Research Committee

Members of Research Committee for the Department of Radiology

Dr. Corree Laule, Vice Chair Research

Dr. Laule is an MR physicist, an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Vice Chair of Research in Radiology, and an Associate Director of the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) at the University of British Columbia. She is also an associate member of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, where she is actively involved in the Medical Physics program. Dr. Laule heads an interdisciplinary research program in multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury spanning technical innovations to clinical translation. Her research on human brain and spinal cord MRI and histology is funded by NSERC, the MS Society of Canada, the Craig Nielsen Foundation and ICORD. With an h-index of 35, 98 publications and 250+ conference presentations, she has been cited more than 5000 times. She is an elected Senior Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and serves on many UBC and international committees each year, including the Radiology Awards Committee (co-chair) and the Radiology EDI committee. Dr. Laule is passionate about science communication and leads initiatives to increase diversity in Science-Technology-Engineering-Math including the ICORD Summer Research Program for Indigenous Youth.

Dr. Helena Bentley, UBC Radiology Resident

Dr. Bentley is a PGY-3 resident physician in diagnostic radiology at the University of British Columbia. She completed her MSc at McGill University and she is finishing her PhD at the same institution. Dr. Bentley previously served as the inaugural chair of the Canadian Association of Radiologists Resident and Fellow Section Education Committee. She currently serves on the Radiographics Trainee Editorial Board. She is passionate about medical education, quality of care, health policy, and healthcare resource allocation. @RadiologyTweets

Dr. Philipp Blanke, Associate Professor (Partner)

Dr. Philipp Blanke is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia and Staff Radiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver. He is the Director of the Cardiac CT Core Lab at St. Paul’s Hospital, which supports clinical trials in the field of transcatheter heart valve replacement and repair in regard to CT imaging for screening and follow up. His major research interest are cardiac CT for planning and optimization of heart valve interventions with a focus on investigational devices. Dr. Blanke received his medical degree and residency training from the University of Freiburg, Germany. He was previously a staff radiologist at the University of Wuerzburg were he successfully underwent the German habilitations process (Dr. med. Dr. habil.). He completed a fellowship in Advanced Cardiac Imaging at UBC/St. Paul’s Hospital before joining as a staff physician.

Dr. Elizabeth Dao, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Elizabeth Dao is a post-doctoral research fellow supervised by Dr. Cornelia Laule. Funded by Michael Smith Health Research BC, Dr. Dao’s research is focused on using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), specifically myelin water and diffusion tensor imaging, to better characterize white matter micro-structural damage in cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD). cSVD is a common cause of dementia and improved understanding of cSVD pathology will lead to more informed development of targeted therapies.

Dr. Philip Edgcumbe, UBC Radiology Resident

I am excited about the future we can create together through research and innovation. I joined the research committee because I believe that excellence in research is critical for meeting the challenges of tomorrow and building a health care system that effectively serves all Canadians. As a UBC radiology resident, I want to be part of creating a department that achieves excellence and global impact through research. I recently wrote this BCMJ blogs article: Two Big Hairy Audacious Goals for Canadian Health Care. Please check it out! As a committee member, my specific goals include: The creation of a UBC radiology data science office (similar to the MGH data science office); Making innovation and clinical entrepreneurship part of the residency curriculum.; Participation of UBC residents in the UBC surgery resident innovation week; Supporting sonographers and medical imaging technicians who want to get involved in research projects.

Dr. Bo Gong, UBC Radiology Resident

Bo Gong is a PGY-4 UBC Diagnostic Radiology Resident, with a MSc degree in physiology and a BSc degree in computer science. Bo is interested in the applications of artificial intelligence in medical imaging. He is a member of the CAR AI Advisory Group, and serves as a trainee editor at the CARJ and Radiology: Artificial Intelligence. As a member of the UBC Radiology Research Committee, Bo hopes to bring a voice of the resident trainees and supports the AI initiatives in the department.

Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu, Assistant Professor

Dr. Hacihaliloglu obtained his B.Sc.(2001) and M.Sc. (2004) from Istanbul Technical University (Turkey) and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia (2010). He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Vancouver General Hospital and the Center for Hip Health and Mobility between 2010-2013. From 2014 to 2021 he was a faculty member at Rutgers University (NJ, USA) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and an Adjunct faculty member in the Department of Radiology. Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu’s research is aimed at developing innovative machine learning methods for processing various medical image data. A core mission of his research is to drive innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) towards industrial and clinical services and products. Reason for joining the committee: Improve the global impact of the Department of Radiology and UBC.

Dr. Sara Harsini, Research Fellow

Sara was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. After graduating from the combined MD/MPH program, she completed a Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging residency program and board certification at Tehran University of Medical Sciences and then joined BC Cancer for a research fellowship. Her clinical and research interests include molecular imaging, radionuclide therapy, population health, and data science.

Dr. Donna Lang, Associate Professor

Dr. Lang completed her PhD in Neuroscience at UBC (2002) in the Dept. of Psychiatry, where she developed a career-long interest in biomarkers of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.  She has been with the Dept of Radiology as for the last 21 years. Dr. Lang is a strong supporter of junior researchers and learners at all levels.

Dr. Arman Rahmim, Professor

Dr. Rahmim is Professor of RadiologyPhysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as Distinguished Scientist and Provincial Medical Imaging Physicist at BC Cancer. He received his MSc in condensed matter physics and PhD in medical imaging physics at UBC. Following doctoral studies, he was recruited by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), leading the high resolution brain PET imaging physics program and pursuing research at the JHU Departments of Radiology and Electrical Engineering. In 2018, he was recruited back to Vancouver, where he pursues research in molecular imaging & therapy. He has published a book, and over 180 journal articles and 380 conference proceeding papers/abstracts, and delivered more than 120 invited lectures worldwide. He has participated as principal investigator or co-investigator on a range of grants towards quantitative imaging and personalized therapies. Dr. Rahmim was awarded the John S. Laughlin Young Scientist Award by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in 2016, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by SNMMI in 2022 for significant contributions to the field of nuclear medicine & molecular imaging, was Vice President (2017-18) and President (2018-19) of the Physics, Instrumentation and Data Sciences Council (PIDSC) of the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), and is Chair of the SNMMI Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force (2020-) as well as the SNMMI Dosimetry-AI working group (2022-).

Carlos Uribe, Clinical Assistant Professor

Carlos Uribe, PhD, MCCPM (UBC, BC Cancer) is an early career Medical Imaging Physicist and has overseen the opening of 2 new PET/CT centres in BC. He co-leads the Qurit Research Program with Dr. Arman Rahmim. His research focuses on quantitative imaging and dosimetry for radiopharmaceutical therapies and is actively looking into how artificial intelligence can aid in the path to personalized theranostics. He has made significant contributions to implementation of radiopharmaceutical therapies in Canada, internal radiation dosimetry, motion correction in PET, optimization of injected activities for PET imaging, and selection of new radiopharmaceuticals for clinical translation. Internationally, he is a member of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Dosimetry Task force, and an elected board member of the SNMMI Therapy Center of Excellence. He leads global efforts for standardization of dosimetry protocols like the SNMMI 177Lu Dosimetry Challenge. Recently, he has been appointed as a member of the Committee on Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) which develops standards for calculation of internal dose in nuclear medicine.