Ashley Makela, Ph.D.
Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Imaging Physics, Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Assistant Professor, Neuroradiology, Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Regular Member, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UT Health, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2018 | University of Western Ontario, London, ON, CA, Medical Biophysics (Molecular Imaging), Ph.D |
| 2009 | University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CA, Medical Radiation Science, B.S |
Experience & Service
Other Professional Positions
Member, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2025 - Present
Senior Research Associate, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2024 - 2025
Postdoctoral Researcher, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2019 - 2024
Honors & Awards
| 2019 - 2021 | Postdoctoral Fellowship, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) |
| 2017 | Morris Kroll Memorial Scholarship, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University |
| 2017 - 2018 | Translational Breast Cancer Research Unit Studentship, London Regional Cancer Program |
| 2016 - 2018 | Schulich Dean’s MSc to PhD Research Scholarship, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University |
| 2016 | A.C. Groom Award, Western University, Department of Medical Biophysics |
| 2015 - 2017 | Translational Breast Cancer Research Unit Studentship, London Regional Cancer Program |
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2025. Magnetic Particle Imaging: Shaping the Future of Cell Tracking and Targeted Therapies. Invited. Preclinical Imaging Consortium. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Magnetic particle imaging for in vivo cell tracking and therapeutic development. Invited. MD Anderson Magnetic Particle Imaging Symposium. Houston, Texas, US.
National Presentations
- 2023. Basic Principles and Applications of Magnetic Particle Imaging. Invited. PAIR-UP Imaging Science Program for Black Imaging Scientists. East Lansing, Michigan, US.
- 2023. Applications of Magnetic Particle Imaging in cancer: From nano- to micron-sized detection in vivo. Invited. Physics Colloquium. Rochester, Michigan, US.
- 2021. In Vivo Tracking of Iron Labeled Extracellular Vesicles by Magnetic Particle Imaging. Poster. World Molecular Imaging Congress. Miami, Florida, US.
International Presentations
- 2021. The development of magnetoendosymbionts (MEs) for magnetic particle imaging, optical imaging, and their use for eukaryotic cellular control via thermal induction. Invited. Rising Stars of Magnetic Particle Imaging, US.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2025 - 2026 |
| Title: | Crossing Barriers: Imaging EV-Mediated Cargo Delivery to Brain Metastases |
| Funding Source: | Andrew M. McDougall Brain Metastasis Clinic and Research Program |
| Role: | PI |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Kawai-Harada Y, Mardikoraem M, Makela AV, Lauro K, Lam J, Contag CH, Woldring D, Harada M. VesicleVoyager: In Vivo Selection of Surface Displayed Proteins That Direct Extracellular Vesicles to Tissue-Specific Targets. J Extracell Vesicles 14(11):e70184, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41216961.
- Madsen CS, Makela AV, Maduka CV, Greeson EM, Tundo A, Ural E, Kulkarni SH, Zarea A, Kiupel M, Sayadi M, Contag CH. Engineered endosymbionts that modulate primary macrophage function and attenuate tumor growth by shifting the tumor microenvironment. ACS Applied Bio Materials 8(7):5938-5958, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40552854.
- Kawai-Harada Y, Mardikoraem M, Makela AV, Lauro K, Lam J, Contag CH, Woldring D, Harada M. VesicleVoyager: In vivo selection of surface displayed proteins that direct extracellular vesicles to tissue-specific targets. bioRxiv, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40501867.
- Kawai-Harada Y, Mardikoraem M, Makela AV, Lauro K, Lam J, Contag CH, Woldring D, Harada M. VesicleVoyager: In vivo selection of surface displayed proteins that direct extracellular vesicles to tissue-specific targets. Frontiers in Immunology. e-Pub 2025.
- Kumar PPP, Nafiujjaman M, Makela AV, Hadrick K, Hill ML, Lee M, Kim T. Development of Iron Oxide Nanochains as a Sensitive Magnetic Particle Imaging Tracer for Cancer Detection. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 17(14):20859-20871, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40138469.
- Maduka CV, Makela AV, Tundo A, Ural E, Stivers KB, Alhaj M, Narayan R, Goodman SB, Ashammakhi N, Elisseeff JH, Hankenson KD, Contag CH. Role of Mitochondrial Complex I in the Proinflammatory Response to Polylactide Implants. ACS Applied Engineering Materials, 2024. e-Pub 2024.
- Makela AV, Tundo A, Liu H, Schneider D, Hermiston T, Khodakivskyi P, Goun E, Contag CH. Targeted intracellular delivery of molecular cargo to hypoxic human breast cancer stem cells. bioRxiv, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39605477.
- Maduka CV, Schmitter-Sanchez AD, Makela AV, Ural E, Stivers KB, Pope H, Kuhnert MM, Habeeb OM, Tundo A, Alhaj M, Kiselev A, Chen S, Donneys A, Winton WP, Stauff J, Scott PJH, Olive AJ, Hankenson KD, Narayan R, Park S, Elisseeff JH, Contag CH. Immunometabolic cues recompose and reprogram the microenvironment around implanted biomaterials. Nature Biomedical Engineering 8(10):1308-1321, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39367264.
- Maduka CV, Makela AV, Tundo A, Ural E, Stivers KB, Kuhnert MM, Alhaj M, Hoque Apu E, Ashammakhi N, Hankenson KD, Narayan R, Elisseeff JH, Contag CH. Regulating the proinflammatory response to composite biomaterials by targeting immunometabolism. Bioactive Materials 40:64-73, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38948254.
- Toomajian VA, Tundo A, Ural EE, Greeson EM, Contag CH, Makela AV. Magnetic Particle Imaging Reveals that Iron-Labeled Extracellular Vesicles Accumulate in Brains of Mice with Metastases. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 16(24):30860-30873, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38860682.
- Nigam S, Mohapatra J, Makela AV, Hayat H, Rodriguez JM, Sun A, Kenyon E, Redman NA, Spence D, Jabin G, Gu B, Ashry M, Sempere LF, Mitra A, Li J, Chen J, Wei GW, Bolin S, Etchebarne B, Liu JP, Contag CH, Wang P. Shape Anisotropy-Governed High-Performance Nanomagnetosol for In Vivo Magnetic Particle Imaging of Lungs. Small 20(5):e2305300, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 37735143.
- Maduka CV, Alhaj M, Ural E, Habeeb OM, Kuhnert MM, Smith K, Makela AV, Pope H, Chen S, Hix JM, Mallett CL, Chung SJ, Hakun M, Tundo A, Zinn KR, Hankenson KD, Goodman SB, Narayan R, Contag CH. Polylactide Degradation Activates Immune Cells by Metabolic Reprogramming. Advanced Science 10(31), 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37737614.
- Hardy J, Bauzon M, Chan CKF, Makela AV, Kanada M, Schneider D, Blankenberg F, Contag CH, Hermiston T. Gla-domain mediated targeting of externalized phosphatidylserine for intracellular delivery. FASEB Journal 37(8), 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37486772.
- Maduka C, Kuhnert MM, Habeeb OM, Tundo A, Makela AV, Goodman SB, Contag CH. Elevated oxidative phosphorylation is critical for immune cell activation by polyethylene wear particles. Journal of Immunology and Regenerative Medicine, 2023. e-Pub 2023.
- Greeson EM, Madsen CS, Makela AV, Contag CH. Magnetothermal Control of Temperature-Sensitive Repressors in Superparamagnetic Iron Nanoparticle-Coated Bacillus subtilis. ACS Nano 16(10):16699-16712, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36200984.
- Madsen CS, Makela AV, Greeson EM, Hardy JW, Contag CH. Engineered endosymbionts that alter mammalian cell surface marker, cytokine and chemokine expression. Commun Biol 5(1):888, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36042261.
- Sehl OC, Tiret B, Berih MA, Makela AV, Goodwill PW, Foster PJ. MPI region of interest (ROI) analysis and quantification of iron in different volumes. IJMPI 8(1), 2022. e-Pub 2022.
- Makela AV, Schott MA, Sehl OC, Gevaert JJ, Foster PJ, Contag CH. Tracking the fates of iron-labeled tumor cells in vivo using magnetic particle imaging. Nanoscale Adv 4(17):3617-3623, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36134351.
- Makela AV, Schott MA, Madsen CS, Greeson EM, Contag CH. Magnetic Particle Imaging of Magnetotactic Bacteria as Living Contrast Agents Is Improved by Altering Magnetosome Arrangement. Nano Lett 22(12):4630-4639, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35686930.
- Melo KP, Makela AV, Knier NN, Hamilton AM, Foster PJ. Magnetic microspheres can be used for magnetic particle imaging of cancer cells arrested in the mouse brain. Magnetic resonance in medicine 87(1):312-322, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 34453462.
- Makela AV, Gaudet JM, Schott MA, Sehl OC, Contag CH, Foster PJ. Magnetic Particle Imaging of Macrophages Associated with Cancer: Filling the Voids Left by Iron-Based Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Mol Imaging Biol 22(4):958-968, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31933022.
- Sehl OC, Makela AV, Hamilton AM, Foster PJ. Trimodal Cell Tracking In Vivo: Combining Iron- and Fluorine-Based Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Magnetic Particle Imaging to Monitor the Delivery of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and the Ensuing Inflammation. Tomography 5(4):367-376, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31893235.
- Fink C, Smith M, Gaudet JM, Makela AV, Foster PJ, Dekaban G. Fluorine-19 Cellular MRI Detection of In Vivo Dendritic Cell Migration and Subsequent Induction of Tumor Antigen-Specific Immunotherapeutic Response. Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2019. e-Pub 2019.
- Williams KC, Cepeda MA, Javed S, Searle K, Parkins KM, Makela AV, Hamilton AM, Soukhtehzari S, Kim Y, Tuck AB, Ronald JA, Foster PJ, Chambers AF, Leong HS. Invadopodia are chemosensing protrusions that guide cancer cell extravasation to promote brain tropism in metastasis. Oncogene 38(19):3598-3615, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30651600.
- Makela AV, Foster PJ. Preclinical (19)F MRI cell tracking at 3 Tesla. MAGMA 32(1):123-132, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30421247.
- Makela AV, Foster PJ. Imaging macrophage distribution and density in mammary tumors and lung metastases using fluorine-19 MRI cell tracking. Magn Reson Med 80(3):1138-1147, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29327789.
- Parkins KM, Dubois VP, Hamilton AM, Makela AV, Ronald JA, Foster PJ. Multimodality cellular and molecular imaging of concomitant tumour enhancement in a syngeneic mouse model of breast cancer metastasis. Sci Rep 8(1):8930, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29895974.
- Makela AV, Gaudet JM, Foster PJ. Quantifying tumor associated macrophages in breast cancer: a comparison of iron and fluorine-based MRI cell tracking. Sci Rep 7:42109, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28176853.
- Parkins KM, Hamilton AM, Makela AV, Chen Y, Foster PJ, Ronald JA. A multimodality imaging model to track viable breast cancer cells from single arrest to metastasis in the mouse brain. Sci Rep 6:35889, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27767185.
Review Articles
- Wang J, Xing Y, Ngatio M, Bies P, Xu LL, Xing L, Zarea A, Makela AV, Contag CH, Li J. Engineering Magnetotactic Bacteria as Medical Microrobots. Adv Mater 37(27), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40244080.
- Taylor S, Mueller E, Jones LR, Makela AV, Ashammakhi N. Translational Aspects of 3D and 4D Printing and Bioprinting. Adv Healthc Mater 13(27):e2400463, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38979857.
- Hoque Apu, E, Nafiujjaman, M, Sandeep, S, Makela, AV, Khaleghi, A, Vainio, SJ, Contag, CH, Li, J, Balasingham, I, Kim, T, Ashammakhi, N. Biomedical applications of multifunctional magnetoelectric nanoparticles. Materials Chemistry Frontiers 6(11):1368-1390, 2022. e-Pub 2022.
- Makela AV, Gaudet JM, Murrell DH, Mansfield JR, Wintermark M, Contag CH. Mind Over Magnets - How Magnetic Particle Imaging is Changing the Way We Think About the Future of Neuroscience. Neuroscience 474:100-109, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33197498.
- Makela AV, Murrell DH, Parkins KM, Kara J, Gaudet JM, Foster PJ. Cellular Imaging With MRI. Top Magn Reson Imaging 25(5):177-186, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27748707.
Other Articles
- Makela AV, Tundo A, Liu H, Schneider D, Hermiston T, Khodakivskyi P, Goun E, Contag CH Targeted intracellular delivery of molecular cargo to hypoxic human breast cancer stem cells. Cancer Commun (Lond) 45(6):714-718, 2025. PMID: 40110988.
- Makela AV, Contag CH What imaging reveals about engineered endosymbionts, 2024.
Book Chapters
- Sehl OC, Makela AV, Foster PJ. 19F for quantitative tracking of immune cells involved in cancer progression and therapy. In: Fluorine magnetic resonance imaging: Methods and applications in biomedicine. Jenny Stanford Publishing, 193-222, 2025.
- Knier NN, Sehl OC, Gevaert JJ, Makela AV, Foster PJ. Magnetic Particle Imaging. In: Advances in Magnetic Resonance Technology and Applications. Academic Press, 173-191, 2023.
- Parkins KM, Hamilton AM, Makela AV, Foster PJ. Cellular magnetic resonance imaging for tracking metastatic cancer cells in the brain. In: Methods in Molecular Biology. Springer New York, 239-251, 2019.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified September 03, 2026