# MULTIMODAL PRECLINICAL CANCER IMAGING AND THERAPY RESEARCH SPECIALIST

> **NIH NIH R50** · ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL · 2020 · $170,003

## Abstract

Project Summary
Earning a doctorate and practicing veterinary medicine equipped Dr. Akers with knowledge in anatomy,
physiology and diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases. He sought to further advance my research training
by completing a biomedical engineering education emphasizing optical contrast agents and biomedical imaging.
The complex interplay of signaling events in cancer biology is multidimensional, requiring a broad and flexible
comprehension in approaching molecular imaging of cancer. Dr. Akers' career goal is to combine his education
and experience as veterinarian and biological imaging scientist to combat cancer and other diseases through
developing novel preclinical and translational molecular imaging approaches and improving our ability to
diagnose, stage and treat disease processes. His work at Washington University is achieving this goal through
development of new molecular imaging agents and detection strategies to illuminate biochemical and cellular
events in vivo using non-invasive or minimally invasive detection technologies. His experience with many animal
models of cancer and expertise in optical and multimodal molecular imaging has opened opportunities for
innovative and collaborative biomedical research across disparate fields including tumor immunology, gene
therapy and theranostic nanotechnology. Dr. Akers has therefore driven himself, through multiple collaborative
studies, becoming an expert in cancer biology, animal and human. As the Assistant Director of Optical Imaging
Shared Resource (OISR) and faculty member in the Optical Radiology Laboratory (ORL), he provides
specialized expertise to many research programs at Washington University School of Medicine. By enabling him
to continue research without disruption from inevitable changes grant funding, the NIH Specialist Award will
provide continuity and autonomy to develop new imaging strategies to better accomplish the goals of funded
projects and acquire preliminary data to support new research directions in cancer imaging and therapy,
accelerating the Washington University School of Medicine cancer research enterprise.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9984311
- **Project number:** 5R50CA211481-06
- **Recipient organization:** ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Walter John Akers
- **Activity code:** R50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $170,003
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-19 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9984311

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9984311, MULTIMODAL PRECLINICAL CANCER IMAGING AND THERAPY RESEARCH SPECIALIST (5R50CA211481-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9984311. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*