Cancer Molecular Imaging, Nanotechnology and Theranostics

Overview

The Cancer Molecular Imaging, Nanotechnology and Theranostics (CMINT) research program advances translational imaging, nanoparticle design and delivery, and theranostics to improve cancer patient outcomes and moves discoveries from preclinical and clinical applications. The research program is highly interactive and transdisciplinary, bringing together members from four UCLA schools and affiliate institution Caltech, with members drawn from a wide variety of basic and clinical departments. Its members have diverse and complementary expertise in an extensive range of disciplines including biology, nuclear medicine, physics, nanotechnology, urology, radiology, radiation oncology, drug development, engineering, image reconstruction, chemistry, radiochemistry and animal models of disease.

Specific Aims

The principal objective of the CMINT research program is to integrate molecular imaging, nanotechnology and theranostics to drive significant advancements in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, ultimately improving patient care and outcomes for LA County residents and beyond.

• Develop advanced instrumentation, analytical tools, and molecular imaging approaches to investigate tumor biology in vivo
• Explore novel nanotechnology-based systems to enable precise immunomodulatory agent delivery and diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring
• Investigate immune responses and immunotherapy using novel molecular imaging approaches
• Pursue clinical theranostic approaches, evaluate new theranostic targets, conduct large-scale imaging trials, and overcome resistance mechanisms through rational combination therapies

Meetings and Seminars

• Participation in the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center seminar series that features invited outside and local faculty
• Weekly research program meeting
• Quarterly presentations featuring SOMI (Scholars in Oncologic Molecular Imaging) postdoctoral fellows and faculty discussions
• Seminar series with external speakers (in collaboration with Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging and California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA)
• Quarterly research program scientific exchange dinners
• Semi-annual, inter-programmatic symposia on nanotechnology in cancer

Leadership

Director Dr. Caius Radu is Professor and Vice-Chair of the UCLA Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. He serves as associate director of ATID and heads their cancer biology and drug development groups. His work elucidates therapy resistance mechanisms in cancer and identifies cancer liabilities that can be exploited using pharmacologic and genetic approaches. Radu embeds diagnostics and therapeutics in tumor biology resulting in identification and pharmacologic targeting of cancer liabilities. He closely collaborates with Czernin to define unmet clinical needs that are addressed from the cellular to the small animal and finally to the clinical level. He has established a successful drug development program and uses imaging probes as predictive biomarkers for treatment response. Radu is also a co-founder of Sofie Biosciences Inc. and Trethera Therapeutics.

Co-director Dr. Christine Mona is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Pharmacology. She earned her MS in Organic Chemistry from Université Montpellier 2, and completed her PhD in Pharmacology at Université de Sherbrooke. In 2016, Dr. Mona joined the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow where she focused on theranostics development and target validation, and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2020, where she currently spearheads preclinical and translational theranostics research. Dr. Mona has active projects for multiple theranostics indications including prostate cancer, kidney cancer, and glioblastoma with collaborators both inside and outside the United States. The diversity of her research is enabled by her group’s foundational pillars: the reverse translation of cancer resistance mechanisms to therapy, development of murine models of disease, and identifying, advancing, and evaluating novel theranostics targets and ligands.

Co-director Dr. Amar Kishan, Professor with tenure, is the Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He joined the faculty in 2017 as an Assistant Professor in Radiation Oncology and Urology and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2023, and has served as the Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research and the Chief of the Genitourinary Service since 2019. Dr. Kishan specializes in the utilization of radiation to treat genitourinary malignancies, particularly cancers of the prostate and bladder. He has received numerous accolades for his clinical service, including the 2021 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine award and the 2024 UCLA Exceptional Physician award, and has an extensive research background, publishing more than 310 manuscripts. He has received extensive grant support, including funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the American Society of Radiation Oncology, the Radiological Society of North America, the Radiation Oncology Institute, and the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer. He runs an active clinical and translational research program and has spearheaded multiple innovative clinical trials in radiation oncology.