Photon Counting CT and Radiomic Analysis Enables Differentiation of Tumors Based on Lymphocyte Burden

Kyle Lafata is the Thaddeus V. Samulski Associate Professor at Duke University with faculty appointments in Radiation Oncology, Radiology, Pathology, Medical Physics, and Electrical & Computer Engineering. He joined the faculty at Duke in 2020 following postdoctoral training at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. His dissertation work focused on the applied analysis of stochastic partial differential equations and high-dimensional image phenotyping, where he developed physics-based computational methods and soft-computing paradigms to interrogate images. These included stochastic modeling, self-organization, and quantum machine learning (i.e., an emerging branch of research that explores the methodological and structural similarities between quantum systems and learning systems).

Prof. Lafata has worked in various areas of computational medicine and biology, resulting in over 55 academic papers, 20 invited talks, and more than 60 national conference presentations. At Duke, the Lafata Laboratory focuses on the theory, development, and application of computational oncology. The lab interrogates disease at different length-scales of its biological organization via high-performance computing, multiscale modeling, advanced imaging technology, and the applied analysis of stochastic partial differential equations. Current research interests include tumor topology, cellular dynamics, tumor immune microenvironment, drivers of radiation resistance and immune dysregulation, molecular insight into tissue heterogeneity, and biologically-guided adaptative treatment strategies.

• Our lab's research focus lies primarily in developing novel quantitative imaging systems, reconstruction algorithms and analysis methods.  My major expertise is in preclinical CT.
• Currently, we are particularly interested in developing novel strategies for spectral CT imaging using nanoparticle-based contrast agents for theranostics (i.e. therapy and diagnostics).
• We are also engaged in developing new approaches for multidimensional CT image reconstruction suitable to address difficult undersampling cases in cardiac and spectral CT (dual energy and photon counting) using compressed sensing and/or deep learning.

• We are involved in co-clinical cancer trials and I have served as the Principal Investigator on the U24 Duke Preclinical Research Resources for Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers part of the NCI Co-Clinical Imaging Research Resources Program network (CIRP).