Dr. Nie received her PhD in radiological physics from University of California, Irvine. Following two years as a Research Scientist at Carestream Health Inc., she completerd her residency training at University of California, San Francisco. In the same year, she joined the Department of Radiation Oncology at Rutgers and has been working here since then. Dr. Nie actively covers every component of the daily physics work, from patient simulations, treatment setups, treatment plan designs, to patient specific and machine QAs in conventional external beam, Proton therapy, Gamma Knife and brachytherapy procedures. As the Director of Gamma Knife physics service, she is responsible for ensuring the overall quality of the Gamma Knife program and all the machine and patient related safety issues. Additionally, she has participated in several major technical upgrades in the department, such as the commissioning of Linac machines and also established the shielding design for the new oncology facilities. Dr. Nie’s research focuses on (1) machine learning and its applications in adaptive radiotherapy, (2) high-throughput radiomics for treatment outcome analysis, and (3) deformable image registration. Her research is supported by several grants in which she has served as Principle Investigator. She is the co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 3 book chapters, about 100 proceedings. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling with her family.
Publications
1. Chen Z, Li X, Li J, Zhang S, Zhou P, Yu X, Ren Y, Wang J, Liu Y, Ding Z, Yang B, Deng Q, Lin Q, Nie K, Cai Z, Ma S, Kuang Y. A covid-19 risk score combining chest CT radiomics and clinical characteristics to differentiate COVID-19 pneumonia from other viral pneumonias. Aging, 2021;13(7):9186-9224
2. Zhang Y, Yue N, Su MY, Liu B, Ding Y, Zhou Y, Wang H, Kuang Y, Nie K. Improving CBCT quality to CT level using deep learning with generative adversarial network. Med Phys. 2021;48(6):2816-2826.
3. Wang H, Xu Z, Grantham K, Zhou Y, Cui T, Zhang Y, Liu B, Wang X, Vergalasova I, Rehyan M, Weiner J, Shabbar D, Yue N, Nie K. Performance assessment of two motion management systems for frameless stereotactic radiosurgery. Strahlenther Onkol, 2021;197(2):150-157
4. Wang H, Nie K, Kuang Y. A Monte Carlo study to investigate the feasibility of an on-board SPECT/ spectral-CT/CBCT imager for medical linear accelerator. Med. Phys., 2020,47(10):5112-5122
5. Wang H, Nie K, Kuang Y. An On-board Spectral-CT/CBCT/SPECT Imaging Configuration for Small-Animal Radiation Therapy Platform. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2020;39(3):588-600
6. Gaines DK, Simone CB, Hadzitheodorou C, Kim S, Osorio B, Malhotra J, Nie K, Zou W, Aisner J, Jabbour SK. Tumor volume reduction evaluated by cone beam computed tomography during stereotactic body radiotherapy for early stage non-small cell lung cancer, J Thorac Disease, 2020,12(5):2482-2488
7. Cao H, Xiao Z, Zhang Y, Kwong T, Danish S, Weiner J, Wang X, Yue N, Dai Z, Kuang Y, Bai Y, Nie K. Dosimetric comparisons of different hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy techniques in treating large intracranial tumors. J Neurosurgery, 2019;132(4):1024-1032
8. Nie K, Al-Hallaq H, Li X-A, Benedict SH, Sohn J, Moran J, Fan Y, Huang M, Knopp M, Michalski JM, Monroe J, Obcemea C, Tisen CI, Solberg T, Wu J, Xia P, Xiao Y, El Naqa I. NCTN assessment on current applications of radiomics in oncology, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 2019;104(2):302-315
9. Carminucci A, Nie K, Weiner J, Danish S. Assessment of motion error for frame-based and non-invasive mask-based fixation using the Leksell Gamma Knife® Icon TM radiosurgery system, J Neurosurgery, 2018;129(Suppl1):133-139
10. Yegya-Raman N, Zou W, Nie K, Malhotra J, Jabbour SK. Advanced radiation techniques for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer: intensity-modulated radiation therapy and proton therapy. J Thorac Dis, 2018:S2474-S2491.
11. Niu T, Yang P, Sun X, Mao T, Xu L, Yue N, Kuang Y, Shi L, Nie K. Variations of quantitative perfusion measurement on dynamic contrast enhanced CT for colorectal cancer: implication of standardized image protocol. Phys Med Biol. 2018;63(16):165009
12. Huang Q, Jabbour SK, Xiao Z, Yue N, Wang X, Cao H, Kuang Y, Zhang Y, Nie K. Dosimetric feasibility of 4DCT-ventilation imaging guided proton therapy for locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Radiat Oncol. 2018;13(1):78.
13. Nie K, Shi L, Chen Q, Hu X, Jabbour SK, Yue N, Niu T, Sun X. Rectal Cancer: Assessment of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation Outcome based on Radiomics of Multiparametric MRI. Clin Cancer Res. 2016;22(21):5256-5264
14. Nie K, Pouliot J, Smith E, Chuang C. Performance variations among clinically available deformable image registration tools in adaptive radiotherapy-how should we evaluate and interpret the results. J Appl Clin Med Phys, 2016, 17(2):328-340.
15. Kirby N, Chen J, Kim H, Morin O, Nie K, Pouliot J. An automated deformable image registration evaluation of confidence tool. Phys Med Biol, 2016;61(8):N203-14.
Awards
• Fellow, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, AAPM (2021)
• Best Paper Award, NRG Oncology National Clinical Trial Network (2019)
• Scientific Highlights, the 60th Annual Meeting, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2018)
• Best-In-Physics Award, the 59th Annual Meeting, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2017)
• Science Council Award, the 57th Annual Meeting, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2015)
• Career Developmental Awards, California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) (2007-2019)