Dr. Alasdair Syme, PhD, FCCPM

Appointments:

Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Dalhousie University

Medical Physicist, Nova Scotia Health Authority

Affiliations:

Dalhousie University

Nova Scotia Health Authority

Research Interests:

Medical Physics, radiation dosimetry, radiation detection, radionuclide therapy

My research interests focus on the application of ionizing radiation to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Novel radiation detectors

This research is focused on the design, fabrication and evaluation of radiation detection and dosimetry systems.  Areas of interest include organic electronic devices and scintillation detectors (organic and inorganic).
4-Pi radiotherapy

Developer Mode on the Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator platform is being used to explore trajectory-based radiotherapy in which the couch, gantry and collimator of the system can be dynamically moved to affect highly compact, conformal dose distributions.
Radionuclide Therapy

We are studying the effects of the composition and size of radiolabeled microspheres used for transarterial radioembolization on the radiation dosimetry of these procedures.  We are developing a framework for fast, accurate, patient-specific dose calculations.

Involvement with BHCRI to date:

Dr. Syme is a BHCRI Associate Member.

Phone:

(902)-473-6191

Email:

alasdair.syme@nshealth.ca

Website:

medicine.dal.ca/departments/department-sites/radiation-oncology/our-people/our-faculty/AlasdairSyme.html

Contact:

5820 University Ave., Dickson Building, Room 3030, Halifax, NS B3H1V7

Publications:

Mullins J, DeBlois F and Syme A (2016) Experimental characterization of the dosimetric leaf gap. Biomed Phys Eng Express 2:  065013

Maria O, Shalaby M, Syme A, Eliopoulos N and Muanza T (2016) Adipose mesenchymal stromal cells minimize and repair radiation-induced oral mucositis. Cytotherapy 18: 1129 – 1145

Maria O, Syme A, Eliopoulos N, Muanza T (2016) Single dose radiation-induced oral mucositis mouse model. Front Oncol 6: Article 154

Maria O, Kumala S, Heravi M, Syme A, Eliopoulos N, Muanza T (2016) Adipose mesenchymal stromal cells response to ionizing radiation. Cytotherapy 18: 384 – 401

Zismanov V, Chichkov V, Colangelo V, Jamet S, Wang S, Syme A, Koromilas A and Crist C (2016) Phosphorylation of eIF2? is a translational control mechanism regulating muscle stem cell quiescence and self-renewal. Cell Stem Cell 18: 79 – 90

Joseph K, Nijjar Y, Warkentin H, Schiller D, Tankel K, Usmani N, Severin D, Ghosh S, Syme A, Nijjar T, Mulder K, Doll C, Wong C and Field C (2015) Prospective phase II study of tomotherapy based chemoradiation treatment for locally advanced anal cancer. Radiother Oncol 117: 234 – 239

Asgharizadeh S, Bekerat H, Syme A, Asdelaijan S, DeBlois F, Vuong T, Evans M, Seuntjens J and Devic S (2015) Radiochromic film-based quality assurance for CT-based high-dose-rate brachytherapy. Brachytherapy 14: 578 – 585

Tessier A, Yahya A, Larocque M, Fallone BG and Syme A (2014) Longitudinal evaluation of the metabolic response of a tumor xenograft model to single fraction radiation therapy using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Phys Med Biol 59: 5061 – 5072

Moroz J, Turner J, Slupsky C, Fallone G and Syme A (2011) Tumour xenograft detection through quantitative analysis of the metabolic profile of urine in mice.  Phys Med Biol 56: 535 – 556.

Larocque M, Syme A, Turner JA and Fallone BG (2010) ADC response to radiation therapy correlates with induced changes in radiosensitivity. Med Phys 37: 3855 – 386