Dr. Bruce Faddegon is an internationally recognized leader in medical physics whose innovative work has transformed precision radiation therapy techniques worldwide. He currently serves as Professor in Residence in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he maintains an active research program bridging computational physics and clinical oncology. As a board-certified clinical medical physicist, Dr. Faddegon has cultivated a distinguished career focused on solving complex challenges in radiation dose calculation and treatment planning. His academic leadership extends across multiple prestigious collaborations with institutions including Massachusetts General Hospital and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, establishing him as a central figure in advancing radiation therapy methodologies.
Dr. Faddegon's pioneering research has fundamentally advanced Monte Carlo simulation methods for treatment head simulation and dose calculation in radiation therapy, creating new standards for accuracy in cancer treatment. He spearheaded the development of TOPAS (Tool for Particle Simulation), an open-source platform that has revolutionized the field by enabling more sophisticated modeling of radiation interactions in biological tissues. His work received sustained NIH support from 2009 to 2024, beginning with an R01 grant focused on proton therapy applications and continuing with renewed funding for organ and cell radiobiology research. Most significantly, Dr. Faddegon expanded TOPAS capabilities through an NIH U24 grant from the NCI Informatics Technology for Cancer Research program, creating applications that now serve both conventional radiotherapy and medical imaging communities with unprecedented precision.
As a 2007 Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Dr. Faddegon has cemented his legacy as a thought leader whose work directly addresses critical challenges in therapeutic ratio optimization for aggressive cancer treatments. His laboratory continues to drive innovation through the development of TOPAS-nBio, which incorporates enhanced track structure simulation capabilities using Geant4-DNA to better understand the relationship between ionization deposition details and biological effects. Currently supported by an NIH R01 grant awarded in 2015, his research focuses on implementing ionization detail for planning particle beam therapy to improve treatment outcomes in challenging clinical scenarios. Dr. Faddegon's translational approach prioritizes cost-effective solutions that enhance accuracy and precision in radiotherapy, ultimately advancing the field's ability to treat sites where side effects, local control, and metastases present significant clinical hurdles.
