During my active career my research has focused on two main areas. The first is on the effects of radiation on normal tissues, particularly the central nervous system and the various factors that determine the tolerance of the spinal cord. My other research has aimed at overcoming radiation resistance mechanisms related to the tumor microenvironment, which are known to be mostly tumor hypoxia and proliferation. To study these aspects in a clinically relevant setting, my lab has developed a panel of patient-derived tumor xenografts that reflect the clinical heterogeneity of individual patients.
Faculty
Gregory Cooley, MD
Dr. Cooley is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Human Oncology (DHO). The DHO is one of the few centers in the region offering both low-dose-rate and high-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy. Two decades ago, prostate brachytherapy showed superior PSA control rates. With further advances in dosing, fractionation and MRI-based planning, results are even better.
Deric Wheeler, PhD
The Wheeler lab uses state of the art molecular biology, proteomics and mouse modeling to understand how tumors become resistant to cancer drugs. Its goal is to identify unique and shared pathways that tumors use to circumvent therapy and translate these findings to the clinic to impact the lives of our patients.
Gopal Iyer, PhD
Professor Iyer’s laboratory fosters a multidisciplinary environment that bridges physics, chemistry and biology with the aim of training undergraduate, graduate and medical students towards aligning their interests in challenging questions in cancer. They constantly interact with biomedical engineers, medical and radiation oncologists and pathology experts to further our understanding of the clinical manifestations of the various stages of cancer.
Michael Lawless, PhD
am an associate professor in the Department of Human Oncology with primary roles in the clinic and research. In the clinic, I focus primarily on the clinical applications of the Siemens Somatom Definition Edge Dual Energy CT scanner. This includes preparation of the CT simulator for clinical use, ongoing quality assurance, implementation of motion management techniques, such as respiratory gating and 4DCT acquisitions, and the use of dual-energy scans to produce images with higher contrast.
Dustin Jacqmin, PhD
I am an associate professor in the Department of Human Oncology with roles in the clinic, research and teaching. In the clinic, my primary focus is patient safety and quality improvement. I serve as the co-chair of our departmental Quality Assurance committee, which oversees many different initiatives related to quality and safety. I also focus on the clinical applications of the TrueBeam radiotherapy platform. This includes preparation of the treatment machine for clinical use, ongoing quality assurance, involvement in the radiosurgery program and implementation of motion management techniques, such as respiratory gating and optical surface imaging.
Patrick Hill, PhD
I am an associate professor in the Department of Human Oncology. My primary role is to provide clinical medical physics services in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UW Health University Hospital. In the clinic, I perform tasks to ensure that patients are being treated safely and accurately on each day of their treatment. This includes making sure radiation-producing machines are operating correctly and that the quality of a patient’s treatment is maintained from the day they first arrive in our department to the day of their last treatment. I am the lead physicist for the TomoTherapy service and among the primary physics contacts for our radiosurgery program, treatment planning systems, and image processing software.
Andrew Baschnagel, MD
Dr. Baschnagel is actively involved in translational and clinical research. I work closely with basic scientists, physicists and clinicians with the goal of fostering new ideas and translating research findings into the clinic. He has experience studying combinations of radiation and novel radiosensitizers and biomarkers of treatment response in patients and in preclinical models. His current work focuses on improving treatment of non-small cell lung cancer with a focus on brain metastases. He is actively involved at the regional and national level, and I am site PI for multiple national clinical studies here at UW.
Randall Kimple, MD, PhD, MBA, FASTRO
Dr. Kimple’s lab has established one of the largest tissue repositories of head and neck cancer patient-derived xenografts and have helped define best practices for the establishment, passage, and use of these valuable resources. Patient derived xenografts are established in mice directly from patient biopsies and are thought to better represent the biology of their human source than model cell lines grown in plastic tissue culture plates.