James A. Bankson, Ph.D.
Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging
About Dr. Bankson
Dr. Bankson leads the Magnetic Resonance Engineering Laboratory at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and he is Deputy Director of the Small Animal Imaging Facility. His research is focused on the use of engineering principles (RF engineering, systems engineering, electromagnetics, signal and image processing) to refine, optimize, and extend methods to characterize disease non-invasively using magnetic resonance imaging, spectroscopy, and spectroscopic imaging
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Adjoint Associate Professor, Department of Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin, TX
Keck Faculty Affiliate, The Gulf Coast Consortia, Houston, TX
Program Faculty, Department of Medical Physics Program, Division of Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Phased Arrays, Parallel MRI and fast acquisition techniques
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2001 | Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, PHD, Electrical Engineering |
| 1994 | Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, BS, Electrical Engineering |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Adjoint Professor, Department of Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, 2017 - Present
Adjunct Professor, Department of Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 2017 - Present
Associate Professor, Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2011 - 2017
Adjoint Assistant Professor, Department of Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, 2010 - 2011
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 2005 - 2011
Assistant Professor, Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2003 - 2011
Institutional Committee Activities
Chair, Mid-Tenure Review Committee (Will Norton), 2019 - Present
Member, MD Anderson Electronic Lab Notebook Committee, 2019 - Present
Program Review Committee, MD Anderson Odyssey Committee, 2019 - Present
Member, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Master's Degree Program Review, 2019 - Present
Member, MD Anderson Cancer Center Graduate Education Committee, 2019 - Present
Chair, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, 2018 - Present
Internal Grant Reviewer, INTEREST, 2017 - 2020
Member, Department of Pediatrics Research Imaging Team, 2017 - Present
Inaugural Chair, Medical Physics Candidacy Examination Committee, 2016 - 2017
Vice Chair, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, 2015 - Present
Member, CABI Hyperpolarization Steering Committee, 2015 - Present
Member, UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) Curriculum Review Committee, 2015 - 2018
Member, Mid-Tenure Review Committee (Cynthia Lockhart), 2015 - Present
Member, Division of Diagnostic Imaging Research Functional Committee, 2013 - Present
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Michel KA, Zielinski R, Walker CM, Le Roux L, Priebe W, Bankson JA, Schellingerhout D. Hyperpolarized Pyruvate MR Spectroscopy Depicts Glycolytic Inhibition in a Mouse Model of Glioma. Radiology 293(1):168-173, 2019. e-Pub 2019.
- Walker CM, Fuentes D, Larson PEZ, Kundra V, Vigneron DB, Bankson JA. Effects of excitation angle strategy on quantitative analysis of hyperpolarized pyruvate. Magn Reson Med 81(6):3754-3762, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30793791.
- Kurhanewicz J, Vigneron DB, Ardenkjaer-Larsen JH, Bankson JA, Brindle K, Cunningham CH, Gallagher FA, Keshari KR, Kjaer A, Laustsen C, Mankoff DA, Merritt ME, Nelson SJ, Pauly JM, Lee P, Ronen S, Tyler DJ, Rajan SS, Spielman DM, Wald L, Zhang X, Malloy CR, Rizi R. Hyperpolarized 13C MRI: Path to Clinical Translation in Oncology. Neoplasia 21(1):1-16, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30472500.
- Benito J, Ramirez MS, Millward NZ, Velez J, Harutyunyan KG, Lu H, Shi YX, Matre P, Jacamo R, Ma H, Konoplev S, McQueen T, Volgin A, Protopopova M, Mu H, Lee J, Bhattacharya PK, Marszalek JR, Davis RE, Bankson JA, Cortes JE, Hart CP, Andreeff M, Konopleva M. Hypoxia-activated prodrug TH-302 targets hypoxic bone marrow niches in pre-clinical leukemia models. Clin Cancer Res 22(7):1687-98, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26603259.
- Walker CM, Merritt M, Wang JX, Bankson JA. Use of a Multi-compartment Dynamic Single Enzyme Phantom for Studies of Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance Agents. J Vis Exp(110):e53607, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27166971.
- Walker CM, Chen Y, Lai SY, Bankson JA. A novel perfused Bloch-McConnell simulator for analyzing the accuracy of dynamic hyperpolarized MRS. Med Phys 43(2):854, 2016. PMID: 26843246.
- Redis RS, Vela LE, Lu W, Ferreira de Oliveira J, Ivan C, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Adamoski D, Pasculli B, Taguchi A, Chen Y, Fernandez AF, Valledor L, Van Roosbroeck K, Chang S, Shah M, Kinnebrew G, Han L, Atlasi Y, Cheung LH, Huang GY, Monroig P, Ramirez MS, Catela Ivkovic T, Van L, Ling H, Gafà R, Kapitanovic S, Lanza G, Bankson JA, Huang P, Lai SY, Bast RC, Rosenblum MG, Radovich M, Ivan M, Bartholomeusz G, Liang H, Fraga MF, Widger WR, Hanash S, Berindan-Neagoe I, Lopez-Berestein G, Ambrosio ALB, Gomes Dias SM, Calin GA. Allele-Specific Reprogramming of Cancer Metabolism by the Long Non-coding RNA CCAT2. Mol Cell 61(4):520-34, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26853146.
- Sandulache VC, Chen Y, Skinner HD, Lu T, Feng L, Court LE, Myers JN, Meyn RE, Fuller CD, Bankson JA, Lai SY. Acute tumor lactate perturbations as a biomarker of genotoxic stress: development of a biochemical model. Mol Cancer Ther 14(12):2901-8, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26376962.
- Lee J, Ramirez MS, Walker CM, Chen Y, Yi S, Sandulache VC, Lai SY, Bankson JA. High-throughput hyperpolarized (13)C metabolic investigations using a multi-channel acquisition system. J Magn Reson 260:20-27, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26397217.
- Bankson JA, Walker CM, Ramirez MS, Stefan W, Fuentes D, Merritt ME, Lee J, Sandulache VC, Chen Y, Phan L, Chou PC, Rao A, Yeung SC, Lee MH, Schellingerhout D, Conrad CA, Malloy C, Sherry AD, Lai SY, Hazle JD. Kinetic modeling and constrained reconstruction of hyperpolarized 1-13C-pyruvate offers improved metabolic imaging of tumors. Cancer Res 75(22):4708-17, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26420214.
- Phan L, Chou PC, Velazquez-Torres G, Samudio I, Parreno K, Huang Y, Tseng C, Vu T, Gully C, Su CH, Wang E, Chen J, Choi HH, Fuentes-Mattei E, Shin JH, Shiang C, Grabiner B, Blonska M, Skerl S, Shao Y, Cody D, Delacerda J, Kingsley C, Webb D, Carlock C, Zhou Z, Hsieh YC, Lee J, Elliott A, Ramirez M, Bankson J, Hazle J, Wang Y, Li L, Weng S, Rizk N, Wen YY, Lin X, Wang H, Wang H, Zhang A, Xia X, Wu Y, Habra M, Yang W, Pusztai L, Yeung SC, Lee MH. The cell cycle regulator 14-3-3σ opposes and reverses cancer metabolic reprogramming. Nat Commun 6:7530, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26179207.
- Ramirez MS, Lee J, Walker CM, Chen Y, Kingsley CV, De La Cerda J, Maldonado KL, Lai SY, Bankson JA. Feasibility of multianimal hyperpolarized (13) C MRS. Magn Reson Med 73(5):1726-32, 2015. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24903532.
- Ravoori MK, Nishimura M, Singh SP, Lu C, Han L, Hobbs BP, Pradeep S, Choi HJ, Bankson JA, Sood AK, Kundra V. Tumor T1 Relaxation Time for Assessing Response to Bevacizumab Anti-Angiogenic Therapy in a Mouse Ovarian Cancer Model. PLoS One 10(6):e0131095, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26098849.
- Ng CS, Wei W, Bankson JA, Ravoori MK, Han L, Brammer DW, Klumpp S, Waterton JC, Jackson EF. Dependence of DCE-MRI biomarker values on analysis algorithm. PLoS One 10(7):e0130168, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26208254.
- Bhatnagar P, Alauddin M, Bankson JA, Kirui D, Seifi P, Huls H, Lee DA, Babakhani A, Ferrari M, Li KC, Cooper LJ. Tumor lysing genetically engineered T cells loaded with multi-modal imaging agents. Sci Rep 4:4502, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24675806.
- Mitchell D, Hwang KP, Bankson JA, Stafford RJ, Banerjee S, Takei N, Fuentes D. An information theory model for optimizing quantitative magnetic resonance imaging acquisitions. Phys Med Biol DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/abb9f6. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32947269.
Abstracts
- Mitchell D, Hwang K, Stafford RJ, Bankson J , Fuentes D.. Calibration of synthetic MRI acquisition parameters through information theory modeling. Proc AAPM 61st Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2019.
- Niedzielski J, Wei X, Xu T, Gomez D, Liao Z, Bankson J , Lai S, Court L, Yang J.. Impact of cardiac substructure dose for modeling radiation toxicity in the heart. Proc AAPM 61st Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2019.
- Thompson E, Einstein S, Bankon J , Cressman E.. Linearity of R1 with temperature in trifluoroacetate: development of fluorine-19 MRI thermometry for thermochemical ablation. Proc AAPM 61st Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2019.
- Michel K, Munoz N, Maldonado K, Bankson J, Sun J, Qayyum A, Avritscher R.. Blood oxygen level dependent MRI detects changes in hepatocellular carcinoma induced by sorafenib treatment. Proc. ISMRM 27th Scientific Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 2019.
- Ragavan M, Carter A, Downes G, Giacalone A, Michel K, Bankson J, Merritt M.. Binomial Excitation for Detection of Hyperpolarized [2-13C]Dihydroxyacetone Metabolism. Proc. ISMRM 27th Scientific Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 2019.
- Einstein S, Thompson E, Guo C, Whitley E, Cressman E, Bankson J .. Evaluation of trifluoroacetic acid as a theranostic fluorine-19 MRI agent for chemical ablation of solid tissue. Proc. ISMRM 27th Scientific Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 2019.
- Ragavan M, Carter A, Downes G, Giacalone A, Michel K, Bankson J , Merritt M. Hyperpolarized Dihydroxyacetone Metabolism in the Mouse Liver Under Physiological Perfusion Conditions. Proc. ISMRM 27th Scientific Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 2019.
- Xu Z, Niedzielski J, Michel K, Walker C, Einstein S, Bankson J .. Symmetry Preserved Rectilinear Transform(SPRT): Optimized Reconstruction of Echo Planar Spectroscopic Image for Hyperpolarized [1-13C]-Pyruvate. Proc. ISMRM 27th Scientific Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 2019.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | Multi-Site Development & Evaluation of a Quantitative 3D Hyperpolarized C-13 MRI Clinical Prostate Cancer Exam |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) to Establish Objective Clinical Outcome Measures for Mandibular Osteoradionecrosis |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NIDCR |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Imaging hepatic gluconeogenesis with hyperpolarized dihydroxyacetone |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCRR |
| Role: | Subcontract PI |
| Title: | Pilot Study of Metabolic Guidance for Radiation Therapy in Patients with Head & Neck Cancer |
| Funding Source: | MDACC - CABI |
| Role: | MPI |
| Title: | Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Director |