Active Research

Ramsey D. Badawi, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: Ramsey Badawi collaborates with numerous investigators across the School of Medicine, the College of Engineering and the School for Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. He also has active collaborations with investigators at Yale, UCSF, UTSW, UPenn, Harvard, University of Vienna and Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai. Industrial collaborators currently include United Imaging Healthcare, Lilly, ImaginAb and Cellsight.

Research Pursuits: Badawi's research interests are focused on the development and application of new types of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging scanners. Badawi is the co-inventor of Total-Body PET, along with Simon Cherry, Ph.D.. Badawi and Lorenzo Nardo, M.D., Ph.D. co-direct the EXPLORER Molecular Imaging Center, which conducts cutting edge research in Molecular Imaging as well as providing the latest PET technology imaging services to patients. Badawi is currently conducting or participating in research in oncology, cardiac disease, liver disease, traumatic brain injury, infectious disease, arthritis, metabolism and the mind/body connection, as well as in PET imaging methods development.

Learn more about EXPLORER Total-Body PET Imaging

John M. Boone, Ph.D.

Research Pursuits:
Dedicated Breast Computed Tomography Imaging research

Abhijit J. Chaudhari, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: Siba P. Raychaudhuri, M.D. (UC Davis – Rheumatology, Sacramento VA Medical Center); Pamela J. Lein, Ph.D. (UC Davis – School of Veterinary Medicine, Molecular Biosciences); Karen L. Bales, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Psychology); Lorenzo Nardo, M.D., Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology); Guobao Wang, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology); Ramsey D. Badawi, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology); Anand A. Joshi, Ph.D. (USC – Electrical Engineering); Krishna Nayak, Ph.D., (USC – Electrical Engineering); Richard M. Leahy, Ph.D. (USC – Electrical Engineering); Robert M. Szabo, M.D., M.P.H. (UC Davis – Orthopaedic Surgery); Christopher O. Bayne, M.D. (UC Davis – Orthopaedic Surgery)

Research Pursuits: Abhijit Chaudhari’s research focuses on the development of novel in vivo medical imaging techniques, with emphasis on disorders of the musculoskeletal and neurological systems. The development of these techniques is enabled through fundamentally advancing medical imaging instrumentation, acquisition and image and data processing. His current projects include the validation of total-body PET/CT measures as biomarkers in the context of arthritis, real-time MRI, and imaging biomarkers in the context of social bonding, neurodegeneration and exposure to environmental toxins. Chaudhari also serves as the Director of the UC Davis Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging, Interim Director of the UC Davis Imaging Research Center and a Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center.

Chaudhari laboratory webpage

Simon Cherry, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: Ramsey Badawi; Ph.D.; Guobao Wang, Ph.D.; Jinyi Qi, Ph.D.; Emilie Roncali, Ph.D.; Lorenzo Nardo, M.D., Ph.D.; Abhijit Chaudhari, Ph.D.

Research Pursuits: Simon Cherry was trained in Medical Physics and his interests are centered around developing new technologies for biomedical imaging, with a focus on molecular imaging and nuclear medicine. His laboratory is developing detectors that exploit ultra-fast Cerenkov light emission to develop next generation technology for positron emission tomography (PET). Cherry’s laboratory also is developing high resolution detectors from preclinical and human brain imaging. Together with Ramsey Badawi, he directs the EXPLORER Molecular Imaging Center, home to the world’s first total-body PET scanner. In this capacity, he is involved in methodological research to optimize the quantitative performance of the scanner for a wide variety of research applications including infectious disease and cardiovascular disease, as well as for multi-organ and systems imaging in a range of chronic disorders. Cherry also is a participant in a multi-institutional project to develop a next generation brain imager, the NeuroEXPLORER, which will image the human brain with unprecedented levels of sensitivity. 

Cherry laboratory webpage

Learn more about EXPLORER Total-Body PET Imaging

Michael Corwin, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Michael Campbell, M.D.; Ben Carney, M.D., M.S.;  Claire Graves, M.D., F.A.C.S.; Andrew Hernandez, Ph.D.; Victoria Lyo, M.D., M.T.M.; Sarah McKenney, Ph.D., D.A.B.R.; Guobao Wang, Ph.D.

Research Pursuits: Michael Corwin’s main research interests are focused on adrenal imaging  and the management of incidental findings on abdominal imaging studies. He is currently the co-chair of the Adrenal Neoplasm Disease Focused Panel of the Society of Abdominal Radiology where he will lead and participate in multiple multi-institutional research projects aimed at advancing adrenal imaging. Corwin’s work on incidental findings primarily focuses on abdominal CT, assessing hepatobiliary, adrenal and renal incidentalomas. In conjunction with Guobao Wang and Victoria Lyo, Corwin is also involved in advanced imaging of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease utilizing dynamic PET/CT and MR elastography.

Ghaneh Fananapazir, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Michael Corwin, M.D.; Ramit Lamba, M.B.B.S., M.D.; Christoph Troppmann, M.D.; Thomas Loehfelm, M.D.; Michael Campbell, M.D.

Research Pursuits: Ghaneh Fananapazir’s research focuses on abdominal imaging, with a specific emphasis on transplant radiology, including renal and hepatic transplantation. He has developed innovative imaging techniques for evaluating kidney transplants, focusing on complications such as vascular thrombosis, renal artery stenosis, and rejection. His research in the use of advanced imaging modalities such as MRI, CT, and ultrasound for organ transplant evaluation has had significant clinical implications, especially for non-invasive monitoring and diagnosis.

Cameron Foster, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Julie Sutcliffe, Ph.D. (UC Davis); Sven Hausner, Ph.D. (UC Davis); Emilie Roncali, Ph.D. (UC Davis); Edward Kim, M.D. (UC Davis); Megan Daily, M.D. (UC Davis); Guobao Wang, Ph.D. (UC Davis).

Research Pursuits: Cameron Foster’s research primarily focuses on development, evaluation and implementation of novel agents for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications within molecular medicine (e.g. Theranostics). He is presently involved in multiple active clinical trials involving investigation of theranostic pair agents using the integrin alphaVbeta6 peptide with applications for oncologic patients including: Pancreatic, Head/Neck, Lung, Breast, Colon, Prostate and metastatic disease.

Ahmadreza (Reza) Ghasemiesfe, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Reza Ghasemiesfe works closely with researchers across various disciplines at UC Davis, including the Departments of Cardiology, Infectious Disease and Hematology.

Research Pursuits: His research spans several critical areas in cardiac and thoracic imaging, such as improving access to cardiac imaging, addressing socioeconomic barriers in imaging, and applying innovative ultra-low dose CT techniques for cardiac imaging. Additionally, he is a leading expert in lung cancer imaging and the study of chronic lung diseases.

Felipe Godinez, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: Hyungseok Jang, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology); YoungKyoo Jung, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology); Shaihan J. Malik, Ph.D. (King’s College London- Biomedical Engineering); Joseph V. Hajnal, Ph.D. (King’s College London- Biomedical Engineering); Ramsey D. Badawi, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology); Simon R. Cherry, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Radiology and Biomedical Engineering);  Orwa Aboud, M.D., PhD (UC Davis – Neuro-Oncology)

Research Pursuits: Felipe Godinez’s research focuses on developing novel in vivo medical imaging techniques, emphasizing treating disease in the brain and the heart. The development of these techniques is enabled through fundamentally advancing Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging instrumentation, acquisition, and image and data processing. His current projects include using parallel transmit MR for the safe visualization of endovascular devices and developing MR imaging protocols for real-time interventional procedures, focusing on translating these methods to neurosurgical procedures. He also co-developed a PET insert for simultaneous PET/MR imaging in small animals. He is interested in the combined use of PET/MR to explore MR-based therapeutic biomarkers in neuro-oncologic disease. He also actively researched new chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI imaging applications and methods. In particular, he is investigating the capability of CEST as an imaging label for novel anti-cancer therapeutics.

Rosalie Hagge, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Ramsey Badawi, Lorenzo Nardo, Abhijit Chaudhari, Yasser Abdelhafez, Cathy Zhou, Li Yang, Richard Clark, Felipe Godinez, Andrea Ferrero

Research Pursuits: Rosalie Hagge’s research interests include psychovisual evaluation of medical image quality, applications in total body PET, oncology, coronary artery disease, arthritis and metabolism.  As a primarily clinical radiologist in the specialty of Nuclear Medicine, Hagge has a supportive role in ongoing clinical and instrumentation related research.

Andrew Hernandez, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: John M. Boone, Ph.D. (UC Davis); Craig K. Abbey, Ph.D. (UCSB); Jeffrey H. Siewerdsen, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins); Stanley H. Benedict, Ph.D. (UC Davis).

Research Pursuits: Andrew Hernandez’s research interests lie in the design and development of advanced imaging systems, rigorous assessment of the diagnostic performance of x-ray imaging devices through the development of state-of-the art image quality and radiation dosimetry metrics, and the advancement of sustainability in medical imaging.

He has been a key contributor to the development and optimization of dedicated breast CT (bCT) for improved diagnosis of breast cancer particularly for women with dense breasts. He serves as a consultant for a company (Izotropic) which is working to commercialize a dedicated bCT platform for the earlier detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.  He has also developed comprehensive x-ray spectra models for a wide range of diagnostic and industrial x-ray imaging applications which are publicly available and have been cited over 300 times (as of February 2025). In addition, he has developed advanced dosimetry models for breast x-ray imaging and CT, improving dose estimation accuracy and supporting the development of universal standards. Currently, he co-leads an international effort to refine CT dosimetry by comprehensively quantifying and standardizing patient-model-based organ and effective dose estimations with associated uncertainties. He is currently collaborating with CT imaging experts to foster innovation in AI by developing a framework that enables users of large imaging databases to extract patient cohorts based on image quality attributes tailored to their needs using automated 3D image quality quantification.

More recently, Hernandez was appointed the Director of Radiology Sustainability and in this capacity, he helps advocate for, support, and provide resources for sustainability initiatives within the department. He has established an innovative and comprehensive framework for metering and quantifying the energy consumption of CT, MRI, and PET/CT scanners within the department and has created analytical tools that are being used to identify opportunities for energy efficiency improvements in the operation of our scanners, as well as the optimization of imaging protocols that minimize energy consumption while preserving the high-quality diagnostic imaging that is provided within the department.

Hyungseok Jang, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: Hyungseok Jang collaborates with a diverse team of experts from various disciplines at UC Davis. He is also actively engaged in research partnerships with investigators from UC San Diego, Massachusetts General Hospital, University Hospital Heidelberg, Korea University, and Hanyang University. His industrial collaborations include partnerships with GE Healthcare and Siemens Healthineers.

Research Pursuits: Hyungseok Jang's research focuses on developing translational imaging techniques based on novel quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods. He has developed several new imaging methodologies for morphological and quantitative ultrashort echo time (UTE) MRI, targeting musculoskeletal, pulmonary, and neurological systems. Specifically, Jang is interested in quantitative UTE techniques, including UTE-fat quantification using Dixon techniques, direct myelin imaging using inversion recovery-prepared UTE (IR-UTE), iron and calcium quantification using UTE quantitative susceptibility mapping (UTE-QSM), collagen and proteoglycan assessment using UTE relaxometry of T2/T1ρ and quantitative UTE double-echo steady state (qUTE-DESS), and sodium quantification using UTE quantitative conductivity mapping (UTE-QCM). The clinical applications of these techniques include osteoarthritis, osteosarcoma, hemophilic arthropathy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, dementias, and epilepsy. He is currently the director of the Advanced Quantitative Imaging Group (AQIG), where researchers from UC Davis and Heidelberg University collaborate on several innovative projects exploring new quantitative imaging techniques and their clinical applications.

Jang laboratory webpage

Learn more about the Advanced Quantitative Imaging Group (AQIG)

Terry Jones, D.Sc.

Key Collaborators: These include Ramsey Badawi and Simon Cherry at UC Davis, plus other individuals in Radiology and Bioengineering engaged in advancing Total Body PET methodology and applications. This is furthered by providing mentoring and support for junior staff in grant applications, and publication writing. Discussions with individuals in the departments of oncology and medicine are on-going as are those on COVID-19 research with the department of Virology in the Division of Experimental Medicine at UCSF. Here collaboration with the company ImaginAb developing PET markers of immune cells is destined to be important. The collaboration within the NIH funded Yale/Davis/United Imaging Healthcare consortium, headed by Richard Carson at Yale, on building the next generation PET brain scanner is gaining momentum. Here there are plans to reach out to potential internationally collaborators in exploiting this unique advanced brain imaging technology.  In the UK, collaboration with the oncologist Professor Pat Price forms the link with Imperial College London and plans for installing a Total Body PET national research facility. Since 2016, working closely with the radiology company United Imaging Healthcare proved fruitful in realizing the first Total Body PET scanner and is now ongoing with new brain PET scanner.

Research Pursuits: Terry Jones’s research interests lie in fostering the advancement of PET methodologies and their applications in clinical research. While UK based, he has, since 2013, been a visiting professor in the Department of Radiology at UC Davis Health and alongside Ramsey Badawi has linked with Simon Cherry at the Department of Bioengineering in developing the case for building the World’s first Total Body PET scanner. This culminated in the scanner being installed at UC Davis in 2019. His ongoing focus is identifying and formulating paradigms for potentially impacting clinical research applications of this scanner. These currently cover brain-body, oncology, combined radiation and immunotherapy and COVID-19 research studies. He has interests in supporting how UC Davis’s expertise for pre-clinical PET scanner technology could be further exploited and is an advisor/observer within the development of the next generation of a dedicated high-performance PET brain scanner-in collaboration with Yale. A broadening interest is communicating the potential of these advanced PET scanner methodologies to the international community through presentations and publications.

Michael Larson, M.D., Ph.D.

Research Pursuits: Mike Larson is a member of the UC Davis Health Cancer Center working with collaborators in pathology and biomedical engineering to improve diagnostics at the time of cancer imaging or image-guided needle biopsies. He is also developing techniques and tools for minimally-invasive image-guided hernia and prolapse repair.

Mohammad H. Madani, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Lorenzo Nardo M.D., Ph.D.; Yasser G. Abdelhafez, M.D., Ph.D.; Fatma Sen, M.D.; Kwame Atsina, M.D.; Andrew Hernandez, Ph.D.; Jonathan Riess, M.D.

Research Pursuits: Mohammad Madani’s research interests include cardiovascular and thoracic imaging. He has published as first author in the leading cardiothoracic radiology imaging journal (Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging). His work has been cited in Radiopaedia, a top online educational global radiology resource with 25 million page views per month and has been featured in AuntMinnie.com, the premier website for radiology and medical imaging professionals. Madani is a co-author of the aorta section of the book Diagnostic Imaging: Cardiovascular, 3rd Edition, an invaluable resource for radiologists, clinicians and trainees. Interested collaborators including medical students, residents, graduate students, postdocs, and clinicians can contact him at mhmadani@ucdavis.edu or mhmadani.md@gmail.com.

John P. McGahan, M.D., F.A.C.R.

Research Pursuits: Percutaneous Interventional Techniques. John McGahan has published 300 peer-reviewed publications focusing on different aspects of Body Imaging and image-guided procedures. He pioneered the use of percutaneous techniques for tumor ablation and has most recently published his cumulative data on percutaneous ablation of renal cell carcinoma. He has translational research in development of other image-guided innovations including percutaneous cholecystostomy and endocavitary biopsy and drainage techniques. He patented a specific ultrasound system for guidance of these techniques. McGahan continues working on new devices for improving percutaneous interventional techniques and is also active in research into various methods to better understand imaging findings in different abdominal and pelvic cancers.

Elizabeth (Liz) Morris, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Liz Morris collaborates with numerous investigators across the School of Medicine. She also has active collaborations with investigators at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cornell, UCSF, Columbia, Harvard, University of Chicago, and Berkeley. Industrial collaborators currently include Guerbet, GRAIL, Kheiron and Clairity.

Research Pursuits: Her research focus is on how best to use newer techniques such as MRI for early breast cancer detection and to improve the workup of breast lesions. Her recent research efforts have involved looking at imaging biomarkers to assess risk and treatment response using radiomics. More recently her focus has shifted to application of AI for detection and risk assessment, building datasets for digital breast tomosynthesis and breast MRI.

H. Kader Karli Oguz, M.D.

Research Pursuits: Kader Karli Oguz’s research on neuroradiology reflects her care for adults and children. She is highly involved in epilepsy, autoimmune inflammatory disorders, and genetically inherited metabolic and degenerative diseases. She has focused on new imaging techniques, mostly MRI, investigating correlations of imaging and histopathological findings of the diseases. With this aim, she enjoys collaborative studies and has worked with neuroscientists and imaging scientists in multidisciplinary projects.

Misagh Piran, M.D.

Key Collaborators: Misagh Piran collaborates extensively with researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines at UC Davis, including the Departments of Cardiology, Infectious Disease, and Hematology. He also maintains strong partnerships with the Department of Music and the Department of Bioengineering and Data Science. In addition, Piran partners with leading institutions such as the University of Bochum and the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Germany.

Research Pursuits: Piran’s leads the Advanced Cardiothoracic Research Lab (CARL) and his research is focused on advancing cardiovascular and thoracic imaging to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases. His areas of interest include normal value assessments, electrophysiology imaging, and the study of complex conditions such as Fabry disease, genetic cardiomyopathies, and cardiac sarcoidosis. Additionally, his work investigates the clinical implications of strain analysis and explores the role of imaging in heart and lung transplantation. Piran is also at the forefront of exploring the application of artificial intelligence to evaluate cardiac function, with the aim of improving clinical outcomes and advancing precision medicine in cardiac imaging.

Osama Raslan, M.D., M.Sc., M.B.B.Ch.

Key Collaborators: E. Bradley Strong, M.D. (UC Davis – Otolaryngology); Steven Lucero (UC Davis – Biomedical Engineering); Fatma Sen, MD (UC Davis – Nuclear Medicine); Rachel Anne Whitmer, Ph.D. (UC Davis – Advanced imaging Center); Thomas J. Sitzman (Phoenix Children’s Hospital); Travis Tollefson, M.D. (UC Davis – Otolaryngology); Marianne Abouyared, M.D. (UC Davis – Otolaryngology); Andrew C. Birkeland, M.D. (UC Davis – Otolaryngology); Arnaud F. Bewley, M.D. (UC Davis – Otolaryngology); Erin G. Brown, M.D. (UC Davis – Pediatric Surgery); Ryan Martin, MD (UC Davis – Neurological Surgery and Neurology); Frank Ing, MD (UC Davis – Pediatric Cardiology).

Research Pursuits: Osama Raslan's clinical and research interests are centered on advancing the application of medical 3D printing and extended reality (augmented and virtual reality) in medical education and simulation, surgical planning, intra-operative augmented visualization, research, and patient education. He actively collaborates with colleagues in the fields of head and neck imaging, CNS nuclear and molecular imaging, and education to drive innovative research across these areas.

Learn more about the 3D Printing and Visualization Lab: 3D PrintViz

Emilie Roncali, Ph.D.

Key Collaborators: Catherine Vu (UC Davis – Interventional Radiology), Simon Cherry (UC Davis – Biomedical Engineering), Ramsey Badawi (UC Davis – Radiology), Cameron Foster (UC Davis – Nuclear Medicine), Roger Goldman (UC Davis – Interventional Radiology), William Culp (UC Davis – School of Veterinary Medicine), Stanley Benedict (UC Davis – Radiation Oncology), Julie Sutcliffe (UC Davis – Hematology/Oncology), Justin Knebel (VA Northern California), Sara St James (UCSF)

Research Pursuits: Emilie Roncali's research involves molecular imaging and therapy, with an emphasis on new technology for positron emission tomography (PET) and quantitative dosimetry for radionuclide therapy. She has a joint Faculty appointment with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis. Roncali has developed optical models for Monte Carlo simulation of PET detectors and applies these models to the optimization of fast and ultra-fast detectors. Her simulation tools are frequently released in opensource software broadly used the field of nuclear medicine technology development. Roncali currently focuses her research developments on personalized dosimetry for radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT). She is a member of two focus groups for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as well as an investigator of the Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) initiative to develop new dosimetry methods for RPT with the goal of improving treatment planning and optimizing TRT clinical trials. Specifically, she is developing image-based and simulation-based dosimetry for yttrium-90 radioembolization for advanced liver cancer treatment and image-based dosimetry for Lu-177 therapy.

Benjamin A. Spencer, Ph.D.

Research Pursuits: As an early user of total-body PET scanners, Benjamin Spencer has a wealth of expertise in this field. Specifically, his research focus is on long-axial field-of-view scanner use and the necessary quality control and quality assurance protocols needed to ensure these state-of-the-art systems are operating with the highest degree of accuracy and reliability for all total-body PET research studies. Furthermore, Spencer's research involves setting a new standard for fully characterizing all long-axial field-of-view and total-body PET scanners, an effort Spencer leads in collaboration with several national and international collaborators: UPenn (Pennsylvania), St. Jude's Children's Hospital (Tennessee), University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy), and University of Bern (Bern, Switzerland).

Guobao Wang, Ph.D.

Research Pursuits: Wang Research Lab