Kai Chen, PhD

Professor of Research Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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Overview

Dr. Chen received a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Nankai University in China in 2001. He then moved to the United States where he performed his postdoctoral research in the Department of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. In 2005, Dr. Chen joined Siemens Healthcare USA, Inc. as a research scientist, where he led several projects spanning preclinical discovery to clinical investigation. He was promoted to Group Leader in 2006 and Project Manager in 2008. In the summer of 2009, Dr. Chen moved to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he was part of the Intramural Research Program team of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). In 2010, Dr. Chen joined the USC as a faculty member.

The research interests in Dr. Chen’s laboratory focus on the development of novel theranostic agents for disease diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Chen has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, and he is a co-inventor of 20 International and US patents. He has served as a reviewer for a number of funding agencies. Dr. Chen has also served as an active reviewer for over 70 research journals. In addition, he sits on the Editorial Board of 7 peer-reviewed international journals. Currently, Dr. Chen serves as President for the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council (RPSC) of Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

Awards

  • USC Stevens Center for Innovation: Technology Commercialization Award, 2018
  • Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI): Center for Molecular Imaging Innovation and Translation (CMIIT) Young Investigator Award, 2013

Research Keywords

  • Molecular Imaging and Therapy, Theranostics, PET, Radiochemistry, Nanomedicine, Cancer, Neuroimaging

Publications

  • Pretargeted Positron Emission Tomography Imaging That Employs Supramolecular Nanoparticles with in Vivo Bioorthogonal Chemistry. ACS Nano. 2016 Jan 26; 10(1):1417-24.. View in PubMed
  • In Vivo Tumor Angiogenesis Imaging Using Peptide-Based Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probes. Methods Mol Biol. 2016; 1444:73-84.. View in PubMed
  • Boramino acid as a marker for amino acid transporters. Sci Adv. 2015 Sep; 1(8):e1500694.. View in PubMed
  • Targeted Prostate Gland Biopsy With Combined Transrectal Ultrasound, mpMRI, and 18F-FMAU PET/CT. Clin Nucl Med. 2015 Aug; 40(8):e426-8.. View in PubMed
  • Development of PET probes for cancer imaging. Curr Top Med Chem. 2015; 15(8):795-819.. View in PubMed
  • In vivo NIRF imaging-guided delivery of a novel NGR-VEGI fusion protein for targeting tumor vasculature. Amino Acids. 2014 Dec; 46(12):2721-32.. View in PubMed
  • Recent advances in diagnosis and treatment of gliomas using chlorotoxin-based bioconjugates. Am J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2014; 4(5):385-405.. View in PubMed
  • 68Ga-labeled cyclic NGR peptide for microPET imaging of CD13 receptor expression. Molecules. 2014 Aug 05; 19(8):11600-12.. View in PubMed
  • MicroPET imaging of CD13 expression using a (64)Cu-labeled dimeric NGR peptide based on sarcophagine cage. Mol Pharm. 2014 Nov 03; 11(11):3938-46.. View in PubMed
  • A direct comparison of tumor angiogenesis with ⁶⁸Ga-labeled NGR and RGD peptides in HT-1080 tumor xenografts using microPET imaging. Amino Acids. 2014 Oct; 46(10):2355-64.. View in PubMed