Research Summary
Dr. Ella Jones has over 12 years of research experience in the private sector, pioneering the development of targeted molecules for cancer imaging. At UCSF, Dr. Jones has demonstrated her ability to conduct cross-modality imaging research. She has been funded by the NIH/NCI as the PI to develop preclinical optical/nuclear imaging tools for molecular characterization of premalignant breast cancer (R01CA135626, PI:Tylsty/Jones), and PET/SPECT imaging agents for prostate cancer (R21CA122126 and R01CA140617, PI: Berkman: Subcontract PI: Jones), which has been successfully translated to human imaging.
In the past ten years, Dr. Jones has devoted her career in translational breast cancer research. Her current work focuses on the evaluation of the primary breast tumor and surrounding architecture using PET and MRI for prediction of treatment response and survival outcome. Dr. Jones has been working with OncoVision since 2014 on integrating the dedicated breast PET (dbPET) into the breast care workflow. Through this academic-industrial partnership (R01CA227763, PI: Hylton/Jones/Alamo), a new software interface has been successfully developed to improved DICOM compatibility for the dbPET’s use in the clinic and by the I-SPY 2 TRIAL.
Dr. Jones is the PI on multiple projects building the infrastructure of the dbPET at UCSF and working with a team of oncologists, breast and nuclear imaging radiologists and physicists to ensure the success of the dbPET program. She provides the oversight of image quality control, acquisition, processing, and analysis, as well as radiotracer needs for breast cancer imaging from bench to clinical translation. She spearheaded the effort of the IND application for [F-18]fluoroestradiol (FES) and received approval from the FDA in mid-2017.
As the Chair of the NCI Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN) Clinical Trial Design and Development workgroup (CTDD-WG), Dr. Jones worked with investigators to test QIN tools, including those for radiomics analysis, auto-segmentation, and tracer uptake quantification. As a member of the NCI NCTN-QIN oversight committee, Dr. Jones is committed to evaluating new quantitative imaging methods and translating their use in clinical decision making to improve disease outcomes.
Dr. Jones published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in high impact scientific journals, over 45 abstracts, and 7 patents in diagnostic imaging.
Research Funding
February 1, 2019 - January 31, 2024 - Dedicated breast PET and MRI for characterization of breast cancer and its response to therapy , MPI . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA227763
September 30, 2018 - August 31, 2023 - Quantitative Imaging for Evaluation of Responses to Cancer Therapies (U01) , Co-I . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: U01 CA225427
September 8, 2017 - August 31, 2022 - I-SPY2 +: Evolving the I-SPY 2 TRIAL to include MRI-directed, adaptive sequential treatment to optimize breast cancer outcomes , Co-I . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: P01CA210961
September 30, 2018 - August 31, 2021 - Quantitative Measures by Dedicated Breast PET and MRI for Early Prediction of Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy , PI . Sponsor: DOD, Sponsor Award ID: W81XWH-18-1-0671
Education
Post-doctoral training, 1993 - Chemistry, University of Oxford
PhD, 1991 - Chemistry, University of California, Davis
BS, 1987 - Chemistry, University of San Francisco