Research Summary

Javier Villanueva­-Meyer, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Neuroradiology section in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and he completed his one-year internship at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke. Dr. Villanueva-­Meyer completed his four-year diagnostic radiology residency at the UCSF, followed by a Neuroradiology fellowship at UCSF. He also completed a NIH T32 post-doctoral fellowship in the UCSF Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.

Dr. Villanueva-Meyer’s interests focus on advanced MR imaging and imaging based tools to better delineate and characterize brain tumors. His research also involves molecular imaging where he works with collaborators within and outside of our department to develop and implement the use of PET radiotracers in both brain tumors and spinal infection.

Dr. Villanueva­-Meyer has experience in CT, MRI and plain film radiography of the brain, head and neck, spine, and peripheral nervous system in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. As well as diagnostic and therapeutic neuroradiology procedures, including percutaneous biopsy, lumbar puncture, myelography, cisternography, epidural and selective nerve root injection.

Expertise:
Neuroradiology

Specialty:
Brain Tumor Radiology

Professional Interests:
MRI of brain tumors, imaging of infection, molecular imaging

Education

Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX, B.B.A., 06/2007, Management
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX, M.D., 06/2011, Medicine
Virginia Tech Carilion, Roanoke VA, 06/2012, Internship
Dept of Radiology, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, 06/2016, Radiology Residency
Dept of Radiology, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, 06/2017, Neuroradiology Fellowship

Honors & Awards

  • 2007
    Summa cum laude, Texas Tech University
  • 2007
    Full merit scholarship, Baylor College of Medicine
  • 2013
    Margulis Society Resident Research Award, UCSF
  • 2014
    AUR Radiology Resident Academic Leadership Development Grant
  • 2015
    Chief Resident, Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program, UCSF
  • 2016
    ACR - AUR Research Scholar
  • 2016
    NIH - NIBIB T32 Research Grant Fellow
  • 2016
    Outstanding Podium Presentation, Imaging Research Symposium, UCSF
  • 2016
    Elmer Ng MD Award for Outstanding Resident in Diagnostic Radiology, UCSF
  • 2017
    Trainee Award, American Society of Neuroradiology
  • 2018
    John A. Watson Scholar, UCSF
  • 2020
    Diane D. Ralston Neuroscience Clinical and Basic Neuroscience Teaching Award, UCSF Neurological Surgery

Selected Publications

  1. Villanueva-Meyer J. Gallium-68-Labeled Pentixafor: A Promising Agent in Nuclear Medicine. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2025 May 28.  View on PubMed
  2. Akbari H, Bakas S, Sako C, Fathi Kazerooni A, Villanueva-Meyer J, Garcia JA, Mamourian E, Liu F, Cao Q, Shinohara RT, Baid U, Getka A, Pati S, Singh A, Calabrese E, Chang S, Rudie J, Sotiras A, LaMontagne P, Marcus DS, Milchenko M, Nazeri A, Balana C, Capellades J, Puig J, Badve C, Barnholtz-Sloan JS, Sloan AE, Vadmal V, Waite K, Ak M, Colen RR, Park YW, Ahn SS, Chang JH, Choi YS, Lee SK, Alexander GS, Ali AS, Dicker AP, Flanders AE, Liem S, Lombardo J, Shi W, Shukla G, Griffith B, Poisson LM, Rogers LR, Kotrotsou A, Booth TC, Jain R, Lee M, Mahajan A, Chakravarti A, Palmer JD, DiCostanzo D, Fathallah-Shaykh H, Cepeda S, Santonocito OS, Di Stefano AL, Wiestler B, Melhem ER, Woodworth GF, Tiwari P, Valdes P, Matsumoto Y, Otani Y, Imoto R, Aboian M, Koizumi S, Kurozumi K, Kawakatsu T, Alexander K, Satgunaseelan L, Rulseh AM, Bagley SJ, Bilello M, Binder ZA, Brem S, Desai AS, Lustig RA, Maloney E, Prior T, Amankulor N, Nasrallah MP, O'Rourke DM, Mohan S, Davatzikos C, ReSPOND consortium. Machine learning-based prognostic subgrouping of glioblastoma: A multicenter study. Neuro Oncol. 2025 May 15; 27(4):1102-1115.  View on PubMed
  3. Barrios J, Porter E, Capaldi DPI, Upadhaya T, Chen WC, Perks JR, Apte A, Aristophanous M, LoCastro E, Hsu D, Stone PH, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Valdes G, Jiang F, Maddalena M, Ballangrud A, Prezelski K, Lin H, Sun JY, Aldin MAK, Chau OW, Ziemer B, Seaberg M, Sneed PK, Nakamura JL, Boreta LC, Fogh SE, Raleigh DR, Chew J, Vasudevan H, Cha S, Hess C, Fragoso R, Shultz DB, Pike L, Hervey-Jumper SL, Tsang DS, Theodosopoulos P, Cooke D, Benedict SH, Sheng K, Seuntjens J, Coolens C, Deasy J, Braunstein S, Morin O. Multi-institutional atlas of brain metastases informs spatial modeling for precision imaging and personalized therapy. Nat Commun. 2025 May 15; 16(1):4536.  View on PubMed
  4. van den Bent MJ, Vogelbaum MA, Cloughesy T, Galldiks N, Albert NL, Tonn JC, Avila E, Fangusaro J, Mirsky D, Sahgal A, Soffietti R, Karschnia P, Mehta M, Kim MM, Boele F, Huse JT, Nayak L, Lim-Fat MJ, le Rhun E, Desjardins A, Lee EQ, Chukwueke U, Koekkoek JAF, Mendoza T, Loughan AR, Budhu JA, Bakas S, Huang RY, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Leone JP, Okada H, Reardon DA, Bi WL, Wen PY, Chang SM. Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (RANO) 2009-2025: Broad Scope and Implementation - A Progress Report. Neuro Oncol. 2025 May 03.  View on PubMed
  5. Kim Y, Chen HY, Nickles T, Shkliar I, Dang D, Slater J, Wang C, Gordon JW, Tan CT, Suszczynski C, Maddali S, Gaunt A, Chen R, Villanueva-Meyer J, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Kurhanewicz J, Bok RA, Chang S, Vigneron DB. Translation of hyperpolarized [13C,15N2]urea MRI for novel human brain perfusion studies. Npj Imaging. 2025; 3(1):11.  View on PubMed
  6. Stummer W, Gerwing M, Bilgin SS, Thomas C, Villanueva-Meyer J, Agarwal V, Stögbauer L, Schroeteler J, Müther M. Sonodynamic therapy with a single neoadjuvant, diffuse delivery of low-intensity ultrasound with 5-ALA in treatment naïve glioblastoma results in tumor-specific cytotoxic edema and increased apoptosis. J Neurooncol. 2025 May; 172(3):687-693.  View on PubMed
  7. Wang L, Hu W, Dong F, Sheng C, Wu J, Han Y, Jiang J, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Weiner MW, Aisen P, Petersen R, Jack CR, Jagust W, Trojanowski JQ, Toga AW, Beckett L, Green RC, Saykin AJ, Morris J, Shaw LM, Khachaturian Z, Sorensen G, Kuller L, Raichle M, Paul S, Davies P, Fillit H, Hefti F, Holtzman D, Mesulam MM, Potter W, Snyder P, Schwartz A, Montine T, Thomas RG, Donohue M, Walter S, Gessert D, Sather T, Jiminez G, Harvey D, Bernstein M, Thompson P, Schuff N, Borowski B, Gunter J, Senjem M, Vemuri P, Jones D, Kantarci K, Ward C, Koeppe RA, Foster N, Reiman EM, Chen K, Mathis C, Landau S, Cairns NJ, Householder E, Taylor-Reinwald L, Lee V, Korecka M, Figurski M, Crawford K, Neu S, Foroud TM, Potkin SG, Shen L, Faber K, Kim S, Nho K, Thal L, Buckholtz N, Albert M, Frank R, Hsiao J, Kaye J, Quinn J, Lind B, Carter R, Dolen S, Schneider LS, Pawluczyk S, Beccera M, Teodoro L, Spann BM, Brewer J, Vanderswag H, Fleisher A, Heidebrink JL, Lord JL, Mason SS, Albers CS, Knopman D, Johnson K, Doody RS, Villanueva-Meyer J, Chowdhury M, Rountree S, Dang M, Stern Y, Honig LS, Bell KL, Ances B, Carroll M, Leon S, Mintun MA, Schneider S, Oliver A, Marson D, Griffith R, Clark D, Geldmacher D, Brockington J, Roberson E, Grossman H, Mitsis E, de Toledo-Morrell L, Shah RC, Duara R, Varon D, Greig MT, Roberts P, Onyike C, D'Agostino D, Kielb S, Galvin JE, Cerbone B, Michel CA, Rusinek H, de Leon MJ, Glodzik L, De Santi S, Doraiswamy P, Petrella JR, Wong TZ, Arnold SE, Karlawish JH, Wolk D, Smith CD, Jicha G, Hardy P, Sinha P, Oates E, Conrad G, Lopez OL, Oakley M, Simpson DM, Porsteinsson AP, Goldstein BS, Martin K, Makino KM, Ismail M, Brand C, Mulnard RA, Thai G, McAdams-Ortiz C, Womack K, Mathews D, Quiceno M, Diaz-Arrastia R, King R, Weiner M, Martin-Cook K, DeVous M, Levey AI, Lah JJ, Cellar JS, Burns JM, Anderson HS, Swerdlow RH, Apostolova L, Tingus K, Woo E, Silverman DHS, Lu PH, Bartzokis G, Graff-Radford NR, Parfitt F, Kendall T, Johnson H, Farlow MR, Hake AM, Matthews BR, Herring S, Hunt C, van Dyck CH, Carson RE, MacAvoy MG, Chertkow H, Bergman H, Hosein C, Hsiung GR, Feldman H, Mudge B, Assaly M, Bernick C, Munic D, Kertesz A, Rogers J, Trost D, Kerwin D, Lipowski K, Wu CK, Johnson N, Sadowsky C, Martinez W, Villena T, Turner RS, Johnson K, Reynolds B, Sperling RA, Johnson KA, Marshall G, Frey M, Lane B, Rosen A, Tinklenberg J, Sabbagh MN, Belden CM, Jacobson SA, Sirrel SA, Kowall N, Killiany R, Budson AE, Norbash A, Johnson PL, Allard J, Lerner A, Ogrocki P, Hudson L, Fletcher E, Carmichae O, Olichney J, DeCarli C, Kittur S, Borrie M, Lee TY, Bartha R, Johnson S, Asthana S, Carlsson CM, Preda A, Nguyen D, Tariot P, Reeder S, Bates V, Capote H, Rainka M, Scharre DW, Kataki M, Adeli A, Zimmerman EA, Celmins D, Brown AD, Pearlson GD, Blank K, Anderson K, Santulli RB, Kitzmiller TJ, Schwartz ES, Sink KM, Williamson JD, Garg P, Watkins F, Ott BR, Querfurth H, Tremont G, Salloway S, Malloy P, Correia S, Rosen HJ, Miller BL, Mintzer J, Spicer K, Bachman D, Pasternak S, Rachinsky I, Drost D, Pomara N, Hernando R, Sarrael A, Schultz SK, Ponto LLB, Shim H, Smith KE, Relkin N, Chaing G, Raudin L, Smith A, Fargher K, Raj BA, Neylan T, Grafman J, Davis M, Morrison R, Hayes J, Finley S, Friedl K, Fleischman D, Arfanakis K, James O, Massoglia D, Fruehling J, Harding S, Peskind ER, Petrie EC, Li G, Yesavage JA, Taylor JL, Furst AJ. Dynamic proportional loss of functional connectivity revealed change of left superior frontal gyrus in subjective cognitive decline: an explanatory study based on Chinese and Western cohorts. Geroscience. 2025 Jan 31.  View on PubMed
  8. Cao X, Liao C, Zhu Z, Li Z, Bhattacharjee R, Nishmura M, Wang Z, Wang N, Zhou Z, Chen Q, Abraham D, Majumdar S, Villanueva-Meyer J, Yang Y, Setsompop K. Three-dimensional high-isotropic-resolution MR fingerprinting optimized for 0.55 T. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Jul; 94(1):41-58.  View on PubMed
  9. Lucas CG, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Gupta R, Morshed RA, Wu J, Ravindranathan A, Shai A, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, de Groot J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Theodosopoulos PV, Aghi MK, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Raleigh DR, Molinaro AM, Costello JF, Diaz AA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, Phillips JJ, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Longitudinal multimodal profiling of IDH-wildtype glioblastoma reveals the molecular evolution and cellular phenotypes underlying prognostically different treatment responses. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Jan 12; 27(1):89-105.  View on PubMed
  10. Ellingson BM, Sanvito F, Pope WB, Cloughesy TF, Huang RY, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Barboriak DP, Shankar LK, Smits M, Kaufmann TJ, Boxerman JL, Weller M, Galanis E, Groot J, Chang SM, Gilbert MR, Lassman AB, Shiroishi MS, Nabavizadeh A, Mehta M, Stupp R, Wick W, Reardon DA, Wen PY, Vogelbaum MA, van den Bent M. Reply. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2025 Jan 08; 46(1):221-222.  View on PubMed
  11. Ellingson BM, Sanvito F, Cloughesy TF, Huang RY, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Pope WB, Barboriak DP, Shankar LK, Smits M, Kaufmann TJ, Boxerman JL, Weller M, Galanis E, Groot J, Gilbert MR, Lassman AB, Shiroishi MS, Nabavizadeh A, Mehta M, Stupp R, Wick W, Reardon DA, Vogelbaum MA, van den Bent M, Chang SM, Wen PY. A Neuroradiologist's Guide to Operationalizing the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (RANO) Criteria Version 2.0 for Gliomas in Adults. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2024 Dec 09; 45(12):1846-1856.  View on PubMed
  12. Moawad AW, Janas A, Baid U, Ramakrishnan D, Saluja R, Ashraf N, Maleki N, Jekel L, Yordanov N, Fehringer P, Gkampenis A, Amiruddin R, Manteghinejad A, Adewole M, Albrecht J, Anazodo U, Aneja S, Anwar SM, Bergquist T, Chiang V, Chung V, Conte GM, Dako F, Eddy J, Ezhov I, Khalili N, Farahani K, Iglesias JE, Jiang Z, Johanson E, Kazerooni AF, Kofler F, Krantchev K, LaBella D, Van Leemput K, Li HB, Linguraru MG, Liu X, Meier Z, Menze BH, Moy H, Osenberg K, Piraud M, Reitman Z, Shinohara RT, Wang C, Wiestler B, Wiggins W, Shafique U, Willms K, Avesta A, Bousabarah K, Chakrabarty S, Gennaro N, Holler W, Kaur M, LaMontagne P, Lin M, Lost J, Marcus DS, Maresca R, Merkaj S, Cassinelli Pedersen G, von Reppert M, Sotiras A, Teytelboym O, Tillmans N, Westerhoff M, Youssef A, Godfrey D, Floyd S, Rauschecker A, Villanueva-Meyer J, Pflüger I, Cho J, Bendszus M, Brugnara G, Cramer J, Perez-Carillo GJG, Johnson DR, Kam A, Kwan BYM, Lai L, Lall NU, Memon F, Krycia M, Patro SN, Petrovic B, So TY, Thompson G, Wu L, Schrickel EB, Bansal A, Barkhof F, Besada C, Chu S, Druzgal J, Dusoi A, Farage L, Feltrin F, Fong A, Fung SH, Gray RI, Ikuta I, Iv M, Postma AA, Mahajan A, Joyner D, Krumpelman C, Letourneau-Guillon L, Lincoln CM, Maros ME, Miller E, Morón FEA, Nimchinsky EA, Ozsarlak O, Patel U, Rohatgi S, Saha A, Sayah A, Schwartz ED, Shih R, Shiroishi MS, Small JE, Tanwar M, Valerie J, Weinberg BD, White ML, Young R, Zohrabian VM, Azizova A, Brüßeler MMT, Ghonim M, Ghonim M, Okar A, Pasquini L, Sharifi Y, Singh G, Sollmann N, Soumala T, Taherzadeh M, Vollmuth P, Foltyn-Dumitru M, Malhotra A, Abayazeed AH, Dellepiane F, Lohmann P, Pérez-García VM, Elhalawani H, de Verdier MC, Al-Rubaiey S, Armindo RD, Ashraf K, Asla MM, Badawy M, Bisschop J, Lomer NB, Bukatz J, Chen J, Cimflova P, Corr F, Crawley A, Deptula L, Elakhdar T, Shawali IH, Faghani S, Frick A, Gulati V, Haider MA, Hierro F, Dahl RH, Jacobs SM, Hsieh KJ, Kandemirli SG, Kersting K, Kida L, Kollia S, Koukoulithras I, Li X, Abouelatta A, Mansour A, Maria-Zamfirescu RC, Marsiglia M, Mateo-Camacho YS, McArthur M, McDonnell O, McHugh M, Moassefi M, Morsi SM, Munteanu A, Nandolia KK, Naqvi SR, Nikanpour Y, Alnoury M, Nouh AMA, Pappafava F, Patel MD, Petrucci S, Rawie E, Raymond S, Roohani B, Sabouhi S, Sanchez-Garcia LM, Shaked Z, Suthar PP, Altes T, Isufi E, Dhemesh Y, Gass J, Thacker J, Tarabishy AR, Turner B, Vacca S, Vilanilam GK, Warren D, Weiss D, Worede F, Yousry S, Lerebo W, Aristizabal A, Karargyris A, Kassem H, Pati S, Sheller M, Link KEE, Calabrese E, Tahon NH, Nada A, Velichko YS, Bakas S, Rudie JD, Aboian M. The Brain Tumor Segmentation - Metastases (BraTS-METS) Challenge 2023: Brain Metastasis Segmentation on Pre-treatment MRI. ArXiv. 2024 Dec 09.  View on PubMed
  13. Li HB, Conte GM, Hu Q, Anwar SM, Kofler F, Ezhov I, van Leemput K, Piraud M, Diaz M, Cole B, Calabrese E, Rudie J, Meissen F, Adewole M, Janas A, Kazerooni AF, LaBella D, Moawad AW, Farahani K, Eddy J, Bergquist T, Chung V, Shinohara RT, Dako F, Wiggins W, Reitman Z, Wang C, Liu X, Jiang Z, Familiar A, Johanson E, Meier Z, Davatzikos C, Freymann J, Kirby J, Bilello M, Fathallah-Shaykh HM, Wiest R, Kirschke J, Colen RR, Kotrotsou A, Lamontagne P, Marcus D, Milchenko M, Nazeri A, Weber MA, Mahajan A, Mohan S, Mongan J, Hess C, Cha S, Villanueva-Meyer J, Colak E, Crivellaro P, Jakab A, Albrecht J, Anazodo U, Aboian M, Yu T, Chung V, Bergquist T, Eddy J, Albrecht J, Baid U, Bakas S, Linguraru MG, Menze B, Iglesias JE, Wiestler B. The Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) Challenge 2023: Brain MR Image Synthesis for Tumor Segmentation (BraSyn). ArXiv. 2024 Nov 24.  View on PubMed
  14. Villanueva-Meyer JE, Bakas S, Tiwari P, Lupo JM, Calabrese E, Davatzikos C, Bi WL, Ismail M, Akbari H, Lohmann P, Booth TC, Wiestler B, Aerts HJWL, Rasool G, Tonn JC, Nowosielski M, Jain R, Colen RR, Pati S, Baid U, Vollmuth P, Macdonald D, Vogelbaum MA, Chang SM, Huang RY, Galldiks N, Response Assessment in Neuro Oncology (RANO) group. Artificial Intelligence for Response Assessment in Neuro Oncology (AI-RANO), part 1: review of current advancements. Lancet Oncol. 2024 Nov; 25(11):e581-e588.  View on PubMed
  15. Bakas S, Vollmuth P, Galldiks N, Booth TC, Aerts HJWL, Bi WL, Wiestler B, Tiwari P, Pati S, Baid U, Calabrese E, Lohmann P, Nowosielski M, Jain R, Colen R, Ismail M, Rasool G, Lupo JM, Akbari H, Tonn JC, Macdonald D, Vogelbaum M, Chang SM, Davatzikos C, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Huang RY, Response Assessment in Neuro Oncology (RANO) group. Artificial Intelligence for Response Assessment in Neuro Oncology (AI-RANO), part 2: recommendations for standardisation, validation, and good clinical practice. Lancet Oncol. 2024 Nov; 25(11):e589-e601.  View on PubMed
  16. Rojas KN, Chelikani K, Villanueva-Meyer J, Bhargava P. Ovarian neuroendocrine tumor metastasis on DOTATATE PET/CT. Radiol Case Rep. 2024 Dec; 19(12):5688-5691.  View on PubMed
  17. Eaton CD, Avalos L, Liu SJ, Chen Z, Zakimi N, Casey-Clyde T, Bisignano P, Lucas CG, Stevenson E, Choudhury A, Vasudevan HN, Magill ST, Young JS, Krogan NJ, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Swaney DL, Raleigh DR. MerlinS13 phosphorylation regulates meningioma Wnt signaling and magnetic resonance imaging features. Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 09; 15(1):7873.  View on PubMed
  18. Jiao C, Lao Y, Zhang W, Braunstein S, Salans M, Villanueva-Meyer J, Hervey-Jumper SL, Yang B, Morin O, Valdes G, Fan Z, Shiroishi M, Zada G, Sheng K, Yang W. Multi-modal fusion and feature enhancement U-Net coupling with stem cell niches proximity estimation for voxel-wise GBM recurrence prediction. Phys Med Biol. 2024 Jul 25; 69(15).  View on PubMed
  19. Fields BKK, Calabrese E, Mongan J, Cha S, Hess CP, Sugrue LP, Chang SM, Luks TL, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Rauschecker AM, Rudie JD. The University of California San Francisco Adult Longitudinal Post-Treatment Diffuse Glioma MRI Dataset. Radiol Artif Intell. 2024 Jul; 6(4):e230182.  View on PubMed
  20. Umbach G, Kanungo I, Quintana D, Choudhury A, Morshed R, Villanueva-Meyer J, Theodosopoulos P, Magill ST, McDermott M, Raleigh D, Goldschmidt E. Calcified Meningiomas Demonstrate Equivocal Grade, Proliferation, and Immediate Surgical Outcomes. World Neurosurg. 2024 Sep; 189:e591-e597.  View on PubMed

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