Department of Radiology

Research

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Research

The Department of Radiology is actively engaged in both clinical and pre-clinical imaging research.

The Department of Radiology is actively engaged in both clinical and pre-clinical imaging research. Clinical research largely follows divisional interests with strong collaboration across many departments and schools.

Advancing clinical and translational research to benefit patients is at the core of our research program. The Department of Radiology is actively engaged in both clinical and pre-clinical imaging research. Clinical research largely follows divisional interests with strong collaboration across many departments and schools.

Researcher drawing digitally on a computer screen

What are the scientific goals?

  • To provide resources for clinical/translational research that is innovative and cutting edge.
  • To create standardized clinical research process that is cost-effective and time sensitive.
  • To regulate research methods to help ensure valid findings.
  • To provide a standard of practice that ensures transparency to the sponsor and investigators.
  • To provide education and mentorship for faculty and staff.

About Our Research Programs

The Department of Radiology’s research mission is to provide resources for clinical and translational research that is innovative and cutting edge, while educating and mentoring. Not only do our faculty members strive to regulate research methods to help ensure valid findings, but they also create standardized clinical research processes that are cost-effective, time sensitive and transparent.

The Department of Radiology has more than 40 active clinical studies. Current research projects span all radiology subspecialties from neuroradiology to interventional and emergency radiology.

Basic Science Research

With regard to pre-clinical imaging research, the Department maintains a state of the art molecular imaging facility which offers a wide array of advanced animal imaging including autoradiography, micro PET, microCT, ultrasound, optical and radiography. The group at this facility is actively engaged in the development of biologically-targeted radiotracers that can uniquely target various disease processes. The Director of the Molecular Imaging Center is Dr. Peter Conti.

Control panel for scanner

Labs & Facilities

Pioneering sophisticated imaging techniques

Fan Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging Research Lab

Dr. Zhaoyang Fan’s Laboratory conducts research on the development and clinical translation of novel magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques. Together our efforts are focused on broad clinical applications, such as diagnosis and characterization of cardio- and neuro-vascular diseases, image-guided radiation therapy, quantitative body imaging, and machine learning. Our mission is to develop and innovative, accurate and reliable MR imaging solutions to achieve precise disease management.

For additional information about their activities, explore their website directly here:
Fan Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging Research Lab

Members of MRI Lab

Radiomics Lab

The USC radiomics group focuses on exploring methods of extracting quantifiable features from radiologic images. Medical images are not just pictures but are in fact data. Therefore extracting and mining quantitative information using high throughput analysis can add supplemental information to the traditionally used visual qualification.

These features can be combined with clinical,laboratory, genomic, and epigenetic data to improve identification of diagnostic and prognostic features. Radiomics data are in a mineable form that can be used to build descriptive and predictive models relating image features to phenotypes or gene-protein signatures. Our group has developed workflows and algorithms to extract hundreds of quantifiable features from standard of care medical images.

For additional information about their activities, explore their website directly here:
USC Radiomics Lab

USC Molecular Imaging Center (MIC)

The mission of the USC Molecular Imaging Center to promote the use of imaging to:

  • rapidly and effectively translate developments in cellular and molecular biology, chemistry, neurosciences, physics, computer sciences, engineering and instrumentation into improvements in cancer patient care
  • facilitate further advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of this disease
  • train future investigators that will have the requisite multidisciplinary skills to effectively lead the expansion of molecular medical techniques.

There is an ever-increasing demand for new and more sophisticated imaging probes for experimental research and clinical application, especially with the escalation of molecular medicine approaches to therapy design. Our vision is for the USC MIC to have a comprehensive imaging program focused on the development of new radiotracers and non-radioactive biological probes for use in interdisciplinary biomedical research and imaging.