Kyle Lafata

Thaddeus V. Samulski Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology
Kyle Lafata
Kyle Lafata

Overview

Kyle Lafata is the Thaddeus V. Samulski Assistant Professor at Duke University in the Departments of Radiation Oncology, Radiology, Medical Physics, and Electrical & Computer Engineering. After earning his PhD in Medical Physics in 2018, he completed postdoctoral training at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the Big Data Scientist Training Enhancement Program. Prof. Lafata has broad expertise in imaging science, digital pathology, computer vision, biophysics, and applied mathematics. His dissertation work focused on the applied analysis of stochastic differential equations and high-dimensional radiomic 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). 

Prof. Lafata has worked in various areas of computational medicine and biology, resulting in 39 peer-reviewed journal publications, 15 invited talks, and more than 50 national conference presentations. At Duke, the Lafata Lab focuses on the theory, development, and application of multiscale computational biomarkers. Using computational and mathematical methods, they study the appearance and behavior of disease across different physical length-scales (i.e., radiomics ~10−3 m, pathomics ~10−6 m, and genomics ~10−9 m) and time-scales (e.g., the natural history of disease, response to treatment). The overarching goal of the lab is to develop and apply new technology that transforms imaging into basic science findings and computational biomarker discovery.

Positions

Thaddeus V. Samulski Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology in the School of Medicine

2023 School of Medicine

Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology in the School of Medicine

2021 School of Medicine

Assistant Professor in Radiology in the School of Medicine

2022 School of Medicine

Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering

2021 Pratt School of Engineering

Assistant Professor of Pathology in the School of Medicine

2023 School of Medicine

Member of the Duke Cancer Institute in the School of Medicine

2020 School of Medicine

Education

Ph.D. 2018

2018 Duke University

C. 2018

2018 Duke University

Postdoctoral Associate, Radiation Oncology/Radiation Physics Division

2020 Duke University School of Medicine

Publications, Grants & Awards

Offices & Contact

Radiation Physics, Box 3295 DUMC
Durham, NC
27710
Radiation Physics, Box 3295 DUMC
Durham, NC
27710