Research
Welcome to Radiology Research
The UAB Department of Radiology has active research in clinical, translational, and basic science disciplines. Our research external funding portfolio includes projects supported by the NIH, the US Dept. of Defense (DOD), the Komen Foundation, ACRIN, and multiple industry partners. We work collaboratively with UAB and regional investigators through the Human Imaging Shared Facility, a core program that supports clinical research. The Division of Advanced Medical Imaging is composed of full time research faculty with expertise in pre-clinical, translational, and advanced imaging applications. A full complement of small animal imaging for pre-clinical studies is available for research support. The Advanced Imaging Facility (AIF) is the home of the Molecular Imaging Program. In addition to the 24 MeV cyclotron, there is a GMP compliant laboratory for human use radiopharmaceutical production and research space. Two state-of-the-art PET/CT and a recently installed PET/MR are available for research imaging.
The Radiology research Administration team provides support in imaging study research development, pre-and post- award management in conjunction with the UAB OSP, budget support, image transfer, and UAB compliance. A clinical statistician also contributes research support to imaging and related studies.
The Radiology faculty conduct research in university-wide interdisciplinary research. This interdisciplinary research culture at UAB facilitates many opportunities to achieve success in making significant contributions to biomedicine and care of our patients in the Southeast.
Mission Statement
The UAB Radiology department members are committed to contributing to patient care and public health through the use of their resources in innovative thinking, multi-disciplinary collaboration, expertise in molecular, functional, and anatomic imaging and basic imaging sciences research.
Leadership
Suzanne E. Lapi, Ph.D.
Cyclotron Facility Director
Co-Leader, Experimental Therapeutics Program, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Radiology
Professor, Departments of Radiology and Chemistry
University of Alabama at Birmingham
lapi@uab.edu
Small Animal Imaging Shared Facility
The mission of the Preclinical Imaging Core Facility is to support sustainable and responsive multimodality imaging in preclinical oncology models for UAB University and Medical Center investigators through advanced preclinical imaging acquisition and analysis. The facility provides a multimodality imaging approach to provide a molecular understanding of disease processes in animal models, allows for therapeutic assessment of response, supports the development of novel imaging contrast agents, and facilitates translational preclinical imaging studies precluding clinical trials. To facilitate those goals, we have a team of four faculty scientists (Director, three Technical Associate Directors) whose expertise range from ultrasound imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), nuclear imaging, including positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and optical imaging.
The team routinely collaborates with imaging scientists and non-imaging scientists to help design experiments and enable preclinical imaging in many animal models. To enable imaging data acquisition, we have a staff of professionals, including an associate core director with over 20 years of preclinical imaging experience, two staff scientists, two staff researchers, and a program manager. Along with experimental design and acquisition, the facility also offers data analysis and image processing and secondary biological studies (associated with imaging) such as radioactive biodistributions of animal models. Importantly, many of the technologies applied are similarly applied in UAB clinical trials. The Director of the Preclinical Imaging Core (Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering) has a research program centered around preclinical imaging in oncology as well as a role in translational clinical research, including clinical trials utilizing imaging, therefore will be involved in ensuring the evolution of new techniques is available in the preclinical imaging core facility.
The Small Animal Imaging Facility is supported by the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the O’Brien Center for Acute Kidney Injury Research.
| Director | Anna G. Sorace, Ph.D. | asorace@uabmc.edu |
| Technical Associate Director | Suzanne E. Lapi, Ph.D. | slapi@uabmc.edu |
| Technical Associate Director | Mark Bolding, Ph.D. | mbolding@uabmc.edu |
| Technical Associate Director | Jason Warram, Ph.D. | jwarram@uabmc.edu |
