Research Summary

I am a member of both Pediatric Malignancies and Prostate Cancer programs of the HDFCCC. I have extensive experience in quantitative data analysis, as well as instrumentation and software development using ionizing radiation imaging modalities (PET, SPECT, and CT), since I joined the UCSF Physics Research Laboratory (PRL), the birthplace of the dual-modality functional-anatomical imaging system (SPECT/CT and PET/CT). My broad training and expertise in experimental particle physics and medical imaging physics, combined with my leadership roles in extramurally funded projects, have proven a strong asset to many preclinical and clinical SPECT/CT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI projects. My particular research interest is, but not limited to, to develop technologies for combined dual-modality imaging systems to assess both structure and function in human diseases. I serve as a group leader for the UCSF PRL, and co-direct the preclinical SPECT/CT and PET/CT imaging research program at the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.

Research Funding

  • April 1, 2018 - December 31, 2021 - Energy-independent single photon molecular imaging technology, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NIBIB, Sponsor Award ID: R01EB026331
  • May 1, 2017 - April 30, 2021 - Dynamic cardiac SPECT, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NHLBI, Sponsor Award ID: R01HL135490
  • September 21, 2018 - September 20, 2019 - Preclinical Dark-Field/Phase-Contrast Scanner Using X-ray Biprisms, Co-Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NIBIB, Sponsor Award ID: R43EB027535
  • April 1, 2011 - March 31, 2017 - Pretherapy 124I-MIBG Dosimetry for Planning 131I-MIBG Neuroblastoma Therapy, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA154561

Education

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, B.S., 1995, Physics
University of Alabama in Huntsville, M.S., 1997, Physics/Space Plasma
University of California, Irvine, 1998-1999, Physics/Medical Physics
University of California, Los Angeles, M.S., 2001, Physics
University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D., 2002, Physics/Astroparticle Physics
University of California, Los Angeles, Post-doc, 2002-2003, Physics/Neutrino Physics
University of California, San Francisco, Post-doc, 2003-2006, Medical Imaging Physics

Honors & Awards

  • 1992-95
    Government Scholarship, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea
  • 2006-11
    Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award, National Cancer Institute
  • 2010
    Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation of the Year Award, Prostate Cancer Diagnosis North America
  • 2011
    Physicist of the Year Award, Korean Association of Medical Physicists in North America
  • 2016
    Distinguished Investigator Award, Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research
  • 2019
    Alexander R. Margulis Award for Scientific Excellence, Radiological Society of North America

Selected Publications

  1. Chillakuru YR, Kranen K, Doppalapudi V, Xiong Z, Fu L, Heydari A, Sheth A, Seo Y, Vu T, Sohn JH High precision localization of pulmonary nodules on chest CT utilizing axial slice number labels.  View on PubMed
  2. Huh Y, Yang J, Dim OU, Cui Y, Tao W, Huang Q, Gullberg GT, Seo Y Evaluation of a Variable-Aperture Full-Ring SPECT System using Large-Area Pixelated CZT Modules: A Simulation Study for Brain SPECT Applications.  View on PubMed
  3. Gullberg GT, Shrestha UM, Veress AI, Paul Segars W, Liu J, Ordovas K, Seo Y NOVEL METHODOLOGY FOR MEASURING REGIONAL MYOCARDIAL EFFICIENCY.  View on PubMed
  4. Yang J, Shi L, Wang R, Miller EJ, Sinusas AJ, Liu CJ, Gullberg GT, Seo Y Direct Attenuation Correction Using Deep Learning for Cardiac SPECT: A Feasibility Study.  View on PubMed
  5. Torkaman M, Yang J, Shi L, Wang R, Miller EJ, Sinusas AJ, Liu C, Gullberg GT, Seo Y Direct Image-Based Attenuation Correction using Conditional Generative Adversarial Network for SPECT Myocardial Perfusion Imaging.  View on PubMed
  6. Sohn JH, Behr SC, Hernandez Pampaloni M, Seo Y Quantitative Assessment of Myocardial Ischemia With Positron Emission Tomography.  View on PubMed
  7. Chen TL, Emerling M, Chaudhari GR, Chillakuru YR, Seo Y, Vu TH, Ho Sohn J Domain Specific Word Embeddings for Natural Language Processing in Radiology.  View on PubMed
  8. Hathi DK, Li W, Seo Y, Flavell RR, Kornak J, Franc BL, Joe BN, Esserman LJ, Hylton NM, Jones EF Evaluation of primary breast cancers using dedicated breast PET and whole-body PET.  View on PubMed
  9. Divgi C, Carrasquillo JA, Meredith R, Seo Y, Frey EC, Bolch WE, Zimmerman BE, Akabani G, Jacobson DA, Brown B, Davern SM, Hobbs RF, Humm J, Moros EG, Morse D, Papineni R, Zanzonico P, Benedict SH, Sgouros G Overcoming Barriers to Radiopharmaceutical Therapy: An Overview from the NRG-NCI Working Group on Dosimetry of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy (RPT).  View on PubMed
  10. Wang S, Li J, Hua J, Su Y, Beckford Vera DR, Zhao W, Jayaraman M, Huynh TL, Zhao N, Wang YH, Huang Y, Qin F, Shen S, Gioeli D, Dreicer R, Sriram R, Egusa EA, Chou J, Feng FY, Aggarwal R, Evans MJ, Seo Y, Liu B, Flavell RR, He J Molecular imaging of prostate cancer targeting CD46 using immunoPET.  View on PubMed
  11. Zhao N, Huang Y, Wang YH, Muir RK, Chen YC, Hooshdaran N, Wei J, Viswanath P, Seo Y, Ruggero D, Renslo AR, Evans MJ Ferronostics: Measuring Tumoral Ferrous Iron with PET to Predict Sensitivity to Iron-Targeted Cancer Therapies.  View on PubMed
  12. Shrestha UM, Sciammarella M, Pampaloni MH, Botvinick EH, Gullberg GT, DeMarco T, Seo Y Assessment of late-term progression of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in patients with orthotopic heart transplantation using quantitative cardiac 82Rb PET.  View on PubMed
  13. Aboian M, Barajas R, Shatalov J, Ravanfar V, Bahroos E, Tong E, Taylor JW, Bush NO, Sneed P, Seo Y, Cha S, Hernandez-Pampaloni M Maximizing the use of batch production of 18F-FDOPA for imaging of brain tumors to increase availability of hybrid PET/MR imaging in clinical setting.  View on PubMed
  14. Zheng Y, Huh Y, Su Q, Wang J, Lin Y, Vetter K, Seo Y Collimatorless Scintigraphy for Imaging Extremely Low Activity Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) with Weighted Robust Least Squares (WRLS).  View on PubMed
  15. Huang Y, Zhao N, Wang YH, Truillet C, Wei J, Parker MFL, Blecha JE, Drake CR, VanBrocklin HF, Ruiz DG, Jacobson MP, Aggarwal R, Behr SC, Flavell RR, Wilson DM, Seo Y, Evans MJ The synthesis and structural requirements for measuring glucocorticoid receptor expression in vivo with (±)-11C-YJH08 PET.  View on PubMed
  16. Wei J, Wang YH, Lee CY, Truillet C, Oh DY, Xu Y, Ruggero D, Flavell RR, VanBrocklin HF, Seo Y, Craik CS, Fong L, Wang CI, Evans MJ An Analysis of Isoclonal Antibody Formats Suggests a Role for Measuring PD-L1 with Low Molecular Weight PET Radiotracers.  View on PubMed
  17. Sohn JH, Chillakuru YR, Lee S, Lee AY, Kelil T, Hess CP, Seo Y, Vu T, Joe BN An Open-Source, Vender Agnostic Hardware and Software Pipeline for Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Radiology Workflow.  View on PubMed
  18. He J, Feng J, Su Y, Seo Y, Liu B Quantitative 99mTc Labeling Kit for HYNIC-Conjugated Single Chain Antibody Fragments Targeting Malignant Mesothelioma.  View on PubMed
  19. Gong K, Yang J, Larson PEZ, Behr SC, Hope TA, Seo Y, Li Q MR-based Attenuation Correction for Brain PET Using 3D Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Network.  View on PubMed
  20. Aboian MS, Huang SY, Hernandez-Pampaloni M, Hawkins RA, VanBrocklin HF, Huh Y, Vo KT, Gustafson WC, Matthay KK, Seo Y 124I-MIBG PET/CT to Monitor Metastatic Disease in Children with Relapsed Neuroblastoma.  View on PubMed

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