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Department of Radiology   

Joseph S. Yu, MD, Interim Chair


Radiology’s mission is to: achieve national distinction in education, scholarship and public service; educate professionals in basic and clinical medical imaging sciences, as well as allied medical professions; create and disseminate knowledge and technology; and provide solutions for improving health. Radiology has five divisions: Diagnostic Radiology (includes Interventional Radiology, Neuroradiology, Breast Imaging, Thoracic, Abdominal, Musculoskeletal, and Non-Vascular Interventional); Imaging Research; Nuclear Medicine
and Molecular Imaging; Radiobiology; and Regional Radiology. Also within the department is the Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging. This, along with the Medical Center’s
Imaging Signature Program, symbolizes the OSUMC’s commitment to be on the technological forefront of biomedical imaging. These transinstitutional efforts have involved such entities as the Ohio Supercomputer Center and Ohio State’s colleges of Engineering and Veterinary Medicine. Students are thus exposed to exceptional educational and training opportunities. Visit Department of Radiology Web Site


Ongoing Research Programs

  • Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging, aka The Biomedical Structural, Functional and Molecular Imaging Enterprise – In 2003, the state of Ohio awarded Michael
    Knopp, MD, PhD, a $9.1 million Third Frontier Grant and $8 million in Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer (BRTT) to create the Wright Center of Innovation (WCI) in Biomedical Imaging. The project, also known as the Biomedical Structural, Functional and Molecular Imaging Enterprise, is designed to bolster biomedical imaging as a key enabling technology. In 2006, the state announced continued funding of nearly $8 million for three years (through May 2009) to create additional opportunities for the next level of hybrid positron emission technology/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) and imaging-based therapy.
  • Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) Core Lab – With Michael Knopp, MD, PhD, as principal investigator, Radiology was budgeting for its sixth year (and through March 2015)
    as a core lab for the CALGB, a clinical research group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The lab facilitates standardized data acquisition, data transmission, quality control, storage, post-processing and analysis. It also implements post-processing algorithms as desired by the imaging committee and provides technical infrastructure to
    enable rapid transfer and storage of the studies.
  • Imaging Biomarkers – In late 2007, the WCI received a $1.5 million grant from the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study and establish imaging biomarkers for predicting effective treatments for each patient and help standardize imaging as biomarkers for clinical trials and care in cancer and other diseases. The grant will support one of the first projects of the Biomarkers Consortium, a publicprivate
    biomedical research partnership formed in 2006 by the NIH, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services and other industry and
    advocacy groups to identify biological markers for use by researchers, regulators and healthcare providers in diagnosing and treating cancer. Additionally, a Pfizer Inc. award from 2006 is helping the Department advance imaging technology as a credential biomarker for clinical drug development
  • Imaging Response Assessment Teams (IRAT) in Cancer Centers – The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC), in conjunction with the Department of Radiology, is one of only eight cancer centers nationwide that received a multi-year award announced in 2005 from the NCI to continue developing imaging assessment methods that reveal early biologic, noninvasive response to cancer treatment. The focus of this $738,813 award is to develop, implement and validate response assessment imaging methods in the OSUCCC along with Radiology’s Division of Imaging Research, which includes the WCI.
  • Molecular-Level Research – The Division of Radiobiology, led by Altaf Wani, PhD, added more than half a million dollars to its award portfolio in 2007. Research included: A) genomic instability in cancer pathogenesis (understanding regulation of DNA damage processing in the native environment of normal and cancerous cells and delineating molecular mechanisms of cross-talk between molecular pathways that control cellular homeostasis); B) characterizing and quantifying, at the molecular level in human tissue and cell types, the mechanisms of chemopreventive agents, cancer therapy in combination with chemical and radiological agents, modulation of genes and proteins regulating cellular proliferation and apoptosis, and genetic damage and its repair; C) anticancer topoisomerase poisons, including analysis of potential drugs, proteomic analysis of post-translational modifications of topoisomerases associated with drug exposure, and disruption of cancer cell metabolism by anticancer drugs.


Research Accomplishments of 2007

  • Research Funding – In 2007, Radiology continued raising its level of research recognition and funding. Overall, the department’s compilation of research awards has exceeded
    $43 million.
  • Imaging Research – Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging (WCI) – The Division of Imaging Research has approximately $34 million in budgeted research. Within this division, the WCI (aka The Biomedical Structural, Functional and Molecular Imaging Enterprise) funding awards have attracted an additional $19.5 million-plus in public/private
    research funding and created more than 200 jobs in Ohio. Projects within the WCI have enhanced patient care in neurology, urology, cardiology and oncology, as reflected by these examples: use of a global positioning system in the operating room that allows surgeons to make smaller scalp incisions and remove tinier segments of the skull; specimen maging to improve oncologic outcomes by using the integrated iemens’ Inveon CT and Inveon PET system that was placed in Ohio State’s Biomedical Research Tower in March 2007 as part of WCI imaging operations that personalize
    patient care.
  • Outreach and Recognition – The 9th Midwest DNA Repair Symposium, held in Columbus in May 2007, was hosted and chaired by Altaf Wani, PhD, director of Radiology’s Division
    of Radiobiology. In October 2007, the Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging sponsored a symposium titled “Ohio: The Global Pioneer in Biomedical Imaging.” This event presented biomedical imaging opportunities and collaborations while highlighting the WCI and the state’s leading role in the biomedical sciences.
  • Molecular-Level Impact – Articles in several high-impactscientific journals featured Radiology’s work in describing new dimensions in regulating DNA damage processing, DNA repair protein trafficking in cells and targeting to damage in chromatin, and the role of protein ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation in transcription and genomic repair.
    The department collaborated with other departments in the College of Medicine and with Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and the School of Public Health on published
    studies relating to mechanisms of cancer, mutagenesis, cell death, and cancer therapy and chemoprevention. The research team evaluated anthracycline analogs with modified
    sugar moieties for activity against topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II; unexpected results led to insights into mechanisms of photodynamic therapy, or the treatment of
    cancer with visible light and photoactive drugs that produce singlet oxygen.
  • Core Lab for Imaging Post-Processing and Analysis – This lab’s capabilities are well-recognized through awards from the pharmaceutical industry and the CALGB. The growth in collaborations and advanced imaging technologies has led to budget funding exceeding $3.3 million.