Iris Cong

All Publications

• Good Correlation Between Two- and Three-Dimensional Parameters of Intercondylar Notch Morphology in the Pediatric Knee: A Cadaveric Computed Tomography Study. Journal of ISAKOS : joint disorders & orthopaedic sports medicine Wackerle, A. M., Vieider, R. P., Khoo, B., Cong, I., Bilodeau, R. E., Duru, N. O., Shea, K. G., Musahl, V. 2026: 101184

  Abstract

  Distal femoral morphology is associated with ligamentous injuries, including anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears, and may influence treatment outcomes. While intercondylar notch morphology has been extensively studied in adults using different radiographic parameters, its developmental anatomy in pediatric populations remains poorly understood. The objective of this study is to describe intercondylar notch morphology in skeletally immature specimens using computed tomography (CT). We hypothesized that 1) notch height and notch width are positively correlated with age, while the notch width index (NWI) remains stable throughout growth, and 2) that commonly used two-dimensional notch measurements would show no correlation with three-dimensional notch volume.Skeletally immature cadaveric knees were evaluated using CT. Two-dimensional measurements in the coronal plane included notch width, notch height, and notch width index (NWI). Serial axial cuts were used to calculate three-dimensional intercondylar notch volume. Spearman correlation analyses were performed to assess correlations among radiographic parameters and with demographic variables. The intraclass correlation coefficient values of two raters were good to excellent for all measurements.The study cohort included 39 CT scans of skeletally immature cadaveric knees from 22 individuals (16 male, 6 female) with a mean age of 4.3 ± 4.4 years (range, 1 month-16 years). Correlation analysis showed that notch width and notch height were statistically significantly associated with notch volume (both p < 0.01), whereas NWI was not correlated with notch volume (p = 0.14) or notch height (p = 0.66). No statistically significant associations were found between any radiographic parameters and sex (all p > 0.5). Age was statistically significantly correlated with notch width, notch height, and notch volume (all p < 0.01), but not with NWI (p = 0.1).The findings of this study demonstrate a good correlation between two- and three-dimensional measurements of the pediatric intercondylar notch. Therefore, preoperative assessment of notch height and width may serve as a reliable surrogate for three-dimensional notch volume, enabling surgeons to accurately prepare for ACL surgical planning. However, the NWI does not fully capture the complex three-dimensional morphology of the developing intercondylar notch. Incorporating volumetric evaluation may therefore provide important additional insights for a more comprehensive characterization of notch anatomy in the immature knee.Level V, Descriptive laboratory study.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jisako.2026.101184

  View details for PubMedID 42480935

• Baseline weight recovery and mortality risk in head and neck cancer. Head & neck Bastien, A. J., Amin, L., Vasquez, M., Cong, I., Luu, M., Laszlo, M., Yen, S., Thompson, H., Teitelbaum, E. L., Jang, J. K., Mita, A. C., Scher, K. S., Moyers, J., Mallen-St Clair, J., Walgama, E. S., Zumsteg, Z. S., Ho, A. S. 2025; 47 (1): 139-149

  Abstract

  As a surrogate of malnutrition, degree of weight loss and recovery from head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment is understudied. The influence of modifiable factors that affect weight, including speech/language pathology (SLP) and nutrition counseling, is also poorly defined. We characterize weight loss trends, baseline weight recovery (BWR), and the impact of interdisciplinary care on oncologic outcomes.Retrospective cohort study assessing 266 newly diagnosed patients with HNC who completed curative-intent radiation (definitive or adjuvant) between January 2016 to January 2022. Relevant treatment factors were analyzed using multivariable Cox regression models.Altogether, 266 patients completed full-course radiation therapy (RT), encompassing definitive chemoRT (53.0%), surgery with chemoRT (18.4%), surgery with RT (17.7%), and RT alone (10.9%). Patient weight reached a nadir at median 3.0 months (IQR 3.0-11.3) after radiation, with a median weight loss of 12.6% (IQR 7.9-18.7). Notably, only 47.4% exhibited BWR. For those who recovered, median time to BWR was 10.5 months (IQR 3.0-24.0). On multivariable analysis, BWR by 6 months was significantly associated with overall survival (HR 0.28 [95% CI 0.10-0.76], p = 0.013), as was SLP consultation (HR 0.40 [95% CI 0.17-0.92], p = 0.031) and nutrition consultation (HR 0.34 [95% CI 0.13-0.89], p = 0.028).A high proportion of patients with HNC fail to recover baseline weight after treatment; those that do can take longer than expected to return. Failure to recover baseline weight is associated with a notable decrease in survival. Similarly, SLP and nutrition consultation are independent, modifiable determinants correlated with outcomes, supporting the emphasis on multidisciplinary management. Measures to promote BWR may reduce mortality.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/hed.27898

  View details for PubMedID 39077966

• Women Surgeon Speakers at AAO-HNS Annual Meetings. JAMA otolaryngology-- head & neck surgery Bastien, A. J., Cong, I., Larson, K., Vasquez, M., Miller, M. E., Krishna, P. D., Barbu, A. M. 2024; 150 (10): 927-928

  View details for DOI 10.1001/jamaoto.2024.2681

  View details for PubMedID 39235773

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11378061

• Robust Hamiltonian Engineering for Interacting Qudit Systems PHYSICAL REVIEW X Zhou, H., Gao, H., Leitao, N. T., Makarova, O., Cong, I., Douglas, A. M., Martin, L. S., Lukin, M. D. 2024; 14 (3)

  View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevX.14.031017

  View details for Web of Science ID 001284049600001

• Patient perceptions underlying ctDNA molecular surveillance for HPV(+) oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Oral oncology Bastien, A. J., Ng, J., Cong, I., Garcia, J., Walgama, E. S., Luu, M., Jang, J. K., Mita, A. C., Scher, K. S., Moyers, J. T., Clair, J. M., Maghami, E., Chen, M. M., Zumsteg, Z. S., Ho, A. S. 2024; 156: 106894

  Abstract

  Circulating tumor DNA assays have robust potential as molecular surveillance tools. They may also exacerbate patient distress without improving outcomes. We investigate patient acceptability of a validated ctHPVDNA assay (NavDx) during cancer surveillance for HPV(+) oropharyngeal cancer (OPC).Consented HPV(+) OPC participants completed the NCCN Distress Thermometer, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) scale both (1) before NavDx blood draw, and (2) after results were provided. Patients then completed a series of focused questions related to their perceptions of the assay.Overall, 55 patients completed the study, with 98.2 % showing no recurrence. For the NCCN Distress Thermometer, median patient distress decreased (2.0 (IQR 1-5) vs. 1.0 (IQR 0-3)) (p < 0.001) in association with NavDx. Using scores ≥ 4 as a cutoff point to define clinically elevated distress, scores also improved (36.4 % vs. 18.2 %, p = 0.031). For HADS, anxiety significantly improved (5.0 (IQR 2.0-7.0) vs. 3.0 (IQR 1.0-6.5)) (p = 0.037), but not depression (3.0 (IQR 1.0-7.0) vs. 3.0 (IQR 1.0-6.5)) (p = 0.870). FACT-G scores showed no substantial differences. On survey questionnaires, 95.5 % of patients believed the test to be helpful, and 100 % felt "somewhat" or "extremely" confident in the assay as a monitoring tool. While 59.1 % felt that it reduced anxiety, 88.4 % concordantly felt that it did not introduce anxiety.ctHPVDNA as a molecular surveillance tool reduced distress levels in HPV(+) OPC patients, with notably high patient confidence in the approach. Further investigation is warranted to judiciously incorporate this emerging modality in surveillance guidelines.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2024.106894

  View details for PubMedID 38909394

• Enhancing detection of topological order by local error correction. Nature communications Cong, I., Maskara, N., Tran, M. C., Pichler, H., Semeghini, G., Yelin, S. F., Choi, S., Lukin, M. D. 2024; 15 (1): 1527

  Abstract

  The exploration of topologically-ordered states of matter is a long-standing goal at the interface of several subfields of the physical sciences. Such states feature intriguing physical properties such as long-range entanglement, emergent gauge fields and non-local correlations, and can aid in realization of scalable fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, these same features also make creation, detection, and characterization of topologically-ordered states particularly challenging. Motivated by recent experimental demonstrations, we introduce a paradigm for quantifying topological states-locally error-corrected decoration (LED)-by combining methods of error correction with ideas of renormalization-group flow. Our approach allows for efficient and robust identification of topological order, and is applicable in the presence of incoherent noise sources, making it particularly suitable for realistic experiments. We demonstrate the power of LED using numerical simulations of the toric code under a variety of perturbations. We subsequently apply it to an experimental realization, providing new insights into a quantum spin liquid created on a Rydberg-atom simulator. Finally, we extend LED to generic topological phases, including those with non-abelian order.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-45584-6

  View details for PubMedID 38378727

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10879205

• Logical quantum processor based on reconfigurable atom arrays. Nature Bluvstein, D., Evered, S. J., Geim, A. A., Li, S. H., Zhou, H., Manovitz, T., Ebadi, S., Cain, M., Kalinowski, M., Hangleiter, D., Bonilla Ataides, J. P., Maskara, N., Cong, I., Gao, X., Sales Rodriguez, P., Karolyshyn, T., Semeghini, G., Gullans, M. J., Greiner, M., Vuletić, V., Lukin, M. D. 2024; 626 (7997): 58-65

  Abstract

  Suppressing errors is the central challenge for useful quantum computing1, requiring quantum error correction (QEC)2-6 for large-scale processing. However, the overhead in the realization of error-corrected 'logical' qubits, in which information is encoded across many physical qubits for redundancy2-4, poses substantial challenges to large-scale logical quantum computing. Here we report the realization of a programmable quantum processor based on encoded logical qubits operating with up to 280 physical qubits. Using logical-level control and a zoned architecture in reconfigurable neutral-atom arrays7, our system combines high two-qubit gate fidelities8, arbitrary connectivity7,9, as well as fully programmable single-qubit rotations and mid-circuit readout10-15. Operating this logical processor with various types of encoding, we demonstrate improvement of a two-qubit logic gate by scaling surface-code6 distance from d = 3 to d = 7, preparation of colour-code qubits with break-even fidelities5, fault-tolerant creation of logical Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states and feedforward entanglement teleportation, as well as operation of 40 colour-code qubits. Finally, using 3D [[8,3,2]] code blocks16,17, we realize computationally complex sampling circuits18 with up to 48 logical qubits entangled with hypercube connectivity19 with 228 logical two-qubit gates and 48 logical CCZ gates20. We find that this logical encoding substantially improves algorithmic performance with error detection, outperforming physical-qubit fidelities at both cross-entropy benchmarking and quantum simulations of fast scrambling21,22. These results herald the advent of early error-corrected quantum computation and chart a path towards large-scale logical processors.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-023-06927-3

  View details for PubMedID 38056497

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10830422

• Many-Body Quantum Teleportation via Operator Spreading in the Traversable Wormhole Protocol PHYSICAL REVIEW X Schuster, T., Kobrin, B., Gao, P., Cong, I., Khabiboulline, E. T., Linke, N. M., Lukin, M. D., Monroe, C., Yoshida, B., Yao, N. Y. 2022; 12 (3)

  View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.031013

  View details for Web of Science ID 000829945800001

• Hardware-Efficient, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation with Rydberg Atoms PHYSICAL REVIEW X Cong, I., Levine, H., Keesling, A., Bluvstein, D., Wang, S., Lukin, M. D. 2022; 12 (2)

  View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021049

  View details for Web of Science ID 000807758100001

• Quantum convolutional neural networks NATURE PHYSICS Cong, I., Choi, S., Lukin, M. D. 2019; 15 (12): 1273-+

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41567-019-0648-8

  View details for Web of Science ID 000500574300022

• Defects between gapped boundaries in two-dimensional topological phases of matter PHYSICAL REVIEW B Cong, I., Cheng, M., Wang, Z. 2017; 96 (19)

  View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.96.195129

  View details for Web of Science ID 000415086700002

• Universal Quantum Computation with Gapped Boundaries. Physical review letters Cong, I., Cheng, M., Wang, Z. 2017; 119 (17): 170504

  Abstract

  This Letter discusses topological quantum computation with gapped boundaries of two-dimensional topological phases. Systematic methods are presented to encode quantum information topologically using gapped boundaries, and to perform topologically protected operations on this encoding. In particular, we introduce a new and general computational primitive of topological charge measurement and present a symmetry-protected implementation of this primitive. Throughout the Letter, a concrete physical example, the Z_{3} toric code [D(Z_{3})], is discussed. For this example, we have a qutrit encoding and an abstract universal gate set. Physically, gapped boundaries of D(Z_{3}) can be realized in bilayer fractional quantum Hall 1/3 systems. If a practical implementation is found for the required topological charge measurement, these boundaries will give rise to a direct physical realization of a universal quantum computer based on a purely Abelian topological phase.

  View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.170504

  View details for PubMedID 29219455

• Hamiltonian and Algebraic Theories of Gapped Boundaries in Topological Phases of Matter COMMUNICATIONS IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS Cong, I., Cheng, M., Wang, Z. 2017; 355 (2): 645-689

  View details for DOI 10.1007/s00220-017-2960-4

  View details for Web of Science ID 000406782000006

• Quantum discriminant analysis for dimensionality reduction and classification NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS Cong, I., Duan, L. 2016; 18

  View details for DOI 10.1088/1367-2630/18/7/073011

  View details for Web of Science ID 000381870300002