Aline Thomas, assistant professor in the Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, is developing a new way to make prostate cancer diagnosis more accurate and less uncertain. Her work builds on the success of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) imaging, a technology that has transformed how prostate cancer is detected and staged. but she’s taking the technology a step further.

While PSMA scans are powerful, they can sometimes detect benign or noncancerous growths, particularly from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), leading to potential false positives and unnecessary treatments. To overcome this challenge, Thomas is creating a dual-target imaging approach that pairs PSMA imaging with a new molecular MRI agent that targets CD154, an inflammatory marker overexpressed in BPH but not in prostate cancer.

“If we can reduce false positives, we can give patients clearer answers and better treatment options,” Thomas says. Her goal is to provide radiologists with sharper distinctions between malignant and benign lesions — insights that could directly influence whether a patient with malignant lesions receives curative or palliative care.

Currently in the preclinical stage, Thomas’s research uses cell and animal models to refine this dual-target strategy before moving toward future clinical translation. Her approach exemplifies precision medicine in action by using imaging to tailor diagnosis and treatment to each patient’s biology rather than a one-size-fits-all model.

Thomas brings a rare interdisciplinary perspective to her work, blending expertise in engineering, immunology and molecular imaging. “My work is primarily in molecular MRI with a focus on cancer, immunity, and inflammation and how they interact,” she explains. This integration of ideas from across scientific domains allows her to design imaging biomarkers that could one day transform how prostate cancer is diagnosed and managed.

Before joining the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2021, Thomas earned dual degrees in chemical engineering and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, where she specialized in polymer-based biomaterials. She later completed postdoctoral training in immunoengineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and molecular MRI at Johns Hopkins. “I came to Hopkins because I recognized that molecular imaging will be paramount in our understanding of the role of inflammation in cancer and the development of effective therapies to combat this disease,” she says.

Today, she draws on all these experiences to tackle one of oncology’s most nuanced challenges — how to tell the difference between cancer and what merely looks like it. By bridging disciplines, Thomas is helping to create the next generation of imaging tools that make prostate cancer management not only more accurate, but also more patient-centered.