Associated Lab Members
- Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Radiology
Dr. Gene Kim is a professor of biomedical engineering in radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in cancer imaging at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the development of quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging methods for early detection of cancer and assessment of treatment response, particularly in breast cancer and head and neck cancer. Dr. Kim’s laboratory has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
- Assistant Professor of Cell Biology Research in Radiology
Dr. Seung Koo Lee is an assistant professor of cell biology research in Radiology Department at the Weill Cornell Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. in immunology from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. During his Ph.D. course, he studied the signaling mechanisms of vitamin C that control tumor proliferation, and apoptosis in colon cancer and melanoma. He then completed postdoctoral training at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, where he invented a layer-by-layer nanoplatform (LbLN) that delivers a short interfering RNA (siRNA) and imaging probe to various cancers. His research focuses on the development of, (1) innovative multi-functional molecular imaging probes for various disease states including cancers and, (2) drug delivery systems for diagnostic, therapeutic and clinical applications.
- Research Specialist in Radiology
Myung-Shin (Cindy) Han holds a master's in Molecular Biology from Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, Korea. After finishing her master’s, Cindy worked as a research manager in orthopedic surgery at Seoul National University Hospital, researching tumor immunity and stem-cell therapy with bone grafts. She had also served as a Research Assistant to research molecular optical imaging with tumor cell lines and animals for 5 years at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, TX. Since 2013, she's worked at Weill Cornell Medicine. For over 20 years, Han has had myriad experiences in animal experiments, and her expertise extends to innovative nanomedicine for tumor imaging and therapy. She's also working with sprayable fluorogenic dyes for image-guided ovarian cancer surgery.
- Research Technician II in Radiology
Sawwal Qayyum received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Ramapo College of New Jersey. During his undergraduate training, he spent his seminar year looking at embryogenesis-lethal genes in C. elegans using RNA interference (RNAi) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 to visualize protein localization via green fluorescent (GFP) recombinant vectors. He previously worked at the New York University Langone Medical Center as a senior animal care technician, attaining there his laboratory animal technologist certification. He spent two years interning at the Preclinical Imaging Core headed by Dr. Wadghiri. There he became familiar with different modalities of optical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and tumor pH probe design. In the Gene Kim lab, Sawwal is studying the effect of metronomic chemotherapy on the tumor vasculature and angiogenesis of orthotopic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and glioma mouse models using dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI.
- Research Technician I in Radiology
Miran Jang holds a bachelor’s and master’s in bio and brain engineering from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). Throughout her master's program, she developed an innovative microfluidics device for single-algal-cell cultivation. After completing her master’s degree, Miran joined the analytical team at Celltrion R&D Center, a leading biologics company. Her research expertise revolves around developing physical and chemical analysis assays for antibody biologics. She has experience developing antibody drugs, from early development to final approval. She has managed and led major BLA (Biologics License Applications) studies for biosimilars and a new drug.
Areas of Specialization
Microstructural and functional imaging of cancer using MRI
List of therapeutic and/or diagnostic imaging probes
(1) Fluorescence labeled Gd-based contrast agent (Gd-DOTA-CS124, Gd-DOTA-Coumarin)
(2) Instantaneous tumor spray for surgical guidance (CypH-11)
(3) Theranostic agent for senescent cells (D3)
Applications
Early diagnosis and treatment response assessment of cancer
Publications
The Gene Kim Laboratory has an extensive list of publications.
Grants
R01 CA160620 (PI: Gene Kim), National Cancer Institute
Title: Active Contrast Encoding (ACE)-MRI study of breast cancer
Dates: 2/1/2019-1/31/2025
Description: Assessment of cancer treatment requires an effective non-invasive method of measuring both the vascular and cellular changes induced by therapies. Our underlying hypotheses is that a single dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurement, using the active contrast encoding (ACE) MRI method, can provide a fast and quantitative means to assess both anti-angiogenic and cytotoxic responses to therapy. This study will establish an innovative method of assessing chemotherapy that will significantly improve drug discovery and patient management in many cancers including breast cancer.
UG3/UH3CA228699 (PI: Gene Kim), National Cancer Institute
Title: Diffusion MRI of treatment response for de-escalation of radiation therapy
Dates: 5/1/2019 to 4/30/2024
Description: Quantitative diffusion MRI (dMRI) remains challenging as dMRI data represent different biophysical properties of tissue depending on diffusion weighting strength (q) and diffusion time (t) used for the measurement. The scientific premise of the study is that this study will establish a quantitative way to utilize both q- and t-dependent dMRI data as a tailored approach to quantify cell viability, cellular metabolism and perfusion from this non-contrast MRI method. Ultimately, these dMRI measures will better identify patients who have the potential to benefit from adaptive de-escalation or escalation of therapy.
R01CA219964 (PI: Gene Kim), National Cancer Institute
Title: Gradient-echo spectroscopic imaging study of saturated fat and breast cancer
Dates of Grant: 02/01/18 – 01/31/25
Description: The role of breast fatty acid composition on breast cancer development, in conjunction with breast density and body mass index, has not been fully investigated. The central hypothesis of the Kim lab is that its recently developed gradient-echo spectroscopic imaging method can be used to investigate the association of the spatial distribution of saturated fatty acids in the breast adipose tissue with the presence of malignant lesions in the breast. This study is conducted with patients undergoing diagnostic breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams or MRI-guided core biopsy exams.
R44CA275434 (PI Subaward: Seung Koo Lee), National Cancer Institute
Title: Instantaneous Tumor Spray for Real-Time Surgical Guidance
Dates of Grant: 9/1/2022 to 8/31/2024
Description: Early stage ovarian cancer is typically asymptomatic. Despite successful initial treatments, 80–90% of women with advanced cancer experience tumor recurrence. For real-time ovarian cancer surgeries, we have identified an optimized pH-sensitive near-infrared fluorogenic dye (CypH-11) which is non-fluorescent in normal tissues, but fluoresces immediately when sprayed onto cancer tissue, whose microenvironment is slightly acidic. We hypothesize the cancer selective staining by CypH-11 will make the surgical debulking procedure precise and effective by locating normally unseen small and occult lesions, achieving a better surgical outcome.
Research Projects
Early-stage ovarian cancer is typically asymptomatic. Despite successful initial treatments, 80–90% of women with advanced cancer experience tumor recurrence. For real-time ovarian cancer surgeries, we have identified an optimized pH-sensitive near-infrared fluorogenic dye (CypH-11) which remains non-fluorescent in normal tissues but becomes...
Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI has been used to measure important tumor microenvironmental parameters, such as plasma flow (Fp), vascular permeability surface area product (PS), vascular plasma volume fraction (vp), and extravascular extracellular volume fraction (ve), that can be used for diagnosis of cancer as well as for prediction and...
Assessment of cancer treatment requires an effective non-invasive method of measuring both the vascular and cellular changes induced by therapies. Our central hypotheses is that dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurement, using the active contrast encoding (ACE) MRI method, can provide a fast and...