Dr. Dean Regier Appointed Director, Academy of Translational Medicine

Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu

Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu is playing an active role in being a first to test image-to-image synthesizing technology, by researching whether MRIs can be generated by ultrasound scans of prostate cancer.

With the influx of artificial intelligence algorithms’ ability to produce complex images, this possibility is more feasible than ever. To determine the accuracy and extent of the image synthesizing technology, researchers input imagistic patient scans  across thousands of patients. Then, the technology is trained, using images of certain types of cancer, to recognize disease characteristics. With more data input, the technology refines its accuracy, speed, and ability to transform one ultrasound into an MRI or other medical diagnostic image.

This technology was put to the test when Dr. Hacihaliloglu and his highly-qualified researchers evaluated both synthetic MRI images (made by the input of 794 ultrasound scans of prostate cancer), and real MRIs. They found an 85% similarity of the synthesized scans to the real scans. The synthesized images missed too many clinical features to be used at this time. With more advanced research and technology however, perhaps this is a viable possibility in the future.

In the article, Dr. Hacihaliloglu describes how this has tremendous impacts on patient care. By reducing the need for an MRI (scans which are very expensive and of high-demand), this technology could provide high-quality images needs for clinical use, while decrease the wait-times or need for certain MRIs and the travel often associated with obtaining one. Ultrasounds are non-radiating, and are cheaper, smaller, and more accessible, in comparison to MRIs, CTs, and X-rays.

Dr. Hacihaliloglu isn’t the only researcher  in the ATM Community currently involved in exciting novel imaging research, with Dr. Shannon Kolind’s recent research examining the feasibility of portable MRIs. The ATM looks forward to seeing this exciting research progress.

For the full article highlighting this work by Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu, please click here.

For information on Dr. Shannon Kolind’s work with portable MRIs, please click here.

Dr. Shannon Kolind is featured in the Faculty of Medicine’s Pathways Magazine for bringing cutting edge technology to reality for those with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with portable MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines. 

The importance of MRI access is critical for caring with patients with MS, used for diagnosis, monitoring, and guidance of treatment. The diagnosis of MS used to be a long process due to the spectrum of associated symptoms, but with the use of MRIs, this is no longer the case.

Despite the importance of this neuroimaging, typical MRI machines themselves are a cumbersome and limited resource, giving priority to patients with more urgent needs and most often found in urban areas. The machines are not only expensive, they are huge, heavy, and immobile, with the associated need for highly specialized personnel to operate them.

However, new portable MRIs on wheels could remove many of these barriers, improving patients’ access such scans when and where is necessary. As one of the first Canadian researchers to test the low-field portable MRI, Dr. Kolind will help determine how the scans compared to typical MRIs compare, and whether they would be suitable for use in both clinical use and clinical trials. Because the portable version uses a very low magnetic field (described as “barely stronger than a fridge magnet”), it’s safe to bring it bedside, and it doesn’t need specialists to operate. In fact, the portable MRI is compatible with smartphones.

Dr. Kolind is the recipient of significant funding working with a variety of partner sites across Sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. The aim is to research paediatric malnutrition on neurodevelopment, using imaging protocols Dr. Kolind and her team are developing. The Pathways feature also sheds light on the importance of this work and her other projects to Dr. Kolind’s personal life.

The ATM commends Dr. Kolind for her outstanding contributions to translational medicine at UBC and beyond.

Find the full article here

Those seeking interdisciplinary clinical research projects are encouraged to learn about the Multiple Principal Investigator Award. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation expects investigators from distinct subspecialties or research disciplines to collaborate, with opportunities for those in translational medicine. Projects must have 2-3 independent investigators (no less or more), and those that bring new investigators and technologies into the CF research community will be given highest priority.

Research projects may be designed to test new hypotheses and/or new methods or to advance established results with the potential to address diagnosis, treatment, management of disease or symptoms, or the pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis using clinical (observational/interventional), translational, or epidemiologic study approaches.

Interested parties should refer to the key research priorities of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Each research priority is categorized under the key areas of focus, for Cure, Care, and Community, which contain many relevant areas for translational medicine.

Funding Available

• Up to $200,000 per applicant per year, for up to three years
  • An additional 12% indirect costs per year.
  • An additional $25,000 for the lead institution for direct costs per year.

Fall 2025 Competition Key Dates

• Letter of Intent Deadline: 3 April 2025 | 2 pm
  • Applicants must speak with program staff prior to their  LOI submission. Failure to do so will result in the administrative withdrawal of the proposal.

• Full Application Deadline: 14 August 2025 | 2pm

Full information and relevant links can be found on the Multiple Principal Investigator Award page.