Ippolito Named Director of Center for Clinical Imaging Research

Joseph E. Ippolito, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiology for Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named the director of the Center for Clinical Imaging Research (CCIR) starting July 1. He has been the facility’s MRI medical director since 2015, and more recently, an associate director. He succeeds Pamela K. Woodard, MD, who will become director of MIR.

An established expert in MRI and metabolism-driven cancer diagnostics, Ippolito leads a research lab that merges metabolomics, imaging and new metabolically targeted cancer therapies. His work has led to the discovery that sex differences in cancer metabolism can explain the male-predominant sex disparities in incidence and mortality of cancers throughout the body.

Ippolito, who joined MIR faculty in the abdominal imaging section in 2013, was recently promoted to associate professor with tenure. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. Ippolito has also been honored with the Distinguished Service Teaching Award and the Teaching Assistant of the Year in Gross Anatomy.

Since arriving at MIR, Ippolito has served as co-director of the research residency track in diagnostic radiology. He has held several other leadership roles, including committees for the residency program evaluation and the steering committee for the Biochemistry, Biophysics, & Structural Biology program in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences. He is also on the planning team for the Siteman Cancer Center Pancreatic Cancer Working Group, a member of both the Siteman Cancer Center Investment Program and the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences.

Ippolito earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his medical degree and doctorate in molecular biophysics from Washington University’s medical scientist training program. After an internship at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, he completed both his diagnostic radiology residency and fellowship training in body magnetic resonance imaging at MIR.