Professor Paul Keall
Professor and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow
Director of the ACRF Image X Institute
Central Clinical School
Telephone | +61 2 8627 1159 |
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Website |
ACRF Image X Institute |
Biographical details
Paul Keall is a Professor in the Sydney Medical School, an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and the Director of the ACRF Image X Institute at the University of Sydney. His team of scientists, clinical partners and international collaborators create, share and apply novel cancer imaging and targeted radiotherapy methods. Several of these innovations have been translated to clinical practice for improved health care.
Since being awarded his Ph.D. in 1996 he has risen to be in top tier of cancer imaging and radiotherapy researchers internationally. He was the Director of the Radiation Physics Division at Stanford University (2006-2010) where he was charged with leading the academic, clinical and educational missions of 70 academic and clinical staff. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Australia Fellowship and recruited to the University of Sydney.
Outputs from his research include multiple bench-to-bedside clinical trials, 270 scientific publications, 20 patents, 8 licenses and three start-up companies. He has given over 200 invited lectures. His work is funded primarily by competitive government research grants and he works closely with industry to apply his research output, and has 25 current and completed industrial research agreements.
He is an editorial board member for several journals in the radiation oncology field and participates in professional activities and committees of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the American Society for Radiation Oncology.
Research interests
Prof Keall’s research focuses on making radiotherapy treatment more effective and accessible. This is achieved by developing imaging and treatment technologies that maximise the radiation dose to the tumour while minimising it elsewhere. Many of these innovations can be implemented on existing treatment systems and are being used in clinical trials. Other innovations focus on broadening the applications of radiotherapy, from treating multiple lesions, to developing low cost radiotherapy systems for developing countries and remote areas.
Current research students
Project title | Research student |
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Advanced Calypso Image Guided Radiotherapy for Lung Cancer SBRT. | Vincent CAILLET |
Tracking Multiple Targets to Improve Treatment Efficacy of Radiation Therapy for High-Risk Cancer Patients | Emily HEWSON |
DeepCT: Using deep learning to achieve real-time volumetric imaging of the moving human anatomy | Nicholas HINDLEY |
Investigating the Clinical Feasibility of Treating Atrial Fibrillation with Non-invasive Cardiac Radiosurgery using Real-time Motion Compensation and Beam targeting on an MRI-Linac | Suzy LYDIARD |
Current projects
The Australian MRI-linac program is a next-generation cancer therapy system in which changing patient anatomy and physiology can be visualised during treatment.
The Nano-X cancer radiotherapy systemwill deliver smarter, smaller and more accessible radiotherapy treatment through integrating science, bold design and real-world needs.
Audiovisual Biofeedback methods help patients achieve either breath hold or regular breathing depending on the treatment application to reduce radiation dose to healthy tissues.
Functional imaging using CTtransforms CT, previously an anatomic-only imaging modality to visualise lung ventilation using advanced image reconstruction methods.
Second generation 4D CT enables better imaging of lungs – and lung cancer – as patients breathe during imaging procedures.
Patient-connected cone beam CTuses the patient’s breathing and heart signals, advanced mathematics and robotics to improve how we can image the human body.
Kilovoltage intrafraction monitoring (KIM)is a novel real-time tumour localisation method employed during treatment to enable more accurate radiation dose delivery.
Markerless tracking is an extension to KIM that uses the patient’s anatomy itself, rather than markers to find the tumour in real-time during radiotherapy.
Real-time tumour tracking adjusts the beam of radiation according to the tumour motion during treatment.
International links
(Aarhus University)
A/Prof Per Poulsen, Finding and hitting cancer in real-time with radiation beams |
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(Universität zu Lübeck)
Svenja Ipsen, Real-time ultrasound guidance, treatment adaptation |
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(Politecnico di Milano)
Dr Chiara Paganelli, MRI guidance, MRI-linac radiotherapy |
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(MD Anderson Cancer Center)
Prof Radhe Mohan, MRI-guided proton therapy |
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(Stanford University)
A/Prof Billy Loo, Advanced linac technology, MRI-linac radiotherapy |
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(Stanford University)
Prof Rebecca Fahrig, Advanced x-ray imaging, MRI-linac radiotherapy |
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(UC Davis)
A/Prof Tokihiro Yamamoto, Functional imaging and adaptive radiotherapy |
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(University of Maryland)
A/Prof Amit Sawant, Hitting cancer in real-time with radiation beams |
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(University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Prof Thomas Mackie, Advanced radiotherapy, Nano-X |
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(Washington University)
Prof Jeffrey Williamson, Advanced x-ray imaging |
Selected grants
2019
- Purchase of a CIRS Dynamic Thorax Phantom (Model 008A).; Haworth A, Keall P, O'Brien R; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Equipment Grants.
2018
- The Clincial Translation of NSW Invented Tumour Motion Management Technologies in Cancer Radiotherapy; O'Brien R, Keall P; Cancer Institute NSW/Career Development Fellowship.
- The Australian MRI-Linac Program: Transforming the Science and Clinical Practice of Cancer Radiotherapy; Keall P, Barton M, Crozier S; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Program Grants.
- Widely accessible high precision radiotherapy with Multi-modal Adaptive Tumour Tracking (MATT); Nguyen D, Keall P; Cancer Institute NSW/Early Career Fellowship.
2017
- BRAVEHeart - empowering breast cancer radiotherapy patients to save their hearts; Steiner E, Keall P, Lamoury G, Morgia M, Bromley R, Booth J, Makhija K, Silvester S, Grant C; National Breast Cancer Foundation/Pilot Study Grants.
- Infrastructure for Developing MRI Contrast Agents for Cancer Imaging that Spans from Contemporary to Future Clinical Field Strengths; Price W, Barton M, Keall P, Liney G, Aldrich-Wright J, Stait-Gardner T, Bourne R, Fay M, Xu X; Cancer Institute NSW/Equipment Grant.
2016
- Innovations in cancer imaging and targeted radiotherapy to improve human health; Keall P; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Career Awards: Research Fellowships.
2015
- The ACRF Image-X Institute: Eradicating Cancer through Innovation in Imaging and Targeted X-ray Therapy; Keall P, Barton M, Jackson M, Thwaites D, Kuncic Z, Fulton R, Foster K; Australian Cancer Research Foundation/Research Support.
- SPARK: Stereotactic Prostate Adaptive Radiotherapy utilising Kilovoltage intrafraction monitoring; Keall P, Martin J, Foroudi F, Kneebone A, Gebski V, Poulsen P; Cancer Australia/Priority Driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme.
- Personalized Motion Management for truly 4D Lung Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy; Keall P; National Institutes of Health (USA)/Research Grant.
- Breathe Well: Improving cancer imaging and radiotherapy using audiovisual biofeedback; Keall P, Kay J, O'Brien R, Kron T, Greer P, Hebblewhite M, Sawant A; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Development Grants.
- Learning Image Context for Tumor Motion Adaptation to Improve Cancer Radiotherapy Treatment Outcomes; Huang C, Keall P, Fahrig R, Wang X; Office of Global Engagement/IPDF Grant.
2014
- Hitting the Target: Real-Time Prostate Cancer Radiotherapy; Keall P, Eade T, Kneebone A, Booth J; Cancer Australia/Priority Driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme.
2013
- The Australian MRI-Linac Program: Improving cancer treatment through real-time image guided adaptive radiotherapy; Keall P, Barton M, Crozier S; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Program Grants.
- MR-Compatible Linac gun for Robotic Linac Adaptation; Farig R, Keall P; National Institutes of Health (USA)/Research Support.
2012
- ECG-Guided Cardiac CT Imaging for Interventional Radiology; Fahrig R, Keall P; DVC Research/International Research Collaboration Award (IRCA).
- Lung sparing for SBRT with beams-eye-view imaging and real-time tumor tracking; Berbeco R, Keall P; National Institutes of Health (USA)/Research Support.
- NHMRC audiovisual biofeedback to improve abdominal and thoracic medical image quality; Keall P.
- A Hybrid Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Linear Accelerator (MRI-Linac) for Highly Accurate Radiotherapy Cancer Treatment; Crozier S, Keall P; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP).
- An adaptable and dedicated linear accelerator for medical radiation research; Keall P, Jackson M, Rozenfeld A, Barton M, Greer P, Vial J, Baldock C, Metcalfe P, Thwaites D, Kuncic Z, Holloway L, Bosi S, Eslick E, Downes S; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF).
- The development and investigation of respiratory-modulated four-dimensional cone beam CT imaging; Keall P; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Project Grants.
2010
- 4D IMRT: Stereotactic body radiotherapy for lung cancer; Keall P, Loo B; National Institutes of Health (USA)/Research Support.
- Image-guided Adaptive Radiation Therapy; Williamson J, Keall P; National Institutes of Health (USA)/Research Support.
- Australia Fellowship; Keall P; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Career Awards: Australian Fellowship.
- A coaxial plasma accelerator for proton radiotherapy; Keall P; National Institutes of Health (USA)/Research Support.
Selected publications
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