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Ali Ajdari, Ph.D.

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Biography
education and training
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MAPostdoctoral Fellow02/2020Radiation Therapy Optimization
University of Washington, Seattle, WAPh.D.12/2017Optimization
Sharif University of Technology, IranM.Sc.02/2012Industrial & Systems Engineering
Isfahan University of Technology, IranB.Sc.02/2009Industrial & Systems Engineering

Overview
overview
I am an Industrial Engineer and Operations Researcher by education and Cancer Researcher and Optimization expert by profession. My areas of interest is applications of optimization techniques, including convex, robust, dynamic, and stochastic optimization, in healthcare systems, especially in the world of Oncology. I heavily and routinely use state-of-the-art image analysis and data analytics techniques to extract valuable information from complex medical data (e.g. imaging, genetic, and bio-physiological) and use them in advanced data-driven optimization techniques. In particular, I am very interested in Personalized Medicine -- the personalization of standard treatment protocols based on patients' genetic and epigenetic characteristics. My overall goal is to integrate knowledge from mathematics, biology, and oncology to arrive at a fully data-informed personalized treatment plans.
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Bibliographic
selected publications
Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
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PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
  1. Hochreuter K, Buti G, Ajdari A, Bridge CP, Sharp GC, Jespersen S, Lukacova S, Bortfeld T, Kallehauge JF. Investigating the potential of diffusion tensor atlases to generate anisotropic clinical tumor volumes in glioblastoma patients. Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2025 Jan; 33:100688. PMID: 39866246; PMCID: PMC11758580.
  2. Buti G, Ajdari A, Bridge CP, Sharp GC, Bortfeld T. Diffusion tensor transformation for personalizing target volumes in radiation therapy. Med Image Anal. 2024 Oct; 97:103271. PMID: 39043108; PMCID: PMC11365800.
    Fields: DiaDiagnostic ImagingTranslation:Humans
  3. Buti G, Ajdari A, Chen YL, Bridge CP, Sharp GC, Bortfeld T. Integrating muscle fiber orientation from visible human data into radiotherapy target volumes. Phys Med Biol. 2024 Jul 09; 69(14). PMID: 38942035; PMCID: PMC11308482.
    Citations: 1
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:HumansCells
  4. Qiu Z, Depauw N, Gorissen BL, Madden T, Ajdari A, den Hertog D, Bortfeld T. A reference-point-method-based online proton treatment plan re-optimization strategy and a novel solution to planning constraint infeasibility problem. Phys Med Biol. 2024 Jun 03; 69(12). PMID: 38729194.
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:Humans
  5. Maragno D, Buti G, Birbil SI, Liao Z, Bortfeld T, den Hertog D, Ajdari A. Embedding machine learning based toxicity models within radiotherapy treatment plan optimization. Phys Med Biol. 2024 Mar 14; 69(7). PMID: 38412530.
    Citations: Article has an altmetric score of 2
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:HumansPHPublic Health
  6. Buti G, Ajdari A, Hochreuter K, Shih H, Bridge CP, Sharp GC, Bortfeld T. The influence of anisotropy on the clinical target volume of brain tumor patients. Phys Med Biol. 2024 Jan 19; 69(3). PMID: 38157552; PMCID: PMC10863979.
    Citations: 2
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysics
  7. Feng T, Ajdari A, Boyle LN, Kannan N, Burd R, Groner JI, Farneth RA, Vavilala MS. Computer Simulation to Assess Emergency Department Length of Stay in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2024 Jun 01; 40(6):421-425. PMID: 38227782; PMCID: PMC11141338.
    Citations: Article has an altmetric score of 6
    Fields: EmeEmergency MedicinePedPediatricsTranslation:Humans
  8. Qiu Z, Olberg S, den Hertog D, Ajdari A, Bortfeld T, Pursley J. Online adaptive planning methods for intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Phys Med Biol. 2023 05 11; 68(10). PMID: 37068488; PMCID: PMC10637515.
    Citations: 4 Article has an altmetric score of 3
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:Humans
  9. Buti G, Shusharina N, Ajdari A, Sterpin E, Bortfeld T. Exploring trade-offs in treatment planning for brain tumor cases with a probabilistic definition of the clinical target volume. Med Phys. 2023 Jan; 50(1):410-423. PMID: 36354283.
    Fields: BioBiophysicsPhyPhysicsRadRadiologyRadRadiotherapyTranslation:Humans
  10. Ajdari A, Liao Z, Mohan R, Wei X, Bortfeld T. Personalized mid-course FDG-PET based adaptive treatment planning for non-small cell lung cancer using machine learning and optimization. Phys Med Biol. 2022 09 13; 67(18). PMID: 35947984; PMCID: PMC9579961.
    Citations: 2 Article has an altmetric score of 2
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:Humans
  11. Ten Eikelder SCM, Ajdari A, Bortfeld T, den Hertog D. Conic formulation of fluence map optimization problems. Phys Med Biol. 2021 11 24; 66(22). PMID: 34587600.
    Citations: 2
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysics
  12. Ajdari A, Xie Y, Richter C, Niyazi M, Duda DG, Hong TS, Bortfeld T. Toward Personalized Radiation Therapy of Liver Metastasis: Importance of Serial Blood Biomarkers. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2021 03; 5:315-325. PMID: 33764817; PMCID: PMC8462658.
    Citations: 5 Article has an altmetric score of 3
    Fields: NeoNeoplasmsTranslation:HumansCells
  13. Ten Eikelder SCM, Ferjancic P, Ajdari A, Bortfeld T, den Hertog D, Jeraj R. Optimal treatment plan adaptation using mid-treatment imaging biomarkers. Phys Med Biol. 2020 12 22; 65(24):245011. PMID: 33053518.
    Citations: 1
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:HumansAnimals
  14. McNamara AL, Hall DC, Shusharina N, Liu A, Wei X, Ajdari A, Mohan R, Liao Z, Paganetti H. Perspectives on the model-based approach to proton therapy trials: A retrospective study of a lung cancer randomized trial. Radiother Oncol. 2020 06; 147:8-14. PMID: 32224318; PMCID: PMC7311259.
    Citations: 4 Article has an altmetric score of 2
    Fields: NeoNeoplasmsRadRadiotherapyTranslation:Humans
  15. Ali Ajdari Fatemeh Saberian Archis Ghate. A theoretical framework for learning tumor dose-response uncertainty in individualized spatiobiologically integrated radiotherapy, INFORMS Journal on Computing. INFORMS Journal on Computing. 2019.
  16. Ajdari A, Niyazi M, Nicolay NH, Thieke C, Jeraj R, Bortfeld T. Towards optimal stopping in radiation therapy. Radiother Oncol. 2019 05; 134:96-100. PMID: 31005230.
    Citations: 5 Article has an altmetric score of 8
    Fields: NeoNeoplasmsRadRadiotherapyTranslation:Humans
  17. Ajdari A, Ghate A, Kim M. Adaptive treatment-length optimization in spatiobiologically integrated radiotherapy. Phys Med Biol. 2018 03 27; 63(7):075009. PMID: 29512510.
    Citations: 1
    Fields: BioBiophysicsDiaDiagnostic ImagingNucNuclear MedicinePhyPhysicsTranslation:Humans
  18. Ajdari A, Boyle LN, Kannan N, Wang J, Rivara FP, Vavilala MS. Simulation of the Emergency Department Care Process for Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. J Healthc Qual. 2018 Mar/Apr; 40(2):110-118. PMID: 29271801; PMCID: PMC5839933.
    Citations: 2 Article has an altmetric score of 1
    Fields: HeaHealth Services ResearchTranslation:Humans
  19. Ajdari A, Boyle LN, Kannan N, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Wang J, Mink R, Ries B, Wainwright M, Groner JI, Bell MJ, Giza C, Zatzick DF, Ellenbogen RG, Mitchell PH, Rivara FP, Vavilala MS. Examining Emergency Department Treatment Processes in Severe Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. J Healthc Qual. 2017 Nov/Dec; 39(6):334-344. PMID: 28166114; PMCID: PMC5540834.
    Citations: 5 Article has an altmetric score of 3
    Fields: HeaHealth Services ResearchTranslation:Humans
  20. Ali Ajdari Minsun Kim Archis Ghate. Robust spatiotemporally integrated fractionation in radiotherapy. Operations Research Letter. 2016; 44(4):544-549.
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Funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, grant number UL1TR002541.