RR200042 — Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas

Grant Information

Grant ID	RR200042
Awarded On	May 20, 2020
Title	Recruitment of Rising Stars
Program	CPRIT Scholar
Award Mechanism	Recruitment of Rising Stars
Institution/Organization	The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Principal Investigator/Program Director	Ken Wang
Cancer Sites	All Sites
Contracted Amount	$4,000,000
Summary of Goals and Objectives	The goals and research interests of my group are developing advanced biomedical technologies to resolve unmet needs in radiation therapy (RT). Two themes that address these interests are proposed in this application. Theme 1. Multimodal quantitative imaging-guided system for pre-clinical RT research: Although cone-beam CT-guided small-animal irradiators have been developed to mimic RT for human treatment, it is less adept at localizing soft-tissue targets due to low image contrast and is not able to provide functional information. Knowledge of target position/shape is a basic need for RT. Without such information to guide irradiat... Read More The goals and research interests of my group are developing advanced biomedical technologies to resolve unmet needs in radiation therapy (RT). Two themes that address these interests are proposed in this application. Theme 1. Multimodal quantitative imaging-guided system for pre-clinical RT research: Although cone-beam CT-guided small-animal irradiators have been developed to mimic RT for human treatment, it is less adept at localizing soft-tissue targets due to low image contrast and is not able to provide functional information. Knowledge of target position/shape is a basic need for RT. Without such information to guide irradiation, it can lead to undesired experimental uncertainties. We propose to develop an integrated optical tomography and photoacoustic computed tomography system to advance target localization and functional imaging capability. Theme 2. In vivo research platform for FLASH-RT: A key factor limiting the efficacy of RT is normal tissue toxicity. A new modality FLASH-RT has sparked interest in the scientific community because the technology utilizes dose rate to ensure that a curative dose is delivered to the tumor in a short period of time but at an ultra-high dose rate, while still maintaining normal tissue protection. The mechanism by which FLASH acts remains unknown and more work is needed to understand FLASH to achieve clinical translation. A major challenge for FLASH research is that very few systems can deliver ultra-high dose rate irradiation and none of these systems are equipped with image-guided technology. We propose to establish a small-animal image-guided FLASH research platform (SAIG-FLASH) to enable accurate in vivo FLASH with which to effect clinical translation. With CPRIT Rising Star funding, my group will be able to carry out these experiments and ultimately enhance cancer therapy. Read Less