Staff

Division Head, Physics and Engineering

Donald Peck, Ph.D.
donaldp@rad.hfh.edu

Senior staff scientists

Hamid Soltanian-Zadeh, Ph.D.
hamids@rad.hfh.edu

Hassan Bagher-Ebadian, Ph.D.
hassanb@rad.hfh.edu

Meet the senior staff

Ali Syed Arbab, M.D., Ph.D. (Senior Scientist) is a Physician Research Scientist with broad experience in imaging sciences and cell biology. Dr. Arbab completed his M.B.B.S. from Institute of Post-Graduate Medicine & Research (IPGMR) under Dhaka University in 1988. After completing internship and training in Nuclear Medicine, Dr. Arbab went to Japan (Yamanashi Medical University) to finish his post-graduate training in Radiology and PhD in Imaging Science. Then he joined the Department of Radiology, Yamanashi medical University, Japan as faculty. Dr. Arbab has extensive clinical background in nuclear medicine (nuclear cardiology, nuclear oncology, and cerebral perfusion), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray computed tomography (CT), ultrasonography and molecular imaging. He also has experience in cell biology (including stem cells), cell transfection, cellular labeling of MR contrast agents, biodistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, radio-pharmacokinetics, cell membrane ion channels modulation, tumor model preparation, flowcytometry and immunochemistry. Dr. Arbab has joined Henry Ford Health System in 2004 after finishing his post-doc fellowship in cell tracking under Dr. Joe Frank, Laboratory of Diagnostic Radiology Research (LDRR), Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Expertise: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Optical Imaging, Cancer cell biology, Stem cell biology, Cell tracking.

Contact:

Ali Syed Arbab Ali, MD, Ph.D.
saali@rad.hfh.edu

Meser M Ali, Ph.D. (Assistant Scientist) is an expert in synthetic chemistry. Dr. Ali received his Ph.D. degree in Organometallic Chemistry from Mie University in Japan in 1999. He conducted his postdoctoral research with A. Dean Sherry at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Mark D. Pagel at Case Western Reserve University. His research program focuses on the development of "smart' nanoparticle platforms for both drug delivery and cancer imaging. He has been developing fundamental chemical synthesis methods to create biomedical imaging agents from bifunctional macrocyclic ligands that tightly bind to clinically used gadolinium (Gd3+) and other lanthanide metals (Eu3+,Tm3+, Yb3+). These bifunctional imaging agents have been conjugated with dendrimers, VEGF and other monoclonal antibodies for potential MRI and SPECT and optical imaging.

Expertise: Responsive MRI contrast agents, cancer imaging, nanoparticles and drug delivery.

Contact:

Meser M. Ali, Ph.D.
mesera@rad.hfh.edu

Branislava Janic, Ph.D. (Research Scientist) is an expert in cellular and molecular biology with a special interest in stem/progenitor cell physiology. Dr. Janic has earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine in 2005. She completed her post-doctoral training in immunology and retinal stem cell biology at University of Miami, School of Medicine. Dr. Janic joined Henry Ford Health System as a post doctoral fellow in 2006 and has been working extensively on cord blood and placental tissue derived stem/progenitor cells, their role in angio-vasculogenesis and tissue regeneration in animal stroke and brain tumor models. Dr. Janic employs MRI and nuclear medicine methods for in vivo tracking of administered stem/progenitor cells. In addition, Dr. Janic has an extensive expertise in applying optical and fluorescence imaging methods in further assessing migration, tissue site localization, angio/vasculogenic and regenerative effects of administered cells.

Expertise: Cellular and Molecular Biology, Stem Cell Biology, angio/vasculogenesis, Optical Imaging, Cell tracking.

Contact:

Branislava Janic, Ph.D.
bjanic@rad.hfh.edu

Nadimpalli RS Varma, Ph.D. (Research Scientist) is an expert molecular biologist and vector designer. Dr. Varma has completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University Putra, Malaysia in 2006. Dr. Varma started his post-doctoral training in vector design and development at Virginia Tech and University of California. He moved to Dr. Arbab Lab, Henry Ford Health System as post-doc fellow in 2008 and worked extensively on cord blood derived stem cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes, making of different viral and plasmid vectors, use of transduced stem cells as imaging probes, gene therapies in brain tumor. In 2011, he is promoted to research scientist/instructor and working in developing new cell based therapies for stroke using animal models.

Expertise: Molecular Biology, Viral and plasmid vector design, stem cell transduction and transgenic cells, gene manipulation and gene therapy, reporter gene base optical and SPECT Imaging.

Contact:

Nadimpalli RS Varma, Ph.D.
ravin@rad.hfh.edu

Additional staff

Thaiz Borin, Ph.D.
Visiting post-doc fellow

Expertise: Cardiology, Cancer Biology, Imaging, Cancer Model

Asm Iskander, MBBS, D.Orth
Senior research assistant

Expertise: Animal Model, Surgery, Histology

Contact:

A.S.M. Iskander, M.D.
aiskander@rad.hfh.edu

Adarsh Shankar, B.S.
Research assistant

Expertise: Image Analysis, Immunohistochemistry

Contact:

Adarsh Shankar
adarshs@rad.hfh.edu

Contact the Department of Radiology

Phone: (313) 874-4435

Fax: (313) 874-4494

Email