Honors & Awards

  • T32 Stanford Molecular Imaging Program, NIH (2023-2025)
  • Jack Krohmer Early-Career Investigator Award, AAPM Annual Meeting (2023)
  • Bio-X Travel Award, Stanford University (2023)
  • Expanding Horizons Travel Award, AAPM (2022)
  • Radiation Oncology Trainee Seed Grant, Stanford University School of Medicine (2022)
  • School of Medicine Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship, Stanford University (2022)
  • Presidential Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2020)
  • Professional Development Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2020)
  • Graduate Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin (2019)
  • Singapore Government Scholarship, Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2007-2011)

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, Biomedical Engineering (2020)
  • M.S., The University of Texas at Austin, Biomedical Engineering (2019)
  • B.E., Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Materials Science and Engineering (2011)

Stanford Advisors

Contact

  • Academic
    hieung@stanford.edu
    University - Scholar Department: Radiation Oncology Position: Postdoctoral Scholar

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 5847

All Publications

  • Radioluminescence from polymer dots based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence NANOSCALE ADVANCES Asanuma, D., Nguyen, H., Liu, Z., Tojo, S., Shigemitsu, H., Yamaji, M., Kawai, K., Mori, T., Kida, T., Pratx, G., Fujitsuka, M., Osakada, Y. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1039/d3na00308f

    View details for Web of Science ID 000998986500001

  • Red, green, and blue radio-luminescent polymer dots doped with heteroleptic tris-cyclometalated iridium complexes. RSC advances Liu, Z., Nguyen, H. T., Asanuma, D., Tojo, S., Yamaji, M., Kawai, K., Pratx, G., Fujitsuka, M., Osakada, Y. 2023; 13 (22): 15126-15131

    Abstract

    In this study, we synthesized radioexcitable luminescent polymer dots (P-dots) doped with heteroleptic tris-cyclometalated iridium complexes that emit red, green, and blue light. We investigated the luminescence properties of these P-dots under X-ray and electron beam irradiation, revealing their potential as new organic scintillators.

    View details for DOI 10.1039/d3ra01216f

    View details for PubMedID 37207100

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10190261

  • Preclinical evaluation of 89Zr-Panitumumab for biology-guided radiotherapy. International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics Natarajan, A., Khan, S., Liang, X., Nguyen, H., Das, N., Anders, D., Malik, N., Oderinde, O. M., Chin, F., Rosenthal, E., Pratx, G. 2023

    Abstract

    Biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT) uses real-time line-of-response data from on-board PET detectors to guide beamlet delivery during therapeutic radiation. The current workflow requires 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) administration daily prior to each treatment fraction. However, there are advantages to reducing the number of tracer injections by using a PET tracer with a longer decay time. In this context, we investigated 89Zr-Panitumumab (89Zr-Pan), an antibody PET tracer with a half-life of 78 hours that can be imaged for up to 9 days using PET.The BgRT workflow was evaluated pre-clinically in mouse colorectal cancer xenografts (HCT116) using small-animal PET/CT for imaging, and image-guided kilovoltage conformal irradiation for therapy. Mice (n=5 per group) received 7 MBq of 89Zr-Pan as a single dose 2 weeks after tumor induction, with or without fractionated radiation therapy (RT; 6×6.6 Gy) to the tumor region. The mice were imaged longitudinally to assess the kinetics of the tracer over 9 days. PET images were then analyzed to determine the stability of the PET signal in irradiated tumors over time.Mice in the treatment group experienced complete tumor regression, whereas those in the control group were sacrificed due to tumor burden. PET imaging of 89Zr-Pan showed well-delineated tumors with minimal background in both groups. On day 9 post-injection, tumor uptake of 89Zr-Pan was 7.2 ± 1.7 in the control group vs 5.2 ± 0.5 in the treatment group (mean %ID/g ± SD; P = 0.07), both significantly higher than FDG uptake (1.1 ± 0.5 %ID/g) 1 hour post injection. To assess BgRT feasibility, the clinical eligibility criteria was computed using human-equivalent uptake values that were extrapolated from preclinical PET data. Based on this semiquantitative analysis, BgRT may be feasible for 5 consecutive days following a single 740 MBq injection of 89Zr-Pan.This study indicates the potential of long-lived antibody-based PET tracers for guiding clinical BgRT.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2023.01.007

    View details for PubMedID 36669541