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Principal Investigator

Rebecca Rakow-Penner, MD, PhD

Dr. Rebecca Rakow-Penner is a physician-scientist and imaging innovator whose career is dedicated to improving women’s health. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University and her Master of Science in Bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) before completing both her MD and PhD in Biophysics at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed her diagnostic radiology residency and fellowship trainings in both breast and body imaging, at UC San Diego, where she is now a board-certified radiologist specializing in Women’s imaging.


As Director of the Women’s Imaging Lab and Co-Director of the Center for Translational Imaging (CTI) at UC San Diego, Dr. Rakow-Penner leads multidisciplinary research focused on developing and translating advanced imaging technologies that improve the detection, characterization, and treatment of female specific diseases including breast, pelvic, ovarian, and cervical cancers as well as benign conditions such as female pelvic pain, complications in pregnancy, and pelvic floor dysfunction.


Her passion for imaging innovation began early in her career. As part of her doctoral research, she designed and built a parallel imaging breast coil for 3T MRI—an experience that sparked a lifelong commitment to advancing women’s healthcare. More than two decades later, she continues to bridge engineering, medicine, and clinical care to develop imaging solutions that address unmet needs in women’s health.


Through her research, clinical practice, and mentorship, Dr. Rakow-Penner is shaping the future of precision imaging, with the goal of delivering earlier diagnoses, more personalized treatments, and better outcomes for women worldwide.

Meet Our Team

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Jiyo S. Athertya, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jiyo is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist specializing in quantitative MRI physics and computational imaging pipelines. Her research focuses on the optimization and clinical translation of advanced quantitative MRI methods, with core expertise in ultrashort echo time techniques, multi-parametric relaxation mapping, and accelerated acquisition and reconstruction strategies.

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Allison Bang

Undergraduate Researcher

Allison is an undergraduate bioengineering student at UCSD. She is interested in the intersection of technology, medicine, and women’s health.

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Summer Joyce Batasin

Graduate Student Researcher

Summer is a Bioengineering graduate student at UCSD. Her research focuses on improving ovarian cancer detection and screening using advanced MRI techniques and quantitative imaging methods.

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Yesenia Covarrubias

Senior Clinical Coordinator

Yesenia is an experienced Clinical Research Analyst who supports clinical research operations, participant coordination, and regulatory and study administration. Her work focuses on helping advance innovative imaging research while ensuring studies are conducted efficiently, safely, and in accordance with regulatory requirements.

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Gavin Hamilton, PhD

Physicist

Gavin is a Scottish Physicist who joined UCSD in May 2006. He has working in MRI for over 25 years with his main area of research being in magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

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Stephan Jordan

Research Coordinator

Stephan is a researcher and certified MRI operator for the Women’s Imaging Lab, the Center for Translational Imaging (CTI), and the Center for Functional MRI (CFMRI), with nearly 20 years of experience in advanced imaging. He oversees MRI safety protocols and provides technical training to researchers to ensure safe and effective use of imaging technology.

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Stephane Loubrie, PhD

Postdoc

Stephane is a French postdoctoral researcher in UC San Diego’s Women’s Imaging Lab specializing in quantitative MRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, and AI-based methods for breast cancer detection. His work focuses on developing high-resolution, non-contrast imaging techniques to improve lesion detection and clinical decision-making.

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Lorena Pineda

Clinical Research Coordinator

Lorena is a Clinical Research Coordinator at UC San Diego with a BS in Biology from UC Riverside. Her experience spans gastroenterology, endocrinology, and radiology studies.

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Ana Rodriguez-Soto, PhD

MR Scientist

Ana is a bioengineer with an image-processing and MRI physics background. She is currently a project scientist interested in improving women’s healthcare. Her work focuses on the development of women-specific cancers screening methods and risk models to predict pregnancy outcomes in patients with congenital heart disease.

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Alexandra Schlein

Lab Manager

Alex joined the Women’s Imaging Lab in 2018, partnering with Rebecca to help shape the research group from the ground up. Over the years, she has played an integral role in building the lab into what it is today. Alex now serves as the WIL Manager, continuing to champion the lab’s growth and drive its research forward.

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Cassandra Stoffer

Graduate Student Researcher

Cassie is a recent graduate of the Bioengineering master’s program at UCSD. Her research focuses on applying artificial intelligence to medical imaging, where she is developing machine learning methods to generate interpretable cervical cancer probability maps.

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Samantha Tsang

Research Coordinator

Samantha assists with patient screening and enrollment for clinical studies, along with various administrative tasks. She also performs clinical research and data analysis.

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Hon J. Yu, PhD,

Physicist

Hon is a Project Scientist with 20+ years of experience in medical imaging research, specializing in quantitative MRI techniques, including DCE-MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging. He earned his PhD in Physics from UC Irvine in 2003 and is a member of ISMRM and Sigma Pi Sigma.

Research Collaborators

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Maryana Alperin, MD

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Pratibha S. Binder, MD

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Fanny Chapelin, PhD

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Christine Chung, MD

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Anders Dale, PhD

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Ahmed El Kaffas, PhD

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Ramez N. Eskander, MD

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Oluwole Fadare, MD

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Soudabeh Fazeli, MD

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Moti Freiman, PhD

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Tyler Hillman, MD PhD

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Ahman Khuran, MD

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David Klein, MD

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Asona Lui, MD,PhD

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Jyoti S. Mayadev, MD

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Michael McHale, MD

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Daniell Nassar, DO MPH

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Haydee Ojeda-Fournier, MD

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Dominique Rash, MD

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Cheryl Saenz, MD

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Cynthia Santillan, MD

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Adam Searlman, MD

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Tyler Seibert, MD PhD

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Dwayne Stupack, PhD

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Shira Varon, MD

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Christopher R. Weil, MD

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Jingjing Zou, PhD

Lab Alumni

Undergraduate Students

  • Lauren Fang (2019-2022)
  • Michelle Tong (2019-2022)
  • Bushra Rajput (2019-2020)
  • Tara Maronesy (2020-2021)
  • Thien Truong (2022-2023)
  • Bethany Yuan (2022-2024)
  • Jayden Sawhney (2024-2025)

Graduate Students

  • Omkar Bhope (2023-2024)

Medical Students

  • Boya Abudu (2015-2016)
  • Nicholas Kroesing-Albino (2016-2017)
  • Claire Meriwether (2017-2020)
  • Andrew Park (2017-2019)
  • Helen Park (2018-2020)
  • Nawal Siddiqui (2018-2022)
  • Grace Sora Ahn (2019-2020)
  • Natalie Bialostosky (2019-2020)
  • Maren Andreassen (2019-present)
  • Katherine Price (2019-2020)
  • Star K Huynh (2020-2022)
  • Nichole Gamboa (2023-2024)
  • Nicole Howard (2023-2024)
  • Cora Chun (2025-present)
  • Benjamin Lacombe (2025-2026)
  • Jacqueline Loh (2025-present)

Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Elin Lundstrom (2022-2025)
  • Ana Rodriguez-Soto (2017-2021)

Residents

  • Amy Maduram (2017– 2020)
  • Ghiam Yamin (2017-2019)
  • Alexandra Besser (2018 – 2021)
  • Ashley Mendez (2020-2023)
  • Claire Meriwether (2020-2022)
  • Aida Haddad (2023-2024)
  • Kassandra Tulenko (2025-present)

Lab Contact Details

We’re here to answer your questions and listen to your suggestions.

Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute

9452 Medical Ctr Dr
La Jolla, CA 92037

WomensImagingLab@health.ucsd.edu

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