Departments & Faculty
Mentorship
Each Fellow is dually mentored by a program faculty member from Rice and one from MD Anderson. This combined mentoring merges the physical and clinical sciences into the research projects so the Fellows can learn the techniques necessary for both disciplines.
The program includes a total of 25 faculty mentors (18) and co-mentors (7) from MD Anderson (8 mentors and 6 co-mentors) and Rice University (10 mentors and 1 co-mentor).
Rice University Mentors
Department of Bioengineering
Gang Bao, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Nanomedicine, molecular imaging, and genome editing
Biomolecular Engineering and Nanomedicine (Bao Lab)
Michael Diehl, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Research Interests: Genes, proteins and other biochemical reactions in cells
Macromolecular Systems Bioengineering Group
Rebekah Drezek, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Gold nanoparticle platform technologies for targeted imaging and therapy of cancer
Optical Molecular Imaging and Nanobiotechnology Laboratory
Amina Qutub, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Novel computational methods to study mechanisms of brain tissue regeneration and cancer
Systems Biology Laboratory
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Optical imaging and spectroscopy tools to reduce the incidence and mortality of cancer
Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging Laboratory
Junghae Suh, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Research Interests: Genetically encoded nanoparticles
Synthetic Virology Laboratory
Jeff Tabor, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Synthetic biology
Tabor Laboratory
Tomasz Tkaczyk, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Research Interests: Optical devices, multidimensional imaging modalities
Modern Optical Instrumentation and Bio-imaging Laboratory
David Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Nucleic acid nanotechnology
Nucleic Acid Bioengineering Laboratory (NABLab)
Department of Chemistry
Naomi Halas, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Nanoscale plasmonics, ultrasensitive chemical sensing, active plasmonics, and biomedical and energy applications
Laboratory for Nanophotonics
Lon Wilson, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Bringing carbon nanotechnology to the fields of biology and medicine
Wilson Research Group Website
MD Anderson Mentors
Department of Imaging Physics
Research Interests: Magnetic resonance imaging, spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging
Magnetic Resonance Systems Lab
Small Animal Imaging Facility
Richard Bouchard, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Research Interests: Clinical photoacoustic-ultrasonic and acoustic radiation force (ARF)-based elasticity imaging technologies
Photoacoustic Imaging Research Lab
David Fuentes, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Research Interests: High performance human assisted computational tools for image-guided interventions
Computational Research Lab
John Hazle, Ph.D. Professor and Chair
Research Interests: Image guided therapy, MR temperature imaging, pre-clinical imaging, novel early detection technologies
Magnetic Relaxometry Research Laboratory
Small Animal Imaging Facility
Research Interests: Applications of nanotechnology and biophotonics in early detection, diagnosis/prognosis, and treatment of cancer
Biomedical Optics & NanoDiagnostics (BOND) Lab
Jason Stafford, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Magnetic resonance imaging, image-guided interventions, image-guided therapy, thermal therapy
Cancer Systems Imaging
Pratip Bhattacharya, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Research Interests: Hyperpolarization, induced polarization, and dynamic nuclear polarization
Chun Li, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Targeted imaging probes, novel drug-delivery systems for selective delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic agents
Steven Millward, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Imaging of apoptosis and autophagy, ovarian cancer metabolism, directed evolution of imaging agents
David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D. Professor and Chair
Research Interests: Molecular imaging, signal transduction, genetically encoded reporters, bioluminescence, PET
Department of Radiation Physics
Sang Hyun Cho, Ph.D. Professor
Research Interests: Modeling nanoparticle-radiation interactions and novel x-ray fluorescence imaging
Clinical Program Faculty
Michael Curran, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Immunology
Research Interests: Discovering mechanisms by which immune-resistant cancers evade the host T cell response and resist checkpoint antibody therapy.
Vikas Kundra, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Diagnostic Radiology
Research Interests: Imaging of gene expression, gene therapy and responsive therapy
Frederick Lang, Jr., M.D. Professor of Neurosurgery
Research Interests: Surgery for deep brain tumors, gene therapy for brain tumors, primary and metastatic brain tumors
Anirban Maitra, M.B.B.S. Professor of Pathology & Translational Molecular Pathology
Research Interests: Pancreatic cancer, experimental therapeutics, cancer epigenetics
Anil K. Sood, M.D. Professor of Gynecologic Oncology & Reproductive Medicine
Research Interests: Neuroendocrine stress hormones on ovarian cancer, development of new strategies for in vivo siRNA delivery