Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology
Associate Professor in Radiology
Assistant Professor of Pathology
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Lafata Lab Overview
The Lafata Laboratory focuses on the theory, development and application of computational oncology. The lab interrogates disease at different length-scales of its biological organization via high-performance computing, multiscale modeling, advanced imaging technology and the applied analysis of stochastic partial differential equations. Current research interests include tumor topology, cellular dynamics, tumor immune microenvironment, drivers of radiation resistance and immune dysregulation, molecular insight into tissue heterogeneity and biologically-guided adaptative treatment strategies.
Kyle Lafata, PhD, is the Thaddeus V. Samulski Associate Professor at Duke University with faculty appointments in Radiation Oncology, Radiology, Pathology, Medical Physics and Electrical & Computer Engineering. He joined the faculty at Duke in 2020 following postdoctoral training at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. His dissertation work focused on the applied analysis of stochastic partial differential equations and high-dimensional image phenotyping, where he developed physics-based computational methods and soft-computing paradigms to interrogate images. These included stochastic modeling, self-organization and quantum machine learning (i.e., an emerging branch of research that explores the methodological and structural similarities between quantum systems and learning systems). Dr. Lafata has worked in various areas of computational medicine and biology, resulting in over 55 academic papers, 20 invited talks and more than 60 national conference presentations.
News
Faculty Receive Grant Funding in Digital Pathology Research
Medical Physics Graduate Program faculty members Megan Russ, PhD (Radiology) and Kyle Lafata, PhD, are co-principal investigators on a newly awarded $20,000 pilot study to apply medical physics principles to digital pathology.
New R01 Awarded to Medical Physics Faculty Lo, Lafata to Study AI Tools for CTs
Kyle Lafata, PhD, is a co-investigator on a newly awarded $2.3 million, four-year R01 grant by the NIH/NCI through Radiology titled "Computer-Aided Triage of Body CT Scans with Deep Learning." The PI is Radiology and Medical Physics faculty member Joseph Lo, PhD; the multidisciplinary team also includes Duke faculty members Cynthia Rudin, PhD, and Sheng Luo, PhD. "This project will develop AI tools for chest, abdomen and pelvis CTs, simultaneously triaging 17 different organ systems for over 100 diseases," said Dr.
Kyle J. Lafata, PhD, Named Thaddeus V. Samulski Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology
Kyle J. Lafata, PhD, has been named the Thaddeus V. Samulski Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, effective April 1, 2023.
Dr. Lafata works within the Departments of Radiation Oncology, Radiology, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University; he also serves as a faculty member for the Duke Medical Physics Graduate Program.