Dr. Xiang was honored to be invited to speak at the Stanford Proton Symposium, joining many outstanding leaders in proton therapy.
He presented on “Radiacoustic Imaging: A New Paradigm for Image Guidance in Proton Therapy”, highlighting our lab’s vision for advancing precision cancer treatment with protons.
Dr. Xiang was invited by Nature Reviews Physics to write a Perspective article on Radiacoustic Imaging—an area our lab has been pioneering for the past decade.
👏 Congratulations to Yifei for being the first author on this landmark paper! This work marks an important milestone not only for our lab’s research but also for the advancement of the field.
🔗 Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-025-00863-z
This summer, we are excited to welcome several outstanding new members to the TRUE Lab:
We are thrilled to have them on board and look forward to the exciting contributions they will make!
This year’s Radiological Imaging and Tomography Conference at the Optical Imaging Congress in beautiful Seattle was a great success!
Many thanks to @Jeph Wang, @Alexander Rack, and Outi Supponen for co-chairing, and to all of you who joined us. We had truly fantastic talks and discussions!
Our lab was proud to be represented by Dr. Prabodh Pandey, who delivered an invited talk on radiacoustic imaging.
We were also excited to see our collaborators featured:
A huge thank you to everyone who made this meeting inspiring and impactful—we look forward to continuing the momentum!
We’re excited to share that every one of our lab members has received an oral presentation at the AAPM Annual Meeting 2025! We’re heading to Washington, D.C. this July to showcase our latest research and connect with the medical physics community.
Huge congratulations to our dedicated team for their outstanding work, and many thanks to the reviewers for placing their trust in us. We’re looking forward to productive discussions, new collaborations, and catching up with colleagues during the conference.
🗓️ Check out our presentation schedule below:
The SPIE Medical Imaging Conference will take place February 15–19, 2026, in Vancouver!
For 2026, we are organizing special sessions on radioacoustic imaging, an emerging modality that detects acoustic signals induced by various forms of radiation for medical imaging applications.
Topics will include:
• X-ray-induced acoustic imaging
• Laser-induced photoacoustic imaging
• Proton-induced acoustic imaging
• Microwave-induced acoustic imaging
• Electroacoustic imaging
• Other radiation-induced acoustic emissions
We look forward to bringing together researchers from across the world to discuss the latest advancements in this exciting and rapidly growing field!
Submit abstracts by
6 August 2025
www.spie.org/mi108
All undergraduate researchers in the TRUE Lab are paired with a senior PhD student mentor and report biweekly to our Undergraduate Research Director, Dr. Prabodh Pandey. Each student is also required to give at least one research presentation per quarter.
Proud of their hard work and dedication—congrats to all!
Lauren is working alongside Yifei and Jadon to develop electroacoustic tomography for image-guided cancer therapy and cardiovascular applications. Excited to see her continued contributions to this innovative research!
Christy has been conducting research on computational radiacoustic imaging under the mentorship of Dr. Prabodh Pandey. Her outstanding achievements in undergraduate research are truly commendable. We are also thrilled to share that she has been selected to join the UCI CURE-Cancer program this summer. Well done, Christy!
Source: UCI School of Medicine
Computed tomography (CT) has long been a cornerstone of modern imaging, providing detailed 3D insights into the human body and other materials. However, conventional CT requires hundreds of X-ray projections from multiple angles, exposing patients to significant radiation doses and relying on large, immobile systems. To address this issue, researchers from UC Irvine’s Departments of Radiological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering recently published a study in the journal Science Advances in which they introduce a groundbreaking technology that achieves 3D imaging with a single X-ray projection called X-ray–Induced Acoustic Computed Tomography (XACT).
A New Paradigm in Imaging
“In XACT, the generated sound waves by X-rays change the way X-ray imaging works, converting X-rays to ultrasound. X-rays typically travel in straight lines, so one projection only provides 2D information. However, X-ray-induced acoustic signals propagate in three dimensions, allowing for 3D imaging with a single projection,” said Shawn Xiang, PhD, the study’s corresponding author and an associate professor at UCI’s Departments of Radiological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering.
XACT leverages the interaction between X-rays and tissue to produce acoustic waves, which travel at a speed of 1,500 meters per second. These waves are captured by ultrasound detectors, enabling real-time, three-dimensional imaging without the need for mechanical scanning or complex gantry systems.
“For the first time, we have proved that 3D imaging can be obtained with a single X-ray projection based on X-ray-induced acoustic detection in both phantoms and biological tissue,” said Siqi Wang, PhD, the study’s first author. Wang completed his PhD at UCI in Xiang’s lab and is now a postdoctoral research scholar at Stanford University.
“The groundbreaking finding here is that you can make 3D X-ray imaging with just a single projection, which typically needs 600 projections or more,” says Vahid Yaghmai, MD, MS, FSAR, a radiologist at UC Irvine and chair of the UC Irvine Department of Radiological Sciences, who was not directly involved in the study.
Benefits Beyond Traditional CT
One of XACT’s most significant advantages is its efficiency and reduced radiation exposure. This makes XACT a safer and more accessible alternative, particularly for applications like routine diagnostics and breast cancer screening. Furthermore, with portable X-ray sources and ultrasound detectors, XACT systems promise compact, gantry-free designs, enabling imaging in settings previously inaccessible to traditional CT systems.
Challenges and Future Directions
While the potential of XACT is immense, current limitations include resolution constraints tied to the frequency and size of the ultrasound detectors. Future improvements, such as higher-frequency transducers and advanced reconstruction algorithms powered by deep learning, could further enhance its performance.
Redefining Imaging Across Fields
The ability to achieve 3D imaging from a single X-ray projection positions XACT as a transformative tool not only for medical diagnostics but also for nondestructive testing in engineering and material science. Its innovative approach eliminates the need for rotational access, opening new possibilities for imaging in constrained environments.
XACT also represents a leap forward in imaging technology, combining reduced radiation exposure, compact system design and unprecedented efficiency. As this technology continues to evolve, it has the potential to redefine medical and industrial imaging, bringing us closer to a future where high-resolution, low-dose 3D imaging is the norm in healthcare and beyond.