News

Congratulations to Chaitra Badve, MD, associate professor, radiology, CWRU and UH, on receiving a CWRU School of Medicine Dean’s HERO Award for the project, “Building Clinically Deployable Infrastructure for Integrated Multimodal Imaging Biomarkers in Glioblastoma.”

Xin Yu, ScD, F. Alex Nason Professor II, biomedical engineering, CWRU, has received an NIH RF1 grant for a project which will develop novel magnetic resonance imaging methods to quantitatively assess glymphatic function in vivo and apply them to study how aging and exercise affect vascular physiology and waste clearance in the brain.

MD/PhD student Laura Chen received an NIH F30 grant for “Ultrasound-triggered nanobubble gene therapy for prostate cancer radiosensitization,” developing gene therapy to overcome radiation resistance in prostate tumors and potentially reduce exposure, side effects, and improve outcomes. Laura is mentored by Dr. Agata Exner.

PhD student Dorian Durig received an NIH F31 grant for a project with potential to improve treatment monitoring, support personalized therapies, and enhance cancer immunotherapy effectiveness. Dorian is mentored by Agata Exner.

Faezeh Sodagari, MD, assistant professor of radiology at CWRU/UH, was selected for the Academy’s Council of Early Career Investigators in Imaging (CECI²) Class of 2026–27, a program advancing medical imaging innovation, NIH grantsmanship, and research advocacy.

Zhong Irene Wang, PhD, was appointed Chair of the NIH Imaging Technology for Neuroscience (ITN) Study Section, a national leadership role leading peer review of grant applications on emerging imaging technologies in neuroscience.

MD/PhD student Christina MacAskill received an NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA F30 Fellowship for her project which will develop a technique that could help identify non-responding tumors sooner. Christina is mentored by Drs. Holly Marshall and Chris Flask.

The team will explore the project, "Multi-parametric magnetic resonance fingerprinting of lung nodules: correlation with computed tomography and diagnostic pathology." 

Shuo Li, PhD, Leonard Case, Jr. Professor of Engineering at CWRU, has accepted an invitation, extended on behalf of the National Institutes of Health director, to serve on the board of scientific counselors of the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Dr. Ting-Yu (Jack) Su, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Irene Wang's Epilepsy Imaging Lab, Cleveland Clinic, received an AES Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award. His project will develop radiomics-enhanced MR fingerprinting to improve the characterization of focal cortical dysplasia for epilepsy patient's brain surgery planning.