Hyunsuk Shim
Emory University, GA·Biomedical Engineering
Glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive brain cancer, sends tumor cells creeping into the healthy brain around it. Standard MRI scans cannot see all of these infiltrating cells.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
spectroscopic MRI
sMRI
MR spectroscopic imaging
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Develop rapid, motion-robust spectroscopic MRI scans of the whole brain that improve image quality for detecting infiltrating brain tumor.
- Build accelerated data processing pipelines that return choline/N-acetylaspartate ratio maps, which mark tumor tissue, to the hospital image archive (PACS) quickly enough for routine radiology reporting.
- Create processing and display tools that present metabolite maps in a clinician-friendly way and connect with radiation treatment planning software.
- Develop tools that use spectroscopic MRI to predict the best initial radiation therapy planning strategy for glioblastoma patients.
More about the research
As a result, radiation treatment can miss them, and the tumor often comes back early. Spectroscopic MRI (sMRI) measures the levels of small molecules, or metabolites, in tissue rather than just its structure. A raised ratio of choline, a building block of cell membranes, to N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a molecule found in healthy neurons, marks tumor tissue that ordinary MRI misses. Studies including the team's own have shown that sMRI detects infiltrating tumor with high sensitivity and specificity.
Why it matters
Patients with glioblastoma could benefit if radiation can reach tumor regions that standard MRI misses. In a pilot trial, this approach was linked to longer survival. Faster and more reliable spectroscopic MRI scans and software could let radiation oncologists at many hospitals use metabolic tumor maps when planning treatment. This could help delay tumor recurrence.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Hui Lin
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Build White Matter Infiltrative Risk maps by identifying which white matter tracts glioblastoma tends to invade across more than 500 patients and combining them with each patient's DTI fiber density maps.
Dario Rodrigues
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Develop Halo, an external phased array of 72 microwave antennas at 915 MHz that focuses heating to 40-44°C deep within the brain and remains compatible with MRI.
Hunter Underhill
University of Utah, UT·Medicine & Clinical Research
Reduce errors from next-generation sequencing so that very rare tumor DNA variants can be detected in blood plasma from glioblastoma patients.
The school
Emory University: 70 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 286 research doctorates a year.
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