.
  3. Han DY, Webster MJ, Scanderbeg DJ, Yashar C, Choi D, Song B, Devic S, Ravi A, Song WY. Direction-Modulated Brachytherapy for High-Dose-Rate Treatment of Cervical Cancer. I: Theoretical Design. nt J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2014 Apr 18. pii: S0360-3016(14)00284-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2014.02.039. [Epub ahead of print].
  4. Mujica-Mota MA, Lehnert S, Devic S, Gasbarrino K, Daniel SJ. Mechanisms of radiation-induced sensorineural hearing loss and radioprotection. Hear Res. 2014 Jun;312C:60-68. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2014.03.003. Epub 2014 Mar 18. Review.
  5. Mujica-Mota MA, Devic S, Daniel SJ. The relevance of dosimetry in animal models of cochlear irradiation. Otol Neurotol. 2014 Apr;35(4):704-11.
  6. Mujica-Mota MA, Salehi P, Devic S, Daniel SJ. Safety and otoprotection of metformin in radiation-induced sensorineural hearing loss in the Guinea pig. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2014 May;150(5):859-65.
  7. Webster MJ, Devic S, Vuong T, Han DY, Scanderbeg D, Choi D, Song B, Song WY. HDR brachytherapy of rectal cancer using a novel grooved-shielding applicator design. Med Phys. 2013 Sep;40(9):091704. doi: 10.1118/1.4816677.
  8. Webster MJ, Devic S, Vuong T, Yup Han D, Park JC, Scanderbeg D, Lawson J, Song B, Tyler Watkins W, Pawlicki T, Song WY. Dynamic modulated brachytherapy (DMBT) for rectal cancer. Med Phys. 2013 Jan;40(1):011718. doi: 10.1118/1.4769416.
  9. S. Devic ” MRI simulation for radiotherapy treatment planning” Med Phys. 2012 Nov;39(11):6701-11.
  10. Ahmad S, Devic S, Orton CG. ” Point/Counterpoint: PET-based GTV definition is the future of radiotherapy treatment planning.” Med Phys. 2012 Oct; 39(10):5791-4.
  11. Devic S, Tomic N, Aldelaijan S, Deblois F, Seuntjens J, Chan MF, Lewis D. Linearization of dose-response curve of the radiochromic film dosimetry system. Med Phys. 2012 Aug;39(8):4850-7.
  12. Heravi M, Tomic N, Liang L, Devic S, Holmes J, Deblois F, Radzioch D, Muanza T. Sorafenib in combination with ionizing radiation has a greater anti-tumour activity in a breast cancer model, Anticancer Drugs. 2012 Jun;23(5):525-33.
  13. Arjomandy B, Tailor R, Zhao L, Devic S. EBT2 film as a depth-dose measurement tool for radiotherapy beams over a wide range of energies and modalities, Med Phys. 2012 Feb;39(2):912-21.
  14. Aldelaijan S, Mohammed H, Tomic N, Liang LH, Deblois F, Sarfehnia A, Abdel-Rahman W, Seuntjens J, Devic S. Radiochromic film dosimetry of HDR (192)Ir source radiation fields, Med Phys. 2011 Nov;38(11):6074-83.
  15. Boivin J, Tomic N, Fadlallah B, Deblois F, Devic S. Reference dosimetry during diagnostic CT examination using XR-QA radiochromic film model, Med Phys. 2011 Sep;38(9):5119-29.

SCIENTISTS

• 

  Issam EL Naqa

  Bioinformatics; Multimodality Image-guided and Adaptive Radiotherapy; Radiobiological Modelling
• 

  Jay Nadeau

  Molecular Biophysics; Microbiology; Immnology
• 

  Slobodan Devic

  Radiochromic Flim Dosimetry; Brachytherapy Physics; PET Imaging in Radiotherapy