VROC Advisory Committee and Investigators
At VROC, we recognize that bridging veterinary and human cancer care requires thoughtful consideration of ethical, regulatory, and public perception factors. Our Internal Advisory Committee and Investigators collaboratively guide the design and conduct of companion animal treatment studies.
This team plays a key role in developing study protocols, establishing clear and compassionate informed consent processes, and ensuring the ethical use of controlled substances in comparative oncology. Through these efforts, VROC ensures that every animal in our care is treated with dignity and respect.
Leadership
Robert Timmerman, M.D., FASTRO
Research interests:
- Effect of SAbR on immune function and immunotherapy
- Hypofractionated radiation therapy
- Radiation response modifiers
- Stereotactic body radiation therapy
Research interests:
- Intratumoral immunotherapy with nanoparticles
- Treating veterinary cancers with drug plus device combinations
- Focused ultrasound mediated nanotherapy
Investigators
Research interests:
- Understand factors that influence immune heterogeneity in the tumor microenvironment
- Investigate mechanisms of immune privilege that can enhance immunotherapy efficacy
- Explore tolerogenic and immunogenic mechanisms activated by radiation
Research interests:
- Molecular mechanisms of endocrine therapy- and CDK 4/6 inhibitor-resistance in breast cancer
- Targeting epigenetic pathways to overcome treatment resistance in breast cancer
- New therapeutic approaches to mitigate radiation-induced heart disease
Research interests:
- Cellular response to DNA damage
- The role of aberrant DNA repair and signaling in cancer etiology
- The role of the DNA-PK complex in repairing DNA damage
Research interests:
- Adaptive radiotherapy
- Artificial intelligence in modern radiation therapy
- Functional oncological MRI
- MRI-guided radiation therapy
Research interests:
- Innate and adaptive immune responses generated by tumor irradiation with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SAbR)
- Investigate strategies to combine immunotherapy with SAbR (i-SAbR) for cancer treatment
- Improve cancer patient treatment outcome through the design of i-SAbR clinical trials
Steve Jiang, Ph.D., FAIMBE, FAAPM
Research interests:
- Artificial intelligence in medicine
- GPU and cloud based automated treatment planning
- On-line re-planning for adaptive radiotherapy
Research interests:
- Adaptive proton therapy
- Artificial intelligence
- FLASH
- PET imaging
- PULSAR
Research interests:
- Online adaptive radiation therapy
- Hadron (particle) therapy
- Biology-guided radiation therapy
Research interests:
- Immunomodulatory effect of radiation therapy
- Innate immunity DNA-sensing pathways
- Monoclonal antibodies and immunoconjugates as cancer immunotherapy
- Clinical research in oncology
Research interests:
- The role of DAB2IP in chromosome stability
- Developing physiologically relevant tumor models that improve preclinical predictions and translational success
- Developing drug delivery system using nanoparticles
Andrew Wang, M.D., FAIMBE, FAAAS, FASCI, FASTRO
Research interests:
- Nanomedicine approaches to improve cancer treatment, including radiation therapy and immunotherapy
- Development of novel cancer diagnostics and therapeutics using biomedical engineering approaches
- Understand cancer metastasis biology by applying tissue engineering technologies
- Development of novel therapeutic approaches to treat autoimmune diseases
Research interests:
- Biomedical optics
- In vivo cell tracking
- Optical tomography-guided radiation therapy
- Ultra-high-dose rate irradiation
Research interests:
- Structural biology of cancer-associated proteins
- Drug development for cancer therapy
- Biochemistry and chemical biology