Welcome to the QBI Lab!
Developing quantitative MRI techniques to improve diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer
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About Us

The QBI lab brings together a world class team of physicians and scientists to investigate new imaging techniques and to develop robust quantitative imaging biomarkers.

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UW Radiology

The Department of Radiology at the University of Washington is an academic department providing highly specialized care to patients through state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging and imaging-guided therapies.

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Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Fred Hutch Cancer Center is a world-class cancer treatment center that unites doctors and researchers, serving as UW Medicine's cancer program.

Research

Our imaging research addresses multiple clinical challenges related to breast cancer. We are utilizing new imaging approaches, such as advanced diffusion-weighted and contrast-enhanced MRI techniques, novel post-processing tools, and working to translate promising technologies to clinical practice through validation in clinical trials.
Click here for a list of publications.

Diagnostics

Research Topic

Screening

Research Topic

Treatment Response

Research Topic

New Technologies

Research Topic

Active Studies

  • DW-MRI tailored for early detection of mammographically occult breast cancer in women with dense breasts

    In this study, we aim to implement novel technical optimizations to improve breast cancer detectability on DWI in women with dense breasts. Results of this study will provide valuable information as to the potential of using DWI as a screening tool that complements x-ray mammography and is faster, less expensive, and safer than DCE MRI for earlier detection of malignancy in women with dense breasts.

  • MRI Characterization of Biological Risk of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS)

    The overall objective of this project is to develop robust advanced multiparametric breast MRI markers and radiomic signatures to characterize DCIS risk. Successful results of this study could lead to a decrease in unneccessary biopsies of calcifications and provide accurate assessments of DCIS risk of progression to invasive disease and recurrence after treatment.

  • Functional MRI Signatures of Treatment Response to Therapy for Breast Cancer

    The goal of this research is to improve breast cancer treatment by identifying novel imaging markers of response to therapy in different cancer types. Exciting advances in treatment approaches increase the need for new tools to quantify response and assess treatment efficacy in vivo.

  • Advanced Methods for Breast Cancer Screening

    CESM (contrast-enhanced spectral mammography) and ABMR (abbreviated breast MRI). The purpose of this study is to learn if two new breast cancer screening tests are effective in detecting breast cancer. If these tests are similar to standard breast MRI, they may offer additional screening options at lower cost for more women.

  • Deep Learning

    Despite improvements in treatment and screening, breast cancer remains the 2nd most common cause of cancer related death among U.S. women. Using deep learning approaches , we aim to develop models that can detect cancer with high specificity and sensitivity, and predict the future risk of developing breast cancer in screening populations.

  • Find
    Publications
    Here

Lab News

5/31/2024
Congratulations to Hannah for getting into medical school! She will be attending Rush University in the fall.
We are all so proud of you Hannah!

5/4/2024
Congratulations to Anum and Debosmita for presenting at the ISMRM 2024 in Singapore.
Fun and productive meetings with colleagues and collaborators!

Image 1 Image 2


5/7/2024
Anum gave an oral talk on "Identificantion of pretreatment habitat signatures for the prediction of patient outcome in TNBC". This study demonstrated that tumor habibtat signatures can differentiate TNBC cancer patients prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, identifying those with improved treatment response and long term outcomes.

5/9/2024
Debosmita's abstracts focused on integrating Diffusion weighted imaging with the clinical workflow.

"DWI for Improving Diagnostic Performance of Breast MRI: Impact of Alternate ADC Quantitation and Cutoff Approaches" demonstrated that a variety of ADC measurement techniques could help reduce unnecessary biopsies of breast MRI. Choice of ADC cutoff depended on the preferred performance tradeoffs (biopsy reduction vs sensitivity).

"Pilot implementation of vendor-provided on-scanner GNL correction for breast tumor ADC measures in a prospective trial" showed that on-scanner GNL correction provided by the vendor can dramatically simplify the process of obtaining more accurate ADC measures, which can imporve robustness of ADC as biomarker of treatment response.

12/14/2023
Watch Savannah's interview on The Prompt with Trevor Noah here!








12/7/2023
Throwback Thursday! Smita's work on breast DWI in differentiating between benign and malignant lesions was featured on auntminnie.com. Read about it here!

9/27/2023
As we begin the Autumn 2023 Quarter, we welcome Hye Shin Ahn, MD, PhD (Visiting Scholar) and Joseph Qian (Undergraduate Student Researcher) in joining our lab!

8/23/2023
Congrats to Smita and Wesley for having their abstracts accepted to BMES 2023 !

Smita's session, "Diffusion Weighted Imaging for Improving the Diagnostic Performance of Breast MRI",
is on Thursday, October 12 2023, 2:00-3:00 PM.

Wesley's session, "Association of fibroglandular breast tissue characteristics from multiparametric MRI with cancer risk factors in women undergoing breast cancer screening",
is on Friday, October 13 2023, 3:30-4:30 PM.
See you there!


8/4/2023
A big thank you to Ridvan Arda Demirci, MD , for his guest lecture on theranostics during our biweekly BIRD meeting!

7/7/2023
Our AMIA 2023 abstract submission ("Association of Screening MRI Features with Development of Future Breast Cancer") has been accepted!
See you at AMIA in November!

6/10/2023
Congratulations to Callie Lind and Olivia Walsh on graduating as Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering With Honors !
We are all so proud of you!

6/3/2023
Come visit our presentations at ISMRM 2023!
Anum's session (Program Number 0129) is on June 5 and
Smita's presentation (Program Number 2549) is on June 6.
See you there or online!

5/19/2023
Congratulations to our undergrads Alise and Olivia for presenting their posters at the Undergraduate Research Symposium 2023!
Amazing work!

5/13/2023
So much fun meeting everyone for Lab Picture Day along with other colleagues and friends from Breast Imaging!

5/11/2023
Proud to have our post-doc, Anum, present at the Fred Hutch Breast & Ovarian Cancer Translational Incubator meeting! Great work!

2/3/2023
Congratulations to Anum and Debosmita for having their abstract submissions accepted to ISMRM 2023!
Stay tuned for program numbers and dates!

12/16/2022
Congratulations to Olivia, recipient of the Mary Gates scholarship!
Her recent work examines BPE measures in patients who underwent prophylactic mastectomies, assessing the relationship between pathology measures and BPE.

Event Photos

Enjoying the skyline and night view in Singapore (ISMRM 2024)!
Smita and Savannah at ISMRM 2024
Our team(L-R): Savannah, Smita, Isabella, Jin You, Mike, Wes, Anum, Mary Lynn
Picture Day, May 13 2023. (Most of) The Breast Imaging Section!
While at BMES 2023,
Smita and Wes met Seattle's biggest celebrity: Dubs II!
Farewell lunch for Jin You, our Visiting Scholar for the past year. We'll miss you!
Boat ride with the lab members
Smita met Denis Le Bihan and Mami Iima at ISMRM 2023!
Wesley presented a poster at AMIA 2023 in New Orleans, LA
Olivia presenting her poster at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium!
Alise's poster at the UW Undergraduate Research Symmposium

Our Team

Savannah Partridge, PhD

Director, Principal Investigator

Dr. Habib Rahbar, MD

Principal Investigator

Debosmita Biswas, MS

Research Scientist/Engineer &
Graduate Student Researcher

Mike Hirano, MS

Research Scientist/Engineer

Mary Lynn Bryant, MS

Research Coordinator

Isabella Li, BA

Research Coordinator

Anum S Kazerouni, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

Wesley Surento, MS

Graduate Student Researcher

Hannah Chou, MM

Student Researcher

Alise Johnson

Student Researcher

Hye Shin Ahn, MD, PhD

Visiting Scholar

Joseph Qian

Student Researcher

Vivian Park, MD, PhD

Visiting Scholar

June Ricks

Student Researcher

Yu-Tzu "Yuki" Kuo, BS

Graduate Student Researcher

Suleeporn "Yui" Sujichantararat, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

Lab Alumni

Jin You Kim, MD, PhD

Visiting Scholar

Callie Lind

Student Researcher

Olivia Walsh

Student Researcher

Inyoung Youn, MD, PhD

Visiting Scholar

Bonny Chau, MPH

Research Scientist/Engineer

Sana Parsian, MD

Research Fellow

Yifan Wu, MS

Research Scientist/Engineer

Averi Kitsch, BS

Research Scientist/Engineer

Michaela DelPriore, Senior Undergraduate

Research Associate

Adrienne Kim, BS

Research Coordinator

Madeline Dang, MPH

Research Coordinator

Neal Shekar, Senior Undergraduate

Research Associate

Ginger Lash, Senior Undergraduate

Research Associate

Contact Us

Experience for Students

breastMR@uw.edu

Fred Hutch Cancer Center
825 Eastlake Ave E, G2-600
P.O. Box 19023
Seattle,Wa 98102

Research internships are available for students interested in science, engineering or medical careers. Computer programming experience helpful but not required. Successful students will co-author conference abstracts and scientific journal publications of their work. Hours are flexible, with minimum of 6+ hours/week and 6 month commitment. Positions are available throughout the year.
Job duties include:

  • Use existing tools to analyze images and take measurements
  • Compile and organize human subject data in spreadsheets for analysis
  • Perform statistical testing on data
  • Assist in developing and testing new MRI image acquisition techniques and analysis software
  • Survey and summarize research literature
Copyright © University of Washington - Quantitative Breast Imaging Lab 2023