Description of Research Expertise

My research focuses on oncologic applications of molecular imaging, with an emphasis on developing new imaging tools for the rapidly growing field of cancer immunotherapy. I am particularly interested in the development of novel radiotracers / reporter genes for CAR T cell tracking, as well as the development of radiolabeled antibodies for PET imaging of the immune system. To address these research areas, my laboratory utilizes an interdisciplinary team with expertise in a variety of scientific fields, including organic chemistry, radiochemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioengineering. Many of these translational research projects begin with in vitro studies and animal models, however the goal of every project is clinical application.

Selected Publications

Hartmann K, Gillman JA, Lazor JW, Ware JB, Weeks JK, Nasrallah IM, Farwell MD, Pantel AR: 68Ga-DOTATATE PET to Characterize Lesions in the Neuroaxis. Clin Nucl Med. 49 (1): 9-15,2024.

McGale JP, Chen DL, Trebeschi S, Farwell MD, Wu AM, Cutler CS, Schwartz LH, Dercle L: Artificial intelligence in immunotherapy PET/SPECT imaging. Eur Radiol. : Epub ahead of print,2024.

Anderson TM, Chang BH, Huang AC, Xu X, Yoon D, Shang CG, Mick R, Schubert E, McGettigan S, Kreider K, Xu W, Wherry EJ, Schuchter LM, Amaravadi RK, Mitchell TC, Farwell MD: FDG PET/CT Imaging 1 Week after a Single Dose of Pembrolizumab Predicts Treatment Response in Patients with Advanced Melanoma. Clin Cancer Res. 30 (9): 1758-1767,2024.

Quinn C, Moulton K, Farwell M, Le W, Wilson I, Goel N, McConathy J, Greenberg SA: Imaging With PET/CT of Diffuse CD8 T-Cell Infiltration of Skeletal Muscle in Patients With Inclusion Body Myositis. Neurology. 101 (11): e1158-e1166,2023.

Shankar LK, Schöder H, Sharon E, Wolchok J, Knopp MV, Wahl RL, Ellingson BM, Hall NC, Yaffe MJ, Towbin AJ, Farwell MD, Pryma D, Poussaint TY, Wright CL, Schwartz L, Harisinghani M, Mahmood U, Wu AM, Leung D, de Vries EGE, Tang Y, Beach G, Reeves SA: Harnessing imaging tools to guide immunotherapy trials: summary from the National Cancer Institute Cancer Imaging Steering Committee workshop. Lancet Oncol. 24 (3): e133-e143,2023.

Edwards KJ, Chang B, Babazada H, Lohith K, Park DH, Farwell MD, Sellmyer MA: Using CD69 PET Imaging to Monitor Immunotherapy-Induced Immune Activation. Cancer Immunol Res. 10 (9): 1084-1094,2022.

Lee IK, Noguera-Ortega E, Xiao Z, Todd L, Scholler J, Song D, Liousia M, Lohith K, Xu K, Edwards KJ, Farwell MD, June CH, Albelda SM, Puré E, Sellmyer MA: Monitoring Therapeutic Response to Anti-FAP CAR T Cells Using [18F]AlF-FAPI-74. Clin Cancer Res. 28 (24): 5330-5342,2022.

Narayan V, Barber-Rotenberg JS, Jung IY, Lacey SF, Rech AJ, Davis MM, Hwang WT, Lal P, Carpenter EL, Maude SL, Plesa G, Vapiwala N, Chew A, Moniak M, Sebro RA, Farwell MD, Marshall A, Gilmore J, Lledo L, Dengel K, Church SE, Hether TD, Xu J, Gohil M, Buckingham TH, Yee SS, Gonzalez VE, Kulikovskaya I, Chen F, Tian L, Tien K, Gladney W, Nobles CL, Raymond HE; Prostate Cancer Cellular Therapy Program Investigators, Hexner EO, Siegel DL, Bushman FD, June CH, Fraietta JA, Haas NB: PSMA-targeting TGFβ-insensitive Armored CAR T-cells in Metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer: a Phase 1 Trial. Nat Med. 28 (4): 724-734,2022.

Farwell MD, Mankoff DA: Analysis of Routine Computed Tomographic Scans With Radiomics and Machine Learning: One Step Closer to Clinical Practice. JAMA Oncol. 8 (3): 393–394,2022.

Farwell MD, Gamache RF, Babazada H, Hellmann MD, Harding JJ, Korn R, Mascioni A, Le W, Wilson I, Gordon MS, Wu AM, Ulaner GA, Wolchok JD, Postow MA, Pandit-Taskar N: CD8-targeted PET Imaging of Tumor Infiltrating T cells in Patients with Cancer: A Phase I First-in-Human Study of 89Zr-Df-IAB22M2C, a Radiolabeled anti-CD8 Minibody. J Nucl Med. 63 (5): 720-726,2022.

Young AJ, Pantel AR, Viswanath V, Dominguez TL, Makvandi M, Lee H, Li S, Schubert EK, Pryma DA, Farwell MD, Mach RH, Simpkins F, Lin LL, Mankoff DA, Doot RK: Kinetic and Static Analysis of Poly-(Adenosine Diphosphate-Ribose) Polymerase-1-Targeted 18F-Fluorthanatrace PET Images of Ovarian Cancer. J Nucl Med. 63 (1): 44-50,2022.

Iyalomhe O, Farwell MD: Immune PET Imaging Radiol Clin North Am. 59 (5): 875-886,2021.

Ruff A, Ballard HJ, Pantel AR, Namoglu EC, Hughes ME, Nasta SD, Chong EA, Bagg A, Ruella M, Farwell MD, Svoboda J, Sellmyer MA: 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Following Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy in Large B-cell Lymphoma. Mol Imaging Biol. 23 (6): 818-826,2021.

McDonald ES, Pantel AR, Shah PD, Farwell MD, Clark AS, Doot RK, Pryma DA, Carlin SD: In vivo visualization of PARP inhibitor pharmacodynamics. JCI Insight. 6 (866): e146592,2021.

McDonald ES, Doot RK, Pantel AR, Farwell MD, Mach RH, Maxwell KN, Mankoff DA: Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of Poly-(Adenosine Diphosphate-Ribose) Polymerase 1 Expression in Breast Cancer: A Nonrandomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 6 (6): 921-923,2020.

McDonald ES, Doot RK, Young AJ, Schubert EK, Tchou J, Pryma DA, Farwell MD, Nayak A, Ziober A, Feldman MD, DeMichele A, Clark AS, Shah PD, Lee H, Carlin SD, Mach RH, Mankoff DA: Breast Cancer 18F-ISO-1 Uptake as a Marker of Proliferation Status. J Nucl Med. 61 (5): 665-670,2020.

Pandit-Taskar N, Postow MA, Hellmann MD, Harding JJ, Barker CA, O'Donoghue JA, Ziolkowska M, Ruan S, Lyashchenko SK, Tsai F, Farwell M, Mitchell TC, Korn R, Le W, Lewis JS, Weber WA, Behera D, Wilson I, Gordon M, Wu AM, Wolchok JD: First-in-Humans Imaging with 89Zr-Df-IAB22M2C Anti-CD8 Minibody in Patients with Solid Malignancies: Preliminary Pharmacokinetics, Biodistribution, and Lesion Targeting. J Nucl Med. 61 (4): 512-519,2020.

Sellmyer MA, Richman SA, Lohith K, Hou C, Weng CC, Mach RH, O’Connor RS, Milone MC, Farwell MD: Imaging CAR T Cell Trafficking with eDFHR as a PET Reporter Gene. Mol Ther. 28 (1): 42-51,2020.

Derakhshan JJ, Farwell MD: Prevalence and quantitative analysis of indium-111 pentetreotide (Octreoscan) uptake in the pancreatic head on SPECT/CT imaging: establishing a region of interest-based pathological uptake threshold. Nucl Med Commun. 40 (7): 727-733,2019.

Huang AC, Orlowski RJ, Xu X, Mick R, George SM, Yan PK, Manne S, Kraya A, Wubbenhorst B, Dorfman L, D’Andrea K, Liu S, Chilukuri L, Kozlov A, Carberry M, Giles L, Kier M, Quagliarello F, McGettigan S, Kreider K, Annamalai L, Zhao A, Mogg R, Xu W, Blumenschein W, Yearley JH, Linette G, Amaravadi RK, Schuchter LM, Nathanson KL, Farwell MD, Karakousis GC, Wherry EJ, Mitchell TC: A Single Dose of Neoadjuvant PD-1 Blockade Predicts Clinical Outcomes in Resectable Melanoma. Nat Med. 25 (3): 454-461,2019.

Shah NN, Nagle SJ, Torigian DA, Farwell MD, Hwang WT, Frey N, Nasta SD, Landsburg D, Mato A, June CH, Schuster SJ, Porter DL, Svoboda J: Early positron emission tomography/computed tomography as a predictor of response after CTL019 chimeric antigen receptor–T-cell therapy in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Cytotherapy. 20 (12): 1415-1418,2018.

Maity A, Mick R, Huang AC, George SM, Farwell MD, Lukens JN, Berman AT, Mitchell TC, Bauml J, Schuchter LM, O'Hara M, Lin LL, Demichele A, Christodouleas JP, Haas NB, Patsch DM, Hahn SM, Minn AJ, Wherry EJ, Vonderheide RH: A phase I trial of pembrolizumab with hypofractionated radiotherapy in patients with metastatic solid tumours. Br J Cancer. 119 (10): 1200-1207,2018.

Lohith K, Kwon S, Padakanti P, Thanna S, Hou C, Weng CC, Sellmyer M, Mach R, Farwell M: Radiosynthesis and in vitro evaluation of [11C]Shield-1, a PET probe for imaging CAR T cells that express the iCasp9 suicide gene. J Nucl Med. 59 (Supplement 1): 61,2018.

Ahmed HS, Pantel AR, Metz JM, Plastaras JP, Farwell MD: FDG-Avid Focal Liver Reaction From Proton Therapy in a Patient With Primary Esophageal Adenocarcinoma. Clin Nucl Med. 43 (5): e139-e141,2018.

Makvandi M, Pantel A, Schwartz L, Schubert E, Xu K, Hsieh CJ, Hou C, Kim H, Weng CC, Winters H, Doot R, Farwell MD, Pryma DA, Greenberg RA, Mankoff DA, Simpkins F, Mach RH, Lin LL: A PET imaging agent for evaluating PARP-1 expression in ovarian cancer. J Clin Invest. 128 (5): 2116-2126,2018.

Lohith K, Kwon S, Padakanti P, Lieberman B, Sandau U, Boison D, Mach R, Farwell M: Synthesis and initial characterization of [125I]-5-iodotubercidin, a radioligand for imaging adenosine kinase. J Nucl Med. 58 (Supplement 1): 866,2017.

Mankoff DA, Farwell MD, Clark AS, Pryma DA: Making Molecular Imaging a Clinical Tool for Precision Oncology: A Review. JAMA Oncology. 3 (5): 695-701,2017.

Chen X, Yang Y, Berger I, Khalid U, Patel A, Cai J, Farwell MD, Langer C, Aggarwal C, Albelda SM, Katz SI: Early detection of pemetrexed-induced inhibition of thymidylate synthase in non-small cell lung cancer with FLT-PET imaging. Oncotarget. 8 (15): 24213-24223,2017.

Farwell MD, Clark AS, Mankoff DA: How imaging biomarkers can inform clinical trials and clinical practice in the era of targeted cancer therapy. JAMA Oncology. 1 (4): 421-422,2015.

Farwell MD, Pryma DA, Mankoff DA: PET/CT imaging in cancer: Current applications and future directions. Cancer. 120 (22): 3433-3445,2014.

Farwell MD, Chong DJ, Iida Y, Bae SA, Easwaramoorthy B, Ichise M: Imaging P-glycoprotein function in rats using [(11)C]-N-desmethyl-loperamide. Ann Nucl Med. 27 (7): 618-624,2013.

Harris PE, Farwell MD, Ichise M: PET quantification of pancreatic VMAT 2 binding using (+) and (-) enantiomers of [18F]FP-DTBZ in baboons. Nucl Med Biol. 60 (4): 60-64,2013.

Academic Contact Information

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Department of Radiology
Division of Nuclear Medicine and Clinical Molecular Imaging
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-662-7750