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Mekhail Anwar, MD, PhD

Associate Professor
Radiation Oncology
+1 415 514-2070

Mekhail Anwar, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, with expertise in electrical engineering focusing on integrated circuits and micro-fabricated sensors for cancer imaging with a clinical practice in Radiation Oncology specializing in the multimodality treatment of malignancies using focal, targeted radiation therapy.

Dr. Anwar has over 13 years of experiences developing micro-fabricated devices for biomedical applications. Educated at UC Berkeley in Physics, where he was awarded the University Medal as the top graduating senior, he completed his medical degree at UC San Francisco, and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his Ph.D. in electrical engineering focused on using micro-fabricated devices and integrated circuits for biological detection. He has several first author publications spanning integrated circuits, imaging, and protein arrays. His clinical interest in oncology is using new techniques in imaging to guide therapeutic intervention, and he has clinical research efforts in, pancreatic, liver and prostate cancer as well as glioblastoma. His research focus is fundamentally guided by where innovations in diagnostic and treatment technologies can most benefit patient care.

Research Focus

The primary focus of his laboratory is to identify where gaps in diagnostic information and therapeutic tools compromise patient care, and develop tools to solve these problems, with an emphasis on sensing in the tumor microenvironment. Acutely aware of their limitation in spatially identifying microscopic disease, Dr. Anwar's solution is to embed sensors directly within the tumor and the neighboring microenvironment, to achieve increased sensitivity, guiding precise, focal therapy to enhance the efficacy of current treatments while mitigating toxicity. His work synergistically incorporates biological approaches with integrated circuit and micro-fabricated technologies, leveraging the advantages of biological systems (interface, detection, synthesis and release of ligands, etc.) with those of electronics (computation, analysis, communication and actuation) to solve problems in therapeutic and diagnostic oncology. This has the potential to introduce new curative paradigms in breast cancer therapy, as current imaging technology, both for staging, treatment planning and surveillance is limited to large foci of disease, and true microscopic metastasis and recurrence, which is potentially curable, often goes undetected.

Publications: 

Factors Impacting Differential Outcomes in the Definitive Radiation Treatment of Anal Cancer Between HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Patients.

The oncologist

Susko M, Wang CJ, Lazar AA, Kim S, Laffan A, Feng M, Ko A, Venook AP, Atreya CE, Van Loon K, Anwar M

Signal to Noise Ratio as a Cross-Platform Metric for Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging.

Molecular imaging

Gharia A, Papageorgiou EP, Giverts S, Park C, Anwar M

Chip-Scale Angle-Selective Imager for In Vivo Microscopic Cancer Detection.

IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems

Papageorgiou EP, Boser BE, Anwar M

A 25 micron-thin microscope for imaging upconverting nanoparticles with NIR-I and NIR-II illumination.

Theranostics

Najafiaghdam H, Papageorgiou E, Torquato NA, Tian B, Cohen BE, Anwar M

A multi-disciplinary model of survivorship care following definitive chemoradiation for anal cancer.

BMC cancer

Savoie MB, Laffan A, Brickman C, Daniels B, Levin A, Rowen T, Smith J, Van Blarigan EL, Hope TA, Berry-Lawhorn JM, Anwar M, Van Loon K

Low irradiance multiphoton imaging with alloyed lanthanide nanocrystals.

Nature communications

Tian B, Fernandez-Bravo A, Najafiaghdam H, Torquato NA, Altoe MVP, Teitelboim A, Tajon CA, Tian Y, Borys NJ, Barnard ES, Anwar M, Chan EM, Schuck PJ, Cohen BE

Real-time cancer detection with an integrated lensless fluorescence contact imager.

Biomedical optics express

Papageorgiou EP, Zhang H, Giverts S, Park C, Boser BE, Anwar M

A Molecular Imaging "Skin A Time-resolving Intraoperative Imager for Microscopic Residual Cancer Detection Using Enhanced Upconverting Nanoparticles.

Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference

Najafiaghdam H, Papageorgiou P, Torquato NA, Tajon CA, Zhang H, Park C, Boser B, Cohen BE, Anwar M

Imaging of IR700DX Labeled Mouse Breast Tumor Using a Custom Angle-Selective Fluorescence Contact Imaging System.

Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference

Papageorgiou EP, Giverts S, Zhang H, Park C, Boser BE, Anwar M

Brain metastasis growth on preradiosurgical magnetic resonance imaging.

Practical radiation oncology

Garcia MA, Anwar M, Yu Y, Duriseti S, Merritt B, Nakamura J, Hess C, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott M, Sneed PK, Braunstein SE

Influence of respiratory motion management technique on radiation pneumonitis risk with robotic stereotactic body radiation therapy.

Journal of applied clinical medical physics

Chapman CH, McGuinness C, Gottschalk AR, Yom SS, Garsa AA, Anwar M, Braunstein SE, Sudhyadhom A, Keall P, Descovich M

Angle-insensitive amorphous silicon optical filter for fluorescence contact imaging.

Optics letters

Papageorgiou EP, Zhang H, Boser BE, Park C, Anwar M

Relationship between radiation dose and microbleed formation in patients with malignant glioma.

Radiation oncology (London, England)

Wahl M, Anwar M, Hess CP, Chang SM, Lupo JM

Identifying Voxels at Risk for Progression in Glioblastoma Based on Dosimetry, Physiologic and Metabolic MRI.

Radiation research

Anwar M, Molinaro AM, Morin O, Chang SM, Haas-Kogan DA, Nelson SJ, Lupo JM

Respiration-Induced Intraorgan Deformation of the Liver.

Technology in cancer research & treatment

Paulsson AK, Yom SS, Anwar M, Pinnaduwage D, Sudhyadhom A, Gottschalk AR, Chang AJ, Descovich M

Outcomes of hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy boost for intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer.

Radiation oncology (London, England)

Anwar M, Weinberg V, Seymour Z, Hsu IJ, Roach M, Gottschalk AR

Standardization and quality assurance of radiation therapy volumes for adults with high-grade gliomas.

Seminars in radiation oncology

Fogh S, Wahl M, Anwar M, Haas-Kogan D, Clarke JL, Sneed PK

Hypofractionated SBRT versus conventionally fractionated EBRT for prostate cancer: comparison of PSA slope and nadir.

Radiation oncology (London, England)

Anwar M, Weinberg V, Chang AJ, Hsu IC, Roach M, Gottschalk A

Role of endorectal MR imaging and MR spectroscopic imaging in defining treatable intraprostatic tumor foci in prostate cancer: quantitative analysis of imaging contour compared to whole-mount histopathology.

Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology

Anwar M, Westphalen AC, Jung AJ, Noworolski SM, Simko JP, Kurhanewicz J, Roach M, Carroll PR, Coakley FV

Protein array patterning by diffusive gel stamping.

PloS one

Anwar M, Gupta PB, Palaniapan R, Matsudaira P

Magnetic resonance imaging of massive ovarian edema in pregnancy.

Journal of computer assisted tomography

Coakley FV, Anwar M, Poder L, Wang ZJ, Yeh BM, Joe BN

Applied Physics Letters

A Wireless-Compatible CMOS-Based Optics-Free Microarray Imager

Anwar, M., Aytur, T., Matsudaira, P.

A novel magnetic bead bioassay platform using a microchip-based sensor for infectious disease diagnosis.

Journal of immunological methods

Aytur T, Foley J, Anwar M, Boser B, Harris E, Beatty PR

Applied Physics Letters

Atomic force microscopy with time resolution of microseconds

M Anwar, I Rousso

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