Durga Udayakumar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School Medical School
Department Radiology | Advanced Imaging Research Center
Graduate Programs Biomedical Engineering, Cancer Biology
Biography
Dr. Udayakumar graduated from Medical College of Georgia, (Georgia Health Sciences University) Augusta GA in 2005 with a PhD in Molecular Medicine with emphasis on biochemical signaling in DNA damage and repair under the mentorship of Dr. William S. Dynan. She then completed her post-doctoral trainings at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Department of Pathology on Tumor Vascular Biology and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Department of Dermatology on Melanoma tumorigenesis, both affiliated with Harvard Medical School. In 2011 she held an Instructor appointment at MGH, Harvard Medical School with research focused on Genetic determinants of UV induced skin cancers. In 2012, she joined University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as an Instructor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Since 2015, she has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center with a secondary appointment in the Advanced Imaging Research Center.
Dr. Udayakumar's research interests are focused on Radiogenomics with emphasis on identifying quantitative imaging measures as a noninvasive tool to predict alterations in molecular and metabolic characteristics in kidney and breast cancers. Her research interests also include deciphering molecular drivers of breast cancer bone metastasis with the goal of identifying and targeting specific orthotropic factors. Her work spans from tissue characterization, preclinical animal models, preclinical imaging, to human imaging. She utilizes advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emisson tomography (PET) methods to answer these questions.
Dr. Udayakumar's research has been funded through Dermatology Foundation, Amerian Skin Association, Charles Y. C. Pak foundation and UT Southwestern Circle of Friends. She serves as a co-investigator on multiple grants from National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). She has co-authored more than 30 scientific manuscripts, review articles, and more than 25 conference abstracts. She serves as a scientific reviewer for several journals including Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, BMC Medical Imaging, and Clinical Radiology. She also serves as an Editorial board member for the journal, Frontiers in Medicine.
Dr. Udayakumar is also a member of Biomedical Engineering and Cancer Biology graduate programs at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She actively participates in mentoring activities including summer students and post-doctoral researcher.
Education
- Undergraduate
- Anna University - India (2000), Biotechnology
- Graduate School
- Augusta University (2005), Molecular Medicine
Research Interest
- Cancer Biology, Quantitative Imaging, Molecular Imaging, Metastatic Mechanisms
Publications
Featured Publications
- A 3D-printed phantom for quality-controlled reproducibility measurements of arterial spin labeled perfusion.
- Wang Y, Greer JS, Zhou L, Lin SQ, Hulsey KM, Udayakumar D, Madhuranthakam AJ, Magn Reson Med 2023 Oct
- On the application of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeled MRI for pulmonary perfusion imaging.
- Greer JS, Wang Y, Udayakumar D, Hussain T, Madhuranthakam AJ, Magn Reson Imaging 2023 Sep
- Longitudinal assessment of placental perfusion in normal and hypertensive pregnancies using pseudo-continuous arterial spin-labeled MRI: preliminary experience.
- Herrera CL, Wang Y, Udayakumar D, Xi Y, Do QN, Lewis MA, Owen DM, Fei B, Spong CY, Twickler DM, Madhuranthakam AJ, Eur Radiol 2023 Jul
- Current and potential roles of immuno-PET/-SPECT in CAR T-cell therapy.
- Mulgaonkar A, Udayakumar D, Yang Y, Harris S, Öz OK, Ramakrishnan Geethakumari P, Sun X, Front Med (Lausanne) 2023 10 1199146
- Single-shot RARE with Dixon: Application to robust abdominal imaging with uniform fat and water separation at 3T.
- Wang X, Udayakumar D, Xi Y, Rofsky NM, Pedrosa I, Madhuranthakam AJ, Magn Reson Med 2021 09 86 3 1463-1471
- Deciphering Intratumoral Molecular Heterogeneity in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma with a Radiogenomics Platform.
- Udayakumar D, Zhang Z, Xi Y, Dwivedi DK, Fulkerson M, Haldeman S, McKenzie T, Yousuf Q, Joyce A, Hajibeigi A, Notgrass H, de Leon AD, Yuan Q, Lewis MA, Madhuranthakam AJ, Sibley RC, Elias R, Guo J, Christie A, McKay RM, Cadeddu JA, Bagrodia A, Margulis V, Brugarolas J, Wang T, Kapur P, Pedrosa I, Clin Cancer Res 2021 Jul
- Addressing metabolic heterogeneity in clear cell renal cell carcinoma with quantitative Dixon MRI.
- Zhang Y, Udayakumar D, Cai L, Hu Z, Kapur P, Kho EY, Pavía-Jiménez A, Fulkerson M, de Leon AD, Yuan Q, Dimitrov IE, Yokoo T, Ye J, Mitsche MA, Kim H, McDonald JG, Xi Y, Madhuranthakam AJ, Dwivedi DK, Lenkinski RE, Cadeddu JA, Margulis V, Brugarolas J, DeBerardinis RJ, Pedrosa I JCI Insight 2017 Aug 2 15
- Structural and Biochemical Analyses Reveal the Mechanism of Glutathione S-Transferase Pi 1 Inhibition by the Anti-cancer Compound Piperlongumine.
- Harshbarger W, Gondi S, Ficarro SB, Hunter J, Udayakumar D, Gurbani D, Singer W, Liu Y, Li L, Marto JA, Westover KD J. Biol. Chem. 2016 Nov
- Characterization of DNA binding and pairing activities associated with the native SFPQ·NONO DNA repair protein complex.
- Udayakumar D, Dynan WS Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2015 Aug 463 4 473-8
- Single-strand DNA-binding protein SSB1 facilitates TERT recruitment to telomeres and maintains telomere G-overhangs.
- Pandita RK, Chow TT, Udayakumar D, Bain AL, Cubeddu L, Hunt CR, Shi W, Horikoshi N, Zhao Y, Wright WE, Khanna KK, Shay JW, Pandita TK Cancer Res. 2015 Mar 75 5 858-69
Honors & Awards
- Lauterbur Award
Best Oral Presentation in Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Main Scientific Session (2021)