Awarded in 2015
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisors: Sam Sanjiv Gambhir (Radiology), Irving Weissman (Pathology, Developmental Biology), William Greenleaf (Genetics), and Ron Levy (Medicine - Oncology)
Research Title: A molecular imaging toolbox for monitoring cancer immunotherapies
Research Description: Immunotherapy has the potential to become the new paradigm of cancer treatment. While anatomic imaging has been the gold standard to monitor treatment efficacy based upon decreases in tumor size, patients treated with immunotherapies often present with a period of apparent tumor growth before prolonged regression. Due to the high cost and delayed response time, there exists a compelling need to accurately predict which patients are most likely to benefit from immune based treatment strategies. Aaron proposes the development of a novel molecular imaging toolkit that could enable effective monitoring of clinical cancer immunotherapies.
WHERE IS HE NOW?
Aaron is co-founder and chief scientific officer of Enable Medicine, a biopharma company that is building biological maps to guide better medicine.