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 (NIH) funding rank that has risen dramatically and steadily, from 22nd in 2018 to 6th in 2021 (Blue Ridge).
While we urge faculty to pursue their own strong 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, and inflammation-mediated disease states, and metabolic disorders. The classes of scientific objectives are: 1) imaging research to improve understanding of normal/abnormal (disease-state specific) biology and physiology, 2) developing, optimizing, and validating imaging risk assessment tools (imaging biomarkers, including the increasingly relevant 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/procedures.
The foci of imaging science expertise are: developing, optimizing and validating, 1) new imaging agents, enhancers, and combination yheranostics, 2) new imaging platforms and systems (and associated agents), 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 new $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 PACS. Our program in biomedical engineering is profoundly inventive, with a focus 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 created 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.
Department 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. We support research faculty in the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research. Many of our institutes, centers, and research programs are bench-to-bedside. Our Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging develops highly novel image acquisition technologies and computer analysis algorithms, translating many to the clinic, and following up with impact studies on risk stratification and medical decision-making.
In all, our research enterprise is comprised of more than 35 dedicated researchers supported by more than 40 research personnel such as imaging and laboratory technologists, research coordinators and aides, grant managers, and scientific editors. Our faculty have conjoint or secondary appointments in various departments of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, the Cornell New York City Tech campus in New York City, and the main Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. The department has over 25 post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and visiting undergraduate students engaged in research activities. Please direct research opportunity inquiries to WCM Department of Radiology Vice Chairman for Research Ajay Gupta, M.D., at ajg9004@med.cornell.edu.