Yao Ding
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at Houston
Department of Radiation Physics
My primary research expertise lies at the intersection of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and radiation oncology, with an emphasis on the clinical integration of MRI into radiotherapy workflows. My work focuses on advancing MR-only simulation, synthetic CT generation, MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy, and MR-based quality assurance for treatment planning and delivery. I specialize in MRI sequence optimization, validation, and protocol development for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Another ongoing research direction aims to develop a novel image-guided precision radiotherapy approach tailored to individual patient response, with the goal of improving oncologic outcomes while minimizing normal tissue toxicity. This work integrates multi-parametric MR imaging methodology development, imaging biomarker quantification and validation for assessing treatment response to chemoradiotherapy, multimodality image registration, and image-guided adaptive radiotherapy planning on MR-LINAC systems.
Education & Training
PhD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 2012