Macy M. Payne, PhD

Professional Background

I am a current Research Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center in the department of Cancer Biology. My current research focuses on enhancing the available preclinical imaging techniques while simultaneously developing new protocols and analysis strategies. Prior to my academic career I had the privilege of working in a small animal clinic where I gained experience independently managing and monitoring a wide range of species from rodents to canines and learned to operate a variety of imaging modalities (x-ray, ultrasound). My graduate work focused in Magnetic Resonance Imaging including the development of analysis pipelines, implementation of super resolution reconstruction techniques, and utilizing relaxation mapping to characterize tumor and normal tissues. During my time as a postdoctoral fellow, I was able to further expand my preclinical imaging expertise with individualized training from application scientists in various modalities to ensure the optimal utilization of each preclinical imaging technique including optical imaging (bioluminescence and fluorescence), microComputed Tomography, and photoacoustic and fluorescence tomography (PAFT).