Arvind P. Pathak
Associate Professor
Depts. of Radiology, Oncology and Biomedical Engineering
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Institute for NanoBioTechnology
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Seminar Information
The formation of new blood vessels or angiogenesis is one of the ‘hallmarks’ of cancer and necessary for tumor progression and metastasis. However, tumor blood vessels are structurally and functionally abnormal compared to the blood vessels in healthy tissue. These abnormalities profoundly affect the tumor microenvironment, metastatic potential, and drug delivery. This lecture will highlight how as biomedical engineers, we are uniquely positioned to develop innovative imaging approaches that can revolutionize our understanding of the role of the tumor vasculature, and these phenomena. This lecture will showcase new functional imaging methods for cancer; strategies for imaging the vascular phenotype at different spatial scales; and describe the use of 3D imaging data and visualization tools in computational models of cancer. Collectively, such “image-based” systems biology approaches have the potential to: help us better relate the genotype to the emergent phenotype, identify novel drug targets, and develop new clinical biomarkers of cancer.
Dr. Arvind P. Pathak received a BS in Electronics Engineering from the University of Poona, India. He received his PhD from the joint program in Functional Imaging between the Medical College of Wisconsin and Marquette University. During his PhD he was a Whitaker Foundation Fellow and developed some of the first clinical biomarkers of tumor angiogenesis. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Molecular Imaging, with a focus on elucidating the role of lymphatics in cancer. He is currently Associate Professor of Radiology, Oncology and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and directs the Functional Visualization Lab. His laboratory (www.pathaklab.org) is focused on developing new imaging methods, computational models and visualization tools to ‘make visible’ critical aspects of cancer, neurobiology and tissue engineering. His work has been recognized by multiple journal covers and awards including the Bill Negendank Award from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) given to “outstanding young investigators in cancer MRI” and the Career Catalyst Award from the Susan Komen Foundation. He serves on review panels for national and international funding agencies and the editorial board of imaging journals. He has mentored almost sixty students, and was a recipient of the ISMRM’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 2014.