Research Summary

Physician-scientist with expertise in electrical engineering focusing on integrated circuits, and micro-fabricated sensors for cancer imaging with a clinical practice in Radiation Oncology. I specialize in the multimodality treatment of malignancies with a focus on prostate cancer using focal, targeted radiation therapy. The primary focus of my laboratory is to identify where gaps in diagnostic information and therapeutic tools compromise patient care, and develop tools to solve these problems.

Research Funding

  • January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2029 - Early identification of immunotherapy resistance through integrated multiparameter imaging , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA290027
  • June 15, 2023 - May 31, 2027 - Chip-Scale Intraoperative Optical Navigation with Immunotargeted Upconverting Nanoparticles , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA278672
  • September 10, 2020 - June 30, 2025 - Implantable Nanophotonic Sensors for in Vivo Immunoresponse , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: DP2DE030713
  • March 1, 2019 - January 31, 2022 - An Ultra-Thin Molecular Imaging Skin for Intraoperative Imaging of Microscopic Residual Disease in Cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21EB027238
  • October 1, 2005 - September 30, 2019 - Identification and Treatment of Microscopic Residual and Recurrent Disease in Prostate Cancer Using in Vivo Microfabricated Sensors and Targeted Biologics , Principle Investigator . Sponsor: Department of Defense, Sponsor Award ID: PC141609
  • June 1, 2016 - May 29, 2019 - An Interferometric CMOS DC-­-Terahertz Lab on a Chip Biosensor , Co-Principle Investigator . Sponsor: National Science Foudnation, Sponsor Award ID: 1608958
  • July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2017 - The Development of a microfabricated Fluorescent Imager for Real-­- Time, Intraoperative Imaging of Microscopic Residual Disease in Breast Cancer , Principle Investigator . Sponsor: Mary Kay Ash Foundation, Sponsor Award ID: P0506430
  • March 1, 2015 - July 1, 2016 - Identification of Microscopic Residual Disease in Prostate Cancer using in-­- vivo Microfabricated Sensors and Targeted Biologics , Principle Investigator . Sponsor: UCSF Research Allocation Program, Sponsor Award ID: unknown
  • April 1, 2013 - June 1, 2015 - Development of a Real-­-Time Intraoperative Fluorescent Imager for Microscopic Residual Tumor , Co-Principle Investigator . Sponsor: National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), Sponsor Award ID: UL1 TR000004 (Parent Grant)

Education

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
  • University of California, San Francisco, Doctor of Medicine (MD), School of Medicine

Honors & Awards

  • NIH New Innovator Award (DP2)  (National Institutes of Health)
  • AACR-Novocure Career Development Award* (American Association of Cancer Research)
    *Awarded but institutionally declined due to intellectual property restrictions.
  • NIH Trailblazer Award (National Institutes of Health)
  • Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program Physician Award (DOD)

Selected Publications

  1. Lall R, Evans M, Seo Y, Niknejad A, Anwar M. Continuous, Preclinical Activity Reconstruction in 177Lu-based Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Using a Sparse Uncollimated γ-Sensor Network. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2026 Feb 17. View on PubMed
  2. Liu Y, Nadig I, Mehta AS, Chuo SW, Ho YH, Tyler J, Craik CS, Anwar M, Cohen BE. Precision Labeling of Native Antibodies with Lock Coupling. J Am Chem Soc. 2026 Jan 14; 148(1):2008-2015. View on PubMed
  3. Lall R, Seo Y, Niknejad AM, Anwar M. Configurable γ Photon Spectrometer to Enable Precision Radioguided Tumor Resection. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2025 Dec; 19(6):1048-1064. View on PubMed
  4. Everts J, Yang Y, Xu Q, Lyu Q, Feng M, Scholey J, Ohliger M, Chen WC, Hotca AE, Anwar M, Chen J, Fan Z, Sheng K, Yang W. Functional Avoidance Liver 4π Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Informed by Quantitative Gadoxetic Acid Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2026 Mar 01; 124(3):820-830. View on PubMed
  5. Lee K, Lall R, Maharbiz MM, Anwar M. A 0.05 mm3 diode-based single charged-particle real-time radiation detector for electron radiotherapy. Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2025 Apr; 34:100762. View on PubMed
  6. Kandala AN, Wang S, Blecha JE, Wang YH, Lall RK, Niknejad AM, Seo Y, Evans MJ, Flavell RR, VanBrocklin HF, Anwar M. Millimeter-scale radioluminescent power for electronic sensors. iScience. 2025 Jan 17; 28(1):111686. View on PubMed
  7. Rabbani R, Najafiaghdam H, Roschelle M, Papageorgiou EP, Zhao BR, Ghanbari MM, Muller R, Stojanovic V, Anwar M. Toward a Wireless Image Sensor for Real-Time Fluorescence Microscopy in Cancer Therapy. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2024 10; 18(5):1050-1064. View on PubMed
  8. Roschelle M, Rabbani R, Gweon S, Kumar R, Vercruysse A, Cho NW, Spitzer MH, Niknejad AM, Stojanovic VM, Anwar M. A Wireless, Multicolor Fluorescence Image Sensor Implant for Real-Time Monitoring in Cancer Therapy. IEEE J Solid-State Circuits. 2024 Nov; 59(11):3580-3598. View on PubMed
  9. Adamopoulos C, Oh HS, Buchbinder S, Zarkos P, Bhargava P, Gharia A, Niknejad A, Anwar M, Stojanovic V. Monolithic Electronic-Biophotonic System-on-Chip for Label-Free Real-Time Molecular Sensing. IEEE J Solid-State Circuits. 2024 Sep; 59(9):2907-2921. View on PubMed
  10. Roschelle M, Rabbani R, Papageorgiou E, Zhang H, Cooperberg M, Stohr BA, Niknejad A, Anwar M. Multicolor fluorescence microscopy for surgical guidance using a chip-scale imager with a low-NA fiber optic plate and a multi-bandpass interference filter. Biomed Opt Express. 2024 Mar 01; 15(3):1761-1776. View on PubMed
  11. Susko M, Wang CJ, Lazar AA, Kim S, Laffan A, Feng M, Ko A, Venook AP, Atreya CE, Van Loon K, Anwar M. Factors Impacting Differential Outcomes in the Definitive Radiation Treatment of Anal Cancer Between HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Patients. Oncologist. 2020 09; 25(9):772-779. View on PubMed
  12. Gharia A, Papageorgiou EP, Giverts S, Park C, Anwar M. Signal to Noise Ratio as a Cross-Platform Metric for Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging. Mol Imaging. 2020 Jan-Dec; 19:1536012120913693. View on PubMed
  13. Papageorgiou EP, Boser BE, Anwar M. Chip-Scale Angle-Selective Imager for In Vivo Microscopic Cancer Detection. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2020 02; 14(1):91-103. View on PubMed
  14. Najafiaghdam H, Papageorgiou E, Torquato NA, Tian B, Cohen BE, Anwar M. A 25 micron-thin microscope for imaging upconverting nanoparticles with NIR-I and NIR-II illumination. Theranostics. 2019; 9(26):8239-8252. View on PubMed
  15. Ahmad TR, Susko M, Lindquist K, Anwar M. Socioeconomic disparities in timeliness of care and outcomes for anal cancer patients. Cancer Med. 2019 12; 8(17):7186-7196. View on PubMed
  16. Savoie MB, Laffan A, Brickman C, Daniels B, Levin A, Rowen T, Smith J, Van Blarigan EL, Hope TA, Berry-Lawhorn JM, Anwar M, Van Loon K. A multi-disciplinary model of survivorship care following definitive chemoradiation for anal cancer. BMC Cancer. 2019 Sep 11; 19(1):906. View on PubMed
  17. Tian B, Fernandez-Bravo A, Najafiaghdam H, Torquato NA, Altoe MVP, Teitelboim A, Tajon CA, Tian Y, Borys NJ, Barnard ES, Anwar M, Chan EM, Schuck PJ, Cohen BE. Low irradiance multiphoton imaging with alloyed lanthanide nanocrystals. Nat Commun. 2018 08 06; 9(1):3082. View on PubMed
  18. Chien JC, Ameri A, Yeh EC, Killilea AN, Anwar M, Niknejad AM. A high-throughput flow cytometry-on-a-CMOS platform for single-cell dielectric spectroscopy at microwave frequencies. Lab Chip. 2018 07 10; 18(14):2065-2076. View on PubMed
  19. Papageorgiou EP, Zhang H, Giverts S, Park C, Boser BE, Anwar M. Real-time cancer detection with an integrated lensless fluorescence contact imager. Biomed Opt Express. 2018 Aug 01; 9(8):3607-3623. View on PubMed
  20. Najafiaghdam H, Papageorgiou P, Torquato NA, Tajon CA, Zhang H, Park C, Boser B, Cohen BE, Anwar M. A Molecular Imaging "Skin A Time-resolving Intraoperative Imager for Microscopic Residual Cancer Detection Using Enhanced Upconverting Nanoparticles. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul; 2018:1-4. View on PubMed

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