Yujing Zou

Ph.D. Student

Medical Physics Unit

Biological and Biomedical Engineering

Artificial Intelligence Group

Bio

Yujing (McMedHacks Co-director, Founder) was born and raised in the beautiful city of Tianjin, in China, before moving to Regina, Saskatchewan, in Canada and went to Balfour Collegiate. After graduating from a joint major in physiology and mathematics with a minor in physics at McGill University in 2020 in Montreal, Quebec, she joined the CAMPEP-accredited Medical Physics M.Sc. program at McGill and has started her Ph.D. in the Biological & Biomedical Engineering (BBME) Department in 2022. Throughout her degrees, she has been inspired and drawn to interdisciplinary research where mathematical modelling and computational tools are used to uncover problems in medicine. She joined the McGill Medical Physics Unit as an undergraduate researcher in 2018 and joined the Enger lab in 2021 during her M.Sc.. Her current research interests lie at the intersection of deep learning, image processing & analysis, and outcome prediction modelling in medical physics.

Current Projects

  1. Correlation between microscopic influence of cell spacing and
    nuclei size, extracted from Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained digital histopathological images, on treatment outcomes in radiation therapy.
  2. Treatment outcome Prediction for gynecological cancers patients with a multimodality deep learning model using pre/post diagnostic image modalities and digital histopathology images.
My current research interests surround the topic of deep learning-based outcome prediction modelling using multiple diagnostic imaging modalities such CT, MRI, histopathological images and Ultrasound. More specifically, despite combination of different treatment modalities, such as radiotherapy including brachytherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, chemoradiotherapy, and improvement of treatment protocols and imaging techniques used for management of cancer, it remains clinically challenging to predict which patients will benefit from which treatment combination. An accurate method for predicting a patient’s likelihood of response could reduce unnecessary interventions, lower healthcare costs, and reduce side effects. This prompted our objective to examine how pre-treatment patient characteristics, through imaging data, influence treatment efficacy as measured by post-treatment response, therefore to build a treatment outcome prediction model.

methodologyYZ
McMedHacks (Co-director, founder)
 
McMedHacks is a free international 8-week workshop series on medical imaging analysis using deep learning in Python from June 12th – July 31st, 2021, followed by a Hackathon in August. With Dr. Enger’s support, McMedHacks has generated registrations from 356 participants ranging from undergraduates, Masters, PhDs to MDs from 38 countries! Every weekend, inspirational speakers from academia and industry working at the intersection of medical imaging and deep learning are invited to present their cutting-edge work, followed by a hands-on interactive coding workshop led by the McMedHacks team and invited instructors. McMedHacks leads and fosters a passionate and collaborative scientific spirit in their team of 30 + members of internationally renowned speakers, instructors, mentors, and their own leadership teams (ex. sponsorship, hackathon, social media, mentorship, content development) from the Enger lab.
McMedHacks

Publications / Awards

2022

Zou, Yujing

TransMedTech Excellence Scholarship (Doctoral Award) award

2022.

Links | BibTeX

Sebastien, Quetin; Zou, Yujing

Deep Learning Framework : Tensorboard and Pytorch Lightning Workshop

2022.

Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing; Alvarez, David-Santiago Ayala

ESTRO 2022: innovations in brachytherapy Journal Article

In: ESTRO Newsletter, pp. 754–767, 2022.

Links | BibTeX

Sebastien, Quetin; Zou, Yujing

Introduction to medical image processing with Python : DICOM and histopathology images Workshop

2022.

Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing

Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature et technologies (FRQNT) PhD doctoral training scholarship award

2022, ($84,000 for 2022 - 2026; Declined due to acceptance of FRQS).

Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing

Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS) PhD doctoral training scholarship award

2022, ($84,000 for 2022 - 2026).

Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing; Lecavalier-Barsoum, Magali; Pelmus, Manuela; Maleki, Farhad; Enger, Shirin A.

Predictive modeling of post radiation-therapy recurrence for gynecological cancer patients using clinical and histopathology imaging features Conference

Curietherapies 2022.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing; Lecavalier-Barsoum, Magali; Pelmus, Manuela; Maleki, Farhad; Enger, Shirin A.

Young Investigator Competition Winner at the Curietherapies Conference award

2022.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing

Biological & Biomedical Engineering PhD Recruitment Award award

2022, (These awards are designed to help recruit top students to our program and are offered to applicants wishing to start in Fall or Winter. The standard recruitment awards are $10,000/year for three years for Doctoral students.).

Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing

Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel Awards (GREAT Awards) award

2022, (In 2009, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies introduced the Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel awards (GREAT awards) program in consultation with the Faculty Deans and Associate Deans. These awards cover dissemination of research through graduate student presentations at conferences, and other graduate student research-enhancement activities, such as travel for fieldwork, archival inquiry and extra-mural collaborative research. GREAT budgets are allocated to Faculties each year, and as such, are managed directly by the Associate Dean's office.).

Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing; Lecavalier-barsoum, Magali; Pelmus, Manuela; Enger, Shirin A.

Patient-Specific Nuclei Size and Cell Spacing Distribution Extraction From Histopathology Whole Slide Images for Treatment Outcome Prediction Modelling Inproceedings

In: MEDICAL PHYSICS, pp. E266–E266, WILEY 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA 2022.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

Zou, Yujing; Weishaupt, Luca; Enger, Shirin A.

SP-0014 McMedHacks: Deep learning for medical image analysis workshops and Hackathon in radiation oncology Journal Article

In: Radiotherapy and Oncology, vol. 170, pp. S4–S5, 2022.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

2021

Zou, Yujing; Lecavalier-Barsoum, Magali; Enger, Shirin A.

Treatment outcome Prediction for gynecological cancers patients with a machine learning model using pre/post diagnostic image modalities and digital histopathology images Presentation

CRUK RadNet Manchester AI for Optimising Radiotherapy Outcomes Workshop, 10.02.2021.

Abstract | BibTeX

2020

Zou, Yujing

Graduate Excellence Fellowship award

2020.

BibTeX

Presentations

  1. Y.Zou†*, L. Weishaupt, S.A.Enger, “McMedHacks: Deep learning for medical image analysis workshops and Hackathon in radiation oncology”, proffered paper, Track: Interdisciplinary, Session:Symposium – Education in radiation oncology: Advances and opportunities, European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology
    (ESTRO)
    conference, May 7th,2022, International 10 min Oral Presentation. [
    Congress schedule
  2. Y.Zou†*, M. Lecavalier-Barsoum, M. Pelmus, S.A. Enger, “Investigation of cell spacing, and nuclei size distribution extracted from H&E histopathological Whole-Slide-Images for integration into a multimodality treatment outcome prediction model for gynecological cancer patients”, AQPMC Annual Scientific Meeting, Dec 3rd, 2021, 15 min Provincial Oral Presentation. 
  3. Y.Zou†*, M. Lecavalier-Barsoum, M. Pelmus, S.A. Enger, “Deep Learning-Based Patient-Specific Multimodality Treatment Outcome Prediction for Gynecological
    Cancers using pre/post diagnostic image modalities and digital histopathology images”, Friday Morning Talk, McGill Medical Physics Unit, October 1st, 2021, 17 min Institutional Oral Presentation. [schedule]
     
  4. Y.Zou†*, L.L.Weishaupt*, P.Watson*, “Ultrasound and instance segmentation”, July 10th, 2021, McMedHacks Workshop Week 5, 1.5-hour lecture. [link]
  5. Y.Zou†*, L.L.Weishaupt*, “Digital histopathological image analysis”, June 25th, 2021, McMedHacks Workshop Week 3, 1.5-hour lecture. [link]
  6.  Y.Zou†*, L.L.Weishaupt*, “Introduction to Python for deep learning”, June 12th, 2021, McMedHacks Workshop Week 1, 1.5-hour lecture. [link]
  7. Y.Zou†*M. Lecavalier-BarsoumS.A. Enger, Treatment outcome Prediction for gynecological cancers patients with a machine learning model using pre/post diagnostic image modalities and digital histopathology images, CRUK RadNet Manchester AI for Optimising Radiotherapy Outcomes Workshop, VIRTUAL. February 10, 2021. Oral Presentation (1 min fire-up pitch).
  8. A. Diamant†, A. Chatterjee, M. Vallières, M. Serban, Y. Zou†*, R. Forghani, G. Shenouda, J. Seuntjens, Multi-modal deep learning framework for head & neck cancer outcome prediction, Annual meeting of the McGill Initiative in Computational Medicine (MiCM), VIRTUAL, November 27, 2020. Presentation. (Video) (MiCM Summer Scholar 2020 Profile)
  9. Y. Zou†*, G. Bub, Comparison of complexity and predictability of a cellular automaton model in excitable media cardiac wave propagation compared with a FitzHugh-Nagumo model, McGill Science Undergraduate Research Journal, 66-71, 2019-2020 issue. (Paper on Google Scholar, ResearchGate) (McGill Undergraduate Physiology Research day, March 29, 2019. Poster)
  10. Y.Zou†*, A. Chatterjee, J. Seuntjens, A radiomics study: Comparison of lymphadenopathy disease outcomes prediction power between 2D and 3D features fromhead and neck cancer dual-energy CTs, RI-MUHC Summer Student Research Day, August 13, 2018. Poster Presentation.
  11. Y.Zou†*, Mathematical Modelling Applications in Biology and Medicine, Seminars in Undergraduate Mathematics in Montreal (SUMM), Jan 13,2018, 25 min Oral Presentation.