Dr. Julianne Pollard-Larkin

 Dr. Julianne Pollard-Larkin is currently the Physics Section Chief of Thoracic Service in the Department of Radiation Physics - Patient Care in the division of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She received her bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Miami in 2002 before receiving her master's and PhD in Biomedical Physics from the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Pollard-Larkin then completed her residency at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from 2008 to 2010 before becoming board certified in Radiology. She was also an Assistant Professor from 2012 to 2019, and while she is no longer a professor, she continues her work educating the next generation of radiologists as the Thoracic Group Physics Resident Education Coordinator at MD Anderson. Dr. Pollard Larkin became interested in medical physics and the physics of radiation treatment for cancers after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer her senior year of college. While her interest in physics began with her interest in working for NASA after learning about the astronaut Dr. Mae Jamison, the day she met the physicist in charge of her mother’s radiation treatments her focus shifted. Prior to meeting this medical physicist, Dr. Pollard-Larkin had never heard of medical physics as a career path. 

Most of Dr. Pollard-Larkin’s research is focused on using the physics of radiation from lasers to treat thoracic tumors. One area of her research I found particularly interesting is her investigation into the effects of dose strength of radiation on preventing the development of lymphopenia (fewer than normal white blood cells) and gastrointestinal mucosal injury. In this investigation, Dr. Pollard-Larkin and her colleagues compared conventionally dosed radiation and ultra-high dose radiation in causing these two side effects. While previous studies showed that increasing the joules of ionizing radiation the laser emits per kg spares healthy tissues while still treating the cancerous cells, her research found that this is not the case. While she found that ultra-high dose radiation was not the answer, Dr. Pollard-Larkin is continuing her research in finding ways to adjust radiation treatment to better the effectiveness of the treatment while decreasing the collateral damage of such treatments. Through manipulation of the physics of radiation, she has found a way to help many people who are in a position similar to her mother’s position when she was introduced to the world of medical physics. 

Sources: 

https://www.aps.org/careers/physicists/profiles/pollard-larkin.cfm

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53562-y

https://faculty.mdanderson.org/profiles/julianne_pollard.html