Second Annual Gambhir Symposium

The Second Annual Gambhir Symposium is taking place on Monday, July 18 to celebrate the legacy, impact, and scientific achievements of Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD, PhD. This year’s event will be fully virtual, but we will offer an in-person watch party of the virtual event for local participants at Stanford Hospital – Assembly Hall. The livestream link will be posted on the website closer to the event.

Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir was a visionary who had a profound impact on the world of science and humanity. As a leader and pioneer in the fields of molecular imaging, early detection of cancer, and precision health, his enduring legacy can be seen in the research and innovations continuing in these fields today.

The Gambhir Symposium aims to celebrate Dr. Gambhir’s illustrious career and continue down the paths he forged by highlighting the work still ongoing in the fields he helped to cultivate. Join us to hear researchers and collaborators share current thoughts and future outlooks on Radiology.

Location:Virtual via Livestream or Watch Party at Stanford Hospital – Assembly Hall
More Information & Registration

Hosted by: Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine

PHIND Seminar Series: Developing a PET/MR imaging-guided immunotherapy in advanced prostate and bone cancer

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here

Location: Zoom
Zoom Details
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/94150758041
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 941 5075 8041
Passcode: 619536

Manoj Kumar, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Stanford University

Abstract
Cancer immunotherapies aim to overcome the immune-suppressive barriers in the tumor microenvironment through activation or modulation of the innate or adaptive immune signals. Non-invasive imaging approaches such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enable visualizing the tumor microenvironment’s immune compositions and dynamic changes in response to immunotherapy. Integrated PET/MRI enables simultaneous in vivo tracking of more than one immune target in the tumor, informing the development of more efficient immunotherapies.

B7-H4 is a recently discovered immune checkpoint protein that inhibits anti-tumoral T-cell function. We present a new imaging approach using a newly developed PET probe for imaging B7-H4 in mouse models of prostate cancer and osteosarcomas. Since B7-H4 inhibits the interaction between T-cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), we combined our imaging approach with ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI to track tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) simultaneously. We demonstrate how B7-H4 expression on prostate cancers and osteosarcomas can be quantified with PET imaging. In addition, we show how integrated PET/MRI can demonstrate TAM activation after the B7-H4 blockade. We then investigate the ability of our integrated PET/MRI approach to predict tumor response to different combination immunotherapies by quantifying B7-H4 expression and TAM responses in the tumor microenvironment.

About Manoj Kumar
Manoj Kumar is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Daldrup-Link laboratory in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University. He is working on designing PET and MRI imaging probes to enable real-time visualization of immune markers in the tumor microenvironment and develop more effective immunotherapy approaches for imaging-guided cancer treatment. Manoj received his Ph.D. in Clinical Investigation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020. His doctoral research focused on PET imaging of steroid hormone receptors to evaluate endocrine therapy response in advanced breast cancer. He has authored publications on molecular imaging, hormone receptor biology, cancer biology, and drug delivery.

Hosted by: Garry Gold, MD
Sponsored by: PHIND Center & the Department of Radiology

PHIND Seminar Series: Opportunistic Disease Prediction using Already-Acquired Medical Imaging and Deep Learning

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
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Location: LKSC, LK120 &Zoom
Zoom Details
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/96233225915
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 962 3322 5915
Passcode: 718123

Akshay Chaudhari, PhD
Assistant Professor of Radiology and, by courtesy, of Biomedical Data Science
Stanford University

Abstract
Over 88 million computed tomography (CT) scans are performed annually in the US, with abdominal CT accounting for ~20 million. While these scans answer specific clinical questions, a majority of the information in the rich 3D scans unrelated to the referral question is not evaluated. In this work, we will demonstrate how extracting additional biological insights beyond those required to answer the original clinical question can be used for predicting the onset of future disorders. We will demonstrate how we can analyze CT images using deep learning tools to opportunistically predict future cardiometabolic disorders with high accuracy. We will depict how we can combine medical imaging data with data from electronic medical records to improve the accuracy of such models. Overall, opportunistic imaging has the potential to be a paradigm-changing new tool to improve health outcomes through early detection and intervention without requiring additional diagnostic testing since it uses CT imaging that has already been acquired.

About Akshay Chaudhari
Dr. Chaudhari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology and (by courtesy) in the Department of Biomedical Data Science. He leads the Machine Intelligence in Medical Imaging research group at Stanford and has a primary research interest that lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and medical imaging. Dr. Chaudhari is interested in the application of artificial intelligence techniques to all aspects of medical imaging, including automated schedule and reading prioritization, image reconstruction, quantitative analysis, and prediction of patient outcomes. His interests range from developing novel data-efficient machine learning algorithms to clinical deployment and validation of patient outcomes, both for medical imaging acquisition and subsequent analysis. He also conducts research in combining imaging with clinical, natural language, and time series data.

Hosted by: Garry Gold, MD
Sponsored by: PHIND Center & the Department of Radiology

PHIND Seminar Series: Functionalized soft-fiber based light-guiding, soft-robotics, and optical-sensing

11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
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Location: Zoom
Zoom Details
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/97721884992
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 977 2188 4992
Passcode: 348589

Rajib Ahmed, PhD
Researcher (volunteer)
Stanford University

About Rajib Ahmed
Dr. Rajib Ahmed working as a senior optical engineer at top tech-industry and his research focuses based on smart-optical devices for 3D sensing, AR/VR and LiDAR application. Rajib also involved as a volunteer researcher of BAMM, Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection. Rajib got postdoctoral research experienced (4.5 years) from Stanford University. Rajib has published his research work in the most prestigious journals including Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, ACS Nano, Light: Science & Applications, Advanced Optical Materials, SMALL, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Scientific Reports, Nanoscale, ACS Photonics, Optics Express, Optics Letter, Applied Physics Letter, etc. Besides his research publications (over 85 journal articles), he has contributed to the publication of scientific book chapters, patents, and working as a scientific journal editor.

Awards (selected): Principal Co-Investigator: Stanford RISE COVID19 Crisis Response Seed Grant Program; Stanford PHIND Individual Seed Grant; Best Paper Award of OSA; OSA Travel grant awards etc.

Sponsored by: PHIND Center & the Department of Radiology

Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics (PHIND) Symposium

Join us November 1 for the annual Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics Symposium. This all-day event will showcase the exciting PHIND work that is going on campus-wide and beyond. We hope you can join us and look forward to building the PHIND community together.

Confirmed session topics:

• Sleep Sensors
• Tactile measurements with smart phones
• Skin-inspired Soft Sensors for Muscle, Brain and Gut
• Wearables Panel Discussion

Location: Allied Arts Guild, Menlo Park, CA, USA
More Information & Registration

Hosted by: Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics Center at Stanford (PHIND), Department of Radiology

PHIND Seminar Series: A Powerful Personal Exposome Tracker (PET) for Precision Environmental Health

12:00-1:00pm Seminar & Discussion
RSVP Here

Location: Zoom
Zoom Details
Webinar URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/s/97300039078
Dial: US: +1 650 724 9799  or +1 833 302 1536 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 973 0003 9078
Passcode: 276291

Allison Xinyue Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Genetics
Stanford University

Abstract
Human health is affected by the dynamic interactions between the genome and the environment. Over the decades, scientists have made substantial breakthroughs on understanding the genome, however, our knowledge about the environmental effects remains limited. The exposome is consists of all the exposures across one’s lifetime. Current methods of environmental monitoring, relying on total concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and a handful of substances, cannot fully reflect the complex nature of the human exposome. Moreover, fixed weather stations fail to provide precise exposure information on the personal level, let alone providing evidence for precision environmental health. Here, we propose a wearable device that captures the diverse airborne exposome and allows users to get a comprehensive view of their exposures. The wearable device, termed Personal Exposome Tracker (PET), is an active sampling device that collects all traditional environmental parameters measured by fixed weather stations, such as temperature, humidity, PM2.5, PM10 and volatile organic compound (VOC), at the personal level. Additionally, PET contains compartment to collect chemical and biological exposomes, respectively. Paired with next generation sequencing (NGS) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS), PET provides the most detailed view of the human airborne exposome. The onboard Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor provides an additional layer of exposure information. Therefore, PET is a powerful exposometer that provides insightful information to aid precision environmental health.

About Allison Zhang
Dr. Zhang joined Michael Snyder’s group in 2018 at Stanford University after receiving her PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from University of Kansas. Her research focuses on understanding the human exposome, particularly, how the exposome affects human health. She is interested in applying multi-omics approaches using high-throughput sequencing, mass-spectrometry, and wearable devices to understand the exposome and its health consequences at the personal level. She has studied the human exposome in multiple environmental settings, including hospital and during wildfire, and in complex disease settings, such as Crohn’s disease and Autism. Her current work also includes developing wearable sensors to profile personal exposome that aid precision environmental health.

Sponsored by: PHIND Center & the Department of Radiology

PHIND Annual Gambhir Symposium

Join us June 12, 2023 for this year’s PHIND Annual Gambhir Symposium. The late Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir was a visionary who had a profound impact on the world of science and humanity. As a leader and pioneer in the fields of molecular imaging, early detection of cancer, and precision health, his enduring legacy can be seen in the research and innovations continuing in these fields today.

For the last two years the Gambhir Symposium aimed to celebrate Dr. Gambhir’s illustrious career and continue down the paths he forged by highlighting the work still ongoing in the fields he helped to cultivate. From this year forward, the Gambhir Symposium will be combined with the annual Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics (PHIND) Center Symposium—featuring exciting emerging approaches in the precision health space. Under the leadership of Joseph M. DeSimone, PhD and Garry E. Gold, MD, the PHIND Symposium will be branded in perpetuity as the Gambhir Symposium in honor of the late Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir.       

Join us to hear from prominent investigators sharing current thoughts and future outlooks in precision health. This year’s event will be in-person only, but will be recorded and available for those not able to attend.

Location: Li Ka Shing Center, Berg Hall, Stanford, CA
More Information & Registration

Hosted by: Precision Health & Integrated Diagnostics (PHIND) Center at Stanford