Colleen Bailey

The focus of Dr. Bailey’s research is the development of noninvasive MRI methods to monitor the efficacy of radiation treatment in cancer. This work includes the adaptation of conventional dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI to measure water exchange across the cell membrane, a feature related to permeability changes during cell death. The water exchange parameter distinguishes brain metastases that respond to radiotherapy from those that do not one week post-treatment, thereby allowing therapies to be adapted.

Dr. Bailey has also explored mathematical models to describe diffusion MRI signal in terms of vascular, cellular and extracellular components. The aim is to characterize tumours with more biologically relevant parameters and improve diffusion-based MRI biomarkers. This work has been used to characterize prostate and breast cancers as well as bone metastases. It includes histological validation using patient-specific 3-D-printed molds and image registration.

Furthermore, Dr. Bailey’s work has involved magnetization transfer studies of apoptotic cell death and the combination of MRI features with other modalities, such as microbubble ultrasound. The magnetic resonance linear accelerator at Sunnybrook, which integrates a linear accelerator for cancer treatment with a 1.5 T MRI for treatment planning and monitoring, provides new opportunities for monitoring treatment response with MRI.

Education

• B.Sc., 2005, biophysics (co-op), University of Guelph, Canada
• PhD, 2012, medical biophysics, University of Toronto, Canada
• Postdoctoral fellowship, 2017, medical physics, University College, London, U.K.

Appointments and Affiliations

• Scientist, Physical Sciences, Odette Cancer Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute