Shiva Abbaszadeh, an expert in developing new technology for biomedical imaging instrumentation, will join the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at Illinois faculty in January. The goal of her research is to develop state-of-the-art imaging technology to provide necessary tools to visualize and detect cancer at the molecular level, and further understanding of disease mechanisms.
Currently a Fellow in the Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars Program, Abbaszadeh uses signal processing and quantitative characterizations to understand the biological processes of diseases. She works with positron emission tomography (PET), a functional imaging technique, to observe metabolic processes in the body.
Abbaszadeh is the fourth woman to have been hired in NPRE since 2012, and makes the department's faculty 25 percent female. Her addition to NPRE will expand the department's efforts in radiological and medical application technologies of nuclear engineering.
“We are fortunate to attract a person with Shiva’s talents and experience,” said NPRE Department Head Jim Stubbins. “She will be a major force in expanding our radiological engineering efforts. This also fits very well with the founding of the University of Illinois engineering-based College of Medicine.”
Abbaszadeh foresees working with Associate Prof. Ling-Jian Meng, who leads the Radiation Detection and Imaging group in developing advanced techniques and instrumentation to tackle medical issues such as diabetes, brain cancer, cardiac diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Meng joined NPRE in 2006.
“We will complement each other,” she said of Meng.
She also believes a collaboration with NPRE Associate Prof. J.P. Allain holds promise. Allain is an affiliate faculty member of Bioengineering at Illinois and, among other research interests, works with advanced nanostructured biointerfaces for regenerative medicine.
While NPRE’s strong background in radiological and material science, in addition to well-equipped laboratories such as the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, drew Abbaszadeh’s attention, the establishment of the engineering-based College of Medicine sealed her decision to join the faculty.
“These are the reasons that I fell in love with Illinois,” she said. “I think it would be a great privilege to be a part of that future, and can see myself collaborating with the College of Medicine.”
Abbaszadeh did her undergraduate and master’s degree work in Iran before moving to Canada for her PhD. As a doctoral student at the University of Waterloo, she worked on developing solid-state avalanche indirect X-ray detectors and a high-resolution amorphous selenium direct X-ray detector using a CMOS active pixel sensor. This detector currently is being investigated for commercialization. The technology Abbaszadeh developed has contributed to a startup company that develops a low-cost, high-resolution X-ray imager to detect lung disease in developing nations.
After earning her PhD in electrical engineering in 2014, Abbaszadeh worked at Stanford developing an advanced PET system dedicated to small animal imaging, and investigating a new semiconductor detector material for enhancing PET performance.