Michael Liss
University of California-San Diego, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Prostate cancer affects about 1 in 7 U.S. men, but spotting the aggressive cases early is hard.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
prostate cancer
restriction spectrum imaging
restricted signal map
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Validate whether restricted signal map values from RSI-MRI, a diffusion MRI method sensitive to water trapped in cancer cells, identify clinically significant prostate cancer, comparing PI-RADS scores with and without RSM in a single-arm clinical trial.
- Calibrate RSM values across Siemens, GE and Philips MRI scanners using a two-scan design paired with targeted biopsy results and several normalization techniques.
- Align RSI-MRI with whole-mount tissue slices from prostatectomy specimens, using MRI-based prostate molds, to map normal and cancerous regions accurately.
- Compare RSM with currently available FDA-approved biomarkers and clinical risk measures to determine its clinical utility in prostate cancer diagnosis.
More about the research
Many men get biopsies they did not need. Others have cancers missed because the biopsy needle sampled the wrong spot, or receive diagnoses of slow-growing disease that may never cause harm. MRI-guided biopsy is now common, but image quality and accuracy vary. This project, an academic–industry partnership, aims to make prostate MRI more reliable at finding the cancers that matter.
Why it matters
Better prostate MRI could help men at risk of prostate cancer avoid unnecessary biopsies while catching aggressive tumors sooner. A calibrated restricted signal map that works the same on different scanner brands could be added to the standard PI-RADS reporting system, which may improve diagnostic accuracy and risk assessment for patients across hospitals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Flemming Forsberg
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Biomedical Engineering
Implement multiparametric ultrasound, combining contrast-enhanced, subharmonic, dispersion and viscoelastography imaging, on a commercial 3D transrectal probe, and adapt an MRI-based fusion and registration system for it.
Martin Sanda
Emory University, GA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Validate a 33-gene urinary RNA panel for predicting aggressive prostate cancer on biopsy, using a nested case-control study that follows PRoBE guidelines for unbiased biomarker testing.
William A Grissom
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Biomedical Engineering
Develop fast intraoperative imaging on a low-field MRI scanner so the surgeon's image-guidance display updates in near real time as prostate tissue is resected.
The school
University of California-San Diego: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 637 research doctorates a year.
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