IMAGING THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Research Instructor / UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute
• Research Instructor, University Pittsburgh UPMC Cardiovascular Institute

Education BS, Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Idaho, 2000 PhD, Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh, 2006 Research Interests Dr. Carson has a longstanding interest in the development of novel genetic and molecular therapeutics. Much of his career has been devoted to developing and understanding principles by which these therapies can be targeted to diseased tissue. By achieving specific targeting, he hopes to increase therapeutic effects in diseased tissue and limit off-target effects and toxicity in non-target tissues. As a faculty member at the Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics, Dr. Carson's research has focused on the use of custom design microbubbles and ultrasound based techniques to specifically deliver nucleic acids to diseased tissues in vivo. Dr. Carson has shown anti-tumor effects of this system in squamous cell carcinoma when used to deliver plasmid DNA or siRNA. He has also shown that this system can deliver siRNA to the heart in a mouse model and is interested in other cardiovascular applications of this concept.

Job Titles:

• Research Instructor / University of Pittsburgh
• Research Instructor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine ( Cardiology ), Vascular Medicine Institute

Education PhD, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India, 2014. MS, Bangalore University, India, 2003. Research Interests Anurag N. Paranjape received his PhD from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India while working at the lab of Dr. Anu Rangarajan at Indian Institute of Science in 2014. He obtained postdoctoral training at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (2012-2015) and The National Cancer Institute (2015-2019) before joining University of Pittsburgh in 2019. Dr Paranjape's research interest broadly focuses on identifying new ways to enhance drug-delivery in cardiovascular, neurological, and metastatic diseases. During his PhD training, he worked on identifying and characterizing unique, hard to target breast cancer stem cells. He generated in vitro transformed cell lines useful for studying epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and stemness properties, some of the hallmarks of cancer stem cells (Paranjape et al., Oncogene, 2012). Using these cells, he reported a novel mechanism linking Bmi1, Nanog, and NFκB in breast cancer stem cells (Paranjape et al., BMC Cancer, 2014). At MD Anderson Center, he demonstrated that FOXC2, a known EMT regulator, is involved in stem cell regulation in human prostate cancer cells (Paranjape et al., Oncogene, 2016). He showed that inhibition of p38 MAPK pathway using a chemical inhibitor reversed the EMT and made the cells more sensitive to AR therapy. Later at NCI, he worked on ‘hard to treat' breast cancer brain metastases for which no effective therapy exists. That study showed that distinct areas within breast cancer brain metastases with varying permeability for drugs have unique gene expression patterns and identified that astrocytic S1P3 is upregulated as a neuroinflammatory response in highly permeable lesions (Gril and Paranjape et al., Nature communications, 2018). Currently he is working on establishing technologies to increase drug delivery beyond the endothelial barriers in the heart and brain which have been known as hindrances in treating cardiovascular and neurological diseases. His is exploring the probable bioeffects of new non-invasive technologies such as ultrasound-targeted microbubble cavitation (UTMC) to induce hyperpermeability.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

Education Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi Romania, 1996 Post-doctoral fellow, Cardiology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, 1998-1999 Internal Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, University Hospital of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 1999-2002 Clinical Fellow, Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh 2002-2005 Fellow, Interventional Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh 2005-2007 Research Interests Dr. Toma joined UPMC as clinical faculty in the Cardiac Catheterization laboratory in 2007. Dr. Toma's current research interests include development of cell-based therapies for the treatment of myocardial dysfunction, involving both translational as well as clinical trial work. In addition, Dr. Toma is investigating therapeutic applications of intravascular ultrasound for the treatment of coronary artery disease.

Education MD, Clinical Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang, China, 2007 MS, Echocardiography, China Medical University, Shenyang, China, 2009 PhD, Echocardiography, China Medical University, Shenyang, China, 2015 Research Interests Dr. Sun received her Ph.D. degree in echocardiography in 2015 from the China Medical University, China. Her Ph.D. research focused on the relationship of genetic polymorphisms and cardiovascular disease. In 2017, she joined the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center as a visiting scholar. Currently, her research interest is microbubble-mediated delivery of therapeutics, specifically genes and drugs, using ultrasound.

Job Titles:

• Director, Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics / Director, Non - Invasive Cardiac Imaging, UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute

Education BA, Boston University, 1984. MD, Boston University School of Medicine, 1984. Research Interests Dr. Villanueva received her medical education from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1984 as part of a specialized 6-year BA/MD program, then completed her internship and residency training at Duke University Medical Center from 1984-87. Following her residency, Dr. Villanueva completed a one year research fellowship in cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1988, then completed her cardiology fellowship training at the University of Virginia from 1988-1992. Dr. Villanueva joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1992. Her clinical focus is on non-invasive cardiac imaging, and she currently is the Director of Non-Invaisve Cardiac Imaging for the Cardiovascular Institute based at Presbyterian University Hospital, UPMC. Her research interests are centered on ultrasound-based approaches to molecular imaging of cardiovascular disease, and also on the therapeutic applications of ultrasound contrast agents, including gene and drug delivery. She is the Director of the Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics. Dr. Villanueva has mentored over 30 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral medical students and fellows, served on several PhD committees, and engaged in clinical teaching of medical students for more than 15 years. She has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of University Cardiologists.

Job Titles:

• Research Instructor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine / UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute

Education B.S. Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada 2001 Ph.D. University of Montreal, Canada 2009 Research Interests Dr. Yu received his Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering in 2009 from the University of Montreal, Canada. His Ph.D. research focused on high-frequency ultrasonic backscatter from blood. He completed his postdoctoral training at Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a research instructor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His research interests include ultrasound tissue characterization, ultrasound contrast imaging, and ultrasound microbubble-mediated drug delivery and therapy.

Job Titles:

• Research Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine / UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute

Education BE, Tianjin University, 1993 ME, Tianjin University, 1996 PhD, National University of Singapore, 2003 Research Interests After obtaining his PhD in chemistry in 2003, Dr. Wang completed his first post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Singapore. He then moved to the United States in 2005 for further post-doctoral training and is currently working at the Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics as a research assistant professor. His main focus is in the development of novel ultrasound contrast agent microbubbles for a myriad of applications, including in vivo imaging of therapeutic stem cells, the molecular-targeting of specific diseased tissues (such as ischemic heart tissue) with ligand-labeled microbubbles, and mediating the delivery of therapeutic genes and drugs to targeted tissues via microbubbles acting as delivery vehicles and ultrasound application.

Education PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 1996 Dr. Xu spent under three years at Xi'an Jiaotong University in China earning his doctoral degree in the field of biomedical engineering, specifically interested in biomedical imaging. He worked at the Northwestern Polytechnical Institute University in Xi'an, China and subsequently at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal as a post-doctoral fellow turned research associate before becoming a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Florida, then the University of Michigan. For two years preceding his arrival at the University of Pittsburgh in 2009, he developed devices related to respiratory acoustics as a senior engineer of Sharp Labs of America, Inc. His current research, performed under the advisement of Dr. Kang Kim, lies in the areas of ultrasound imaging and photoacoustic imaging and developing methods for uniquely detecting certain types of tissues.

Job Titles:

• Professor of Medicine, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor of Medicine / Associate Professor of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
• Research Fellow and Assistant Research Scientist in the Biomedical Ultrasound Laboratory of the University of Michigan

Job Titles:

• Visiting Scholar, UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute

Klazina Kooiman studied Bio-pharmaceutical Sciences at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and obtained her M.Sc. degree cum laude specializing in pharmaceutical technology. From 2005 to 2010, she was a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the Thorax Centre, Erasmus MC, the Netherlands. On January 19, 2011, she obtained her Ph.D. degree on the topic of ultrasound contrast agents for therapy. She currently holds a postdoctoral position in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Thorax Centre, Erasmus MC, focusing on the application of ultrasound contrast agents for drug delivery and molecular imaging. She was awarded the ICIN Fellowship 2012 and because of this fellowship, she became a visiting scholar in the Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics. She studied lipid behavior on microbubbles during ultrasound excitation using ultra-high speed fluorescence microscopy using the UPMC Cam. Dr. Kooiman is now Assistant Professor at the Thorax Centre, Erasmus MC, the Netherlands.

Job Titles:

• Visiting Scholar, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine ( Cardiology ), UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute

Education PharmD, University of Sargodha, Pakistan, 2011

Job Titles:

• Research Instructor / UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute
• Research Instructor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine / UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute

Education Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm), Utkal University, India. 2003.