Marites Melancon
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Interventional Radiology
The main goal of my research is to apply the "seek and treat" strategy in the development of targeted imaging/therapeutic agents that will eventually be translated to the clinic to improve the management of cancer through early tumor detection and individualized therapy. My focus is on the synthesis and characterization of novel nanoparticulate systems that have the ability to noninvasively monitor and treat cellular processes at the molecular level and lead to new ways of diagnosing and characterizing disease, developing effective therapeutics, and monitoring response to these treatments.
Projects/Techniques: Students who do a tutorial in my lab will gain knowledge in developing, synthesizing and characterizing novel magnetic resonance and optical active agents that have potential clinical "seek and treat" applications. They will also experience small animal handling and imaging (i.e., MRI and optical imaging) and post-processing techniques.
Education & Training
PhD, MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School, 2007