Arion Chatziioannou

Arion Chatziioannou is the Crump Chair in Medical Engineering and Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, where he serves as Associate Director of the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging. He is also a Member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) Cancer Molecular Imaging program and affiliated with the Molecular Pharmacology and Physics & Biology in Medicine graduate programs.

His research spans medical imaging engineering with emphases on preclinical CT/PET instrumentation, radiation detector development, and AI-driven image analysis. Current work focuses on high-resolution micro-CT segmentation using transformer architectures, novel scintillator nanocomposites for gamma detection, and real-time monitoring of cellular metabolism for drug response assessment. His lab bridges engineering and biomedical applications to improve imaging sensitivity for atherosclerosis monitoring, cancer metabolism studies, and radiopharmaceutical development.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications (2020-2025) reveals three dominant research thrusts: (1) deep learning for micro-CT segmentation across institutional datasets, (2) nanocomposite scintillators for spectroscopic gamma detection, and (3) kinetic modeling of drug effects via single-cell glucose uptake imaging. These works consistently integrate hardware innovation with computational methods to advance preclinical imaging capabilities.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Crump Chair in Medical Engineering

He mentors graduate students including Alex Leal and collaborates extensively with UCLA's Crump Institute and JCCC. His lab (4350A CNSI) develops integrated imaging systems for real-time cellular metabolism monitoring and high-throughput radiotracer analysis, with ongoing projects in Cerenkov luminescence applications and multi-isotope detection systems.

Current research infrastructure includes prototype small-animal PET/CT systems and microfluidic platforms for radiopharmaceutical synthesis validation, supporting translational studies in cardiovascular disease and oncology.