Research

The Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)/New York Presbyterian (NYP) Department of Radiology is a robust and highly ambitious program whose investigations run the gamut from fundamental (basic and applied) to translational, clinical and health services research. 

We are internationally renowned, with a National Institutes of Health funding rank that has risen dramatically and steadily, from 43rd in 2006 to 6th in 2021 (Blue Ridge).

While we urge faculty to pursue their own interests, we also direct investments to infrastructure and faculty recruitments based on a strategic plan focused on five critical disease states; four classes of scientific objectives; and four foci of imaging science expertise. The five critical disease states are: cardiovascular, neurological, oncologic, inflammation-mediated disease states and metabolic disorders. The classes of scientific objectives are:1)Imaging Research to Improve Understanding of Normal/Abnormal Biology/Physiology, 2) Developing, Optimizing and Validating Imaging Risk Assessment Tools (imaging biomarkers, including the correlation of imaging phenotypes to tissue biomarkers), 3) Developing, Optimizing and Validating Image-Guided Interventions to Prevent and Treat Disease, and 4) Measuring and Improving Outcomes Related to the Provision of Imaging Tests/Procedures. The foci of imaging science expertise are developing, optimizing and validating: 1) New Imaging Agents, Enhancers and Combination Theranostics, 2) New Imaging Platforms and Systems, 3) Imaging Informatics, 4) Imaging Health Services Research.

Our powerful fundamental research programs include the Molecular Imaging Innovations Institute (MI3), with its 8,000 sg. ft. laboratory in the $650 million Belfer Research Building, and its radiochemistry laboratories adjacent to WCM’s Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center (CBIC). We have a world-class program in imaging-related computer and information sciences in the department’s Image Data Evaluation and Analytics Laboratory (IDEAL), which also supports WCM’s clinical trials infrastructure through the Office of Imaging Protocol Development and Review (OIPDR), and a dedicated research picture and archiving communication system (PACS). Our program in biomedical engineering is profoundly inventive, focusing on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) development and a strong history of translation from applied science to commercialization. Our pre-clinical and clinical research faculty have generated intellectual property (IP) resulting in key patents, most commercialized through start-ups or licensure. Our pre-clinical and clinical faculties collaborate to translate the output of our basic and applied science programs, generating many first-in-human studies of imaging agents, platforms and imaging analysis algorithms, including studies optimizing innovative imaging paradigms.

Division members serve as faculty PIs and Co-Is on clinical trials in many WCM departments. We run programs in health services research with WCM’s Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, focusing on technology assessment, decision analysis, computerized decision support, cost-effectiveness research, and health care policy and regulatory reform. The division supports research faculty in the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research. Many of our institutes, centers and research programs are bench-to-bedside.

In all, our research enterprise is comprised of 25 Ph.D. pre-clinical researchers (not including additional medical physicists who primarily provide clinical services) supported by 35 dedicated research personnel such as imaging and laboratory technologists, research coordinators and aides, grants managers and two scientific editors. Our faculty have conjoint or secondary appointments across the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Cornell Tech, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The department’s 15 to 25 post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and visiting undergraduates engage in advanced research activities.

Please direct research opportunity inquiries to WCM Radiology Department Vice Chairman for Research Ajay Gupta, M.D., at ajg9004@med.cornell.edu.