SBU Alumna Ying Places First in Young Investigator Award

In her research, Jia Ying '19, MS '20, PhD '26, who recently earned a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering, develops quantitative imaging biomarkers - ways of turning MRI and PET scans into reproducible, patient-specific measurements. Her broader goal is to bridge the gap between promising research methods and tools reliable enough for everyday clinical use.

"Ultimately," Ying said, "I would like to give clinicians more dependable, individualized information for the patients who depend on it."

Ying's work now spans medical problems from analyzing breast cancer risk to early knee osteoarthritis to mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). In the area of MTLE, she used a medical imaging strategy to help determine which side of the brain a patient's seizures originate from in order to prepare the patient for surgery.

For her research, the Brain Imaging Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) recognized her with the First Place Young Investigator Award at its 2026 Annual Meeting held in Los Angeles. Her abstract is entitled, "Structurally Constrained FDG-PET Metabolic Networks via Diffusion MRI Aid Lateralization and Outcome Prediction in MTLE."

The sophisticated medical imaging she used is a combination of MRI and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), acquired simultaneously, together capturing both the brain's structural connections and its glucose metabolism.

According to the council's website, "The objectives of the award are to identify promising young investigators working in brain imaging and neuroscience nuclear medicine."

"Much of this work is quiet and technical, so having it recognized by the nuclear medicine community means a lot," said Ying. "What I take from it personally is some confidence that using imaging to guide patient care more precisely is worth the effort, and it's a thread I want to keep pulling as I move into clinical training."

Read the full story by Debra Scala Giokas in SB Matters.