Research

The Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)/NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) Department of Radiology—a highly ambitious program whose investigations run from basic and applied to translational, clinical, and health services research—is internationally renowned. In recent years, our National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding rank has spiked dramatically from 43rd in 2006 to 6th in 2021 (Blue Ridge) and continues to rise.

While we urge faculty to pursue their own interests, we focus our strategic plan on:

Five Critical Disease States:

1. Cardiovascular
2. Neurological
3. Oncologic
4. Inflammation-mediated disease states
5. Metabolic disorders

Four Classes of Scientific Objectives:

1. Imaging research to improve understanding of normal and abnormal biology and 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.
4. Measuring and improving outcomes related to the provision of imaging tests and procedures.

Four Foci of Imaging Science Expertise, which Include 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-square-foot laboratory in the $650 million Belfer Research Building and radiochemistry laboratories adjacent to WCM’s Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center (CBIC).

We have a world-class imaging-related computer and information sciences program 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 profoundly inventive biomedical engineering program, which focuses on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) development, has 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 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 healthcare 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.

Our enterprise comprises over 40 research faculty (not including additional medical physicists who primarily provide clinical services) supported by over 50 research personnel—imaging and laboratory technologists, research coordinators and aides, grants managers, scientific editors, and more. Our faculty members have conjoint or secondary appointments across the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Cornell Tech, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. At the same time, the department’s nearly 80 post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and visiting undergraduates pursue advanced research activities.

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