Titles and Affiliations
Joseph M. Pettit Endowed Chair
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
Research area
Improving immunotherapy in breast cancer.
Impact
Chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy, which cultivates a patient’s own immune cells so that they recognize and target tumors, is highly effective in blood cancers but less effective in solid cancers like breast cancer. The primary challenge in breast cancer is that CAR-T cells fail to penetrate the tumor, which prevents them from working effectively. Dr. Emelianov is improving immune-based treatments by enabling immune cells to reach and act more effectively within breast tumors.
Progress Thus Far
Dr. Emelianov and his team have successfully used a new imaging technique to track and guide immune cells inside the body, showing early signs that treatment response can be detected before tumors shrink. These findings lay the groundwork for safer, more targeted therapies using real-time imaging and ultrasound control.
What’s next
The team will refine how immune cells are labeled and tracked, making sure these modifications do not impact how the cells work. They will test and improve their imaging and ultrasound system in more advanced laboratory models to ensure it accurately tracks and activates immune cells inside tumors. The team will also study how well this approach works in shrinking tumors and boosting immune responses, using imaging and tissue analysis to evaluate the results. Their results may provide a way to customize and improve immune cell-based therapies in breast cancer, addressing a critical gap in immunotherapy in breast cancer.
Biography
Dr. Stanislav Emelianov is a Joseph M. Pettit Endowed Chair, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also appointed at Emory University School of Medicine where he is affiliated with Winship Cancer Institute, Department of Radiology, and other clinical units. Furthermore, Dr. Emelianov is Director of the Ultrasound Imaging and Therapeutics Research Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology focused on the translation of diagnostic imaging & therapeutic instrumentation, and nanobiotechnology for clinical applications.
Dr. Emelianov’s career has been devoted to the development of advanced imaging methods, assisting treatment planning, and enhancing image-guided therapy and monitoring of the treatment outcome. He is specifically interested in intelligent biomedical imaging and sensing and has developed approaches for image-guided molecular therapy and therapeutic applications of ultrasound and electromagnetic energy. Dr Emelianov has pioneered several ultrasound-based imaging techniques including shear wave elasticity imaging and molecular photoacoustic imaging. Projects in Dr. Emelianov’s laboratory, which focuses on cancer and other diseases, range from molecular imaging to functional imaging and tissue differentiation, from drug delivery and release to image-guided surgery and intervention.
Dr. Emelianov is a nationally recognized expert in biomedical imaging instrumentation and nanoagents for imaging and therapy. He is the author of over 500 publications including peer-reviewed research articles, invited reviews, book chapters, and conference proceedings. In recognition of his contributions to the field, Dr. Emelianov was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is past Vice-President for Ultrasonics of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society, and senior member of several professional organizations.
“Because of BCRF, we are at the forefront of developing a pipeline of emerging and disruptive approaches, spanning from basic science to pre-clinical studies to clinical tools, all aimed at understanding and ultimately eradicating breast cancer.”
