Machine Learning-Mediated Whole-Body Mouse Imaging of Therapeutic Cells/Drugs
Project Description
Cancer is a major threat for humans worldwide, with over 18 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer-related deaths in 2019. Although most common cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, unsatisfactory cure rates require new therapeutic approaches. Recently, adoptive cellular immunotherapies with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) engineered T and natural killer (NK) cells have shown impressive clinical responses in patients with various blood and solid cancers. However, off-target toxicities may limit their broader application. To address this challenge, this project thus aims to harness the power of machine learning and develop a smart whole-body mouse imaging platform to assess the distribution and safety of adoptive cellular therapies and chemotherapeutic drugs.
Start Date
Spring 2026
Postdoc Qualifications
Preferred academic background: Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biology, or other related majors are preferred.
Co-advisors
Xiaoping Bao, bao61@purdue.edu, Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, https://sites.google.com/view/xiaoping-bao/home
Jie Luo, jieluo@purdue.edu, Department of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics, https://www.jieluolab.org/
Can Li, canli@purdue.edu, Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, https://canli1.github.io/?_ga=2.139685680.2083745670.1757340292-941956665.1756824781
Bibliography
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Chang Y, Cai X, Syahirah R, Yao Y, Xu Y, Jin G, Bhute VJ, Torregrosa-Allen S, Elzey BD, Won Y-Y, Deng Q, Lian XL*, Wang X*, Eniola-Adefeso O*, Bao X*. CAR-neutrophil mediated delivery of tumor-microenvironment responsive nanodrugs for glioblastoma chemo-immunotherapy. Nat Commun 14(1): 2266 (2023). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37872-4.
Chang Y, Syahirah R, Wang X, Jin G, Torregrosa-Allen S, Elzey BD, Hummel SN, Wang T, Lian X*, Deng Q*, Broxmeyer HE, Bao X*. Engineering chimeric antigen receptor neutrophils from human pluripotent stem cells for targeted cancer immunotherapy. Cell Reports 40(3), 111128 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111128.
Luo J, et al. Nanocarrier imaging at single-cell resolution across entire mouse bodies with deep learning. Nature Biotechnology (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02528-1.
Mai H, Luo J, et al. Whole-body cellular mapping in mouse using standard IgG antibodies. Nature Biotechnology 42, 617-627 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01846-0