Qin Qin
University of Washington, WA·Biomedical Engineering
Cancer that spreads to the brain from elsewhere in the body, known as brain metastases, is the most common type of tumor found in the central nervous system. Newer treatments have improved outcomes, but doctors still struggle to tell early whether a treatment is working.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physics
- Topics
brain metastases
perfusion MRI
arterial spin labeling
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Develop faster velocity-selective arterial spin labeling (VSASL) MRI protocols that map cerebral blood flow and blood volume without contrast dye, using accelerated 3D acquisitions.
- Test whether changes in VSASL-measured blood flow and blood volume within a month of radiation therapy for brain metastases predict later treatment outcomes.
- Compare how well VSASL-derived blood flow and blood volume values tell metastatic recurrence apart from radiation-induced tissue effects in patients during follow-up scans.
- Measure the reproducibility of the VSASL protocols across MRI scanners from different vendors and at different magnetic field strengths.
More about the research
They also struggle to tell whether a growing spot on a scan is the tumor returning or just tissue damage left by radiation. Standard scans use an injected contrast dye and mainly show lesion size, which says little about how active the tumor is.
Why it matters
Patients with brain metastases could benefit from a contrast-free, repeatable scan that shows early on whether radiation therapy is working and helps separate true tumor recurrence from radiation damage. Because the methods are being made consistent across scanner brands, they could serve as a practical, low-cost imaging biomarker for multi-center clinical trials. They may also apply to other primary and metastatic tumors.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yin Xi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Measure blood flow in clear cell renal cell carcinoma with arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI and test whether it matches tumor regions with molecular changes that drive new blood vessel growth, such as HIF and VEGF activity.
Peiying Liu
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Develop normalized cerebrovascular reactivity (nCVR) MRI, which uses oxygen-breathing responses to correct CO2-breathing responses. Test whether it is more reproducible and better at detecting reduced reactivity than standard BOLD-based CVR.
Hanzhang Lu
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Develop VICTR MRI, a non-contrast method that measures venous transit time from changes in T1 relaxation, in six major brain veins including the superior sagittal sinus and internal jugular veins.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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