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Faculty Focus - Victor Yang

Victor Yang
Victor Yang, MD, PhD, PEng, FRCSC

We are very pleased to have recruited Dr. Victor Yang as our Faculty member at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as of February 2013. Dr. Yang is a leader in translational medicine - specifically for his work in moving optical technologies to active use in the operating room to improve surgical practice. Dr. Yang earned a Masters degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto in 1998 and completed the MD-PhD (Medical Biophysics) program at the University of Toronto in 2006, for which he was recognized by a Governor General’s Gold Medal award for highest academic standing at the University in Sciences and Engineering. He then entered the Neurosurgery residency program at the University of Toronto while continuing his engineering focus at Ryerson University, where he managed a very productive laboratory focusing on ultrasound imaging, endovascular Doppler optical coherence tomography and medical devices design. In 2007, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Ryerson, where he was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and Biophotonics the following year. Dr. Yang completed his neurosurgical residency training in June 2012 with an in-folded clinical fellowship at St. Michael’s Hospital. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2012, as well as completing the European Examination in Neurosurgery with an Outstanding Performance Prize.

In 2013, he was recruited to the Division of Neurosurgery with a staff appointment at Sunnybrook Hospital. Presently, he is appointed as a Staff Neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, as well as a Senior Scientist in Brain Sciences and Physical Sciences at Sunnybrook Research Institute. He is also cross appointed as Professor in the Institute of Medical Science, Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto, as well as Professor in Electrical Computer & Biomedical Engineering at Ryerson University. His research interests lie in high-resolution neurosurgical navigation, multimodality intraoperative imaging guidance, endovascular imaging and minimally invasive therapeutics for carotid disease, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Dr. Yang is married to Jenny.

Current Appointments

  • Senior Scientist, Physical Sciences, Sunnybrook Research Institute.
  • Full Professor, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto.
  • Full Professor, Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto.
  • Full Professor, Electrical, Computer & Biomedical Engineering, Ryerson University.

Past Appointments

  • Associate Professor, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, 2013-2021
  • Associate Professor, Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, 2013-2021.
  • Associate Professor (Status-Only), Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto.
  • Adjunct Professor, Medical Physics, Ryerson University.
  • Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Bioengineering and Biophotonics, Ryerson University, 2008-2018.
  • Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Ryerson University, 2007-2010.
  • Scientist (status), Imaging Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2006-2010.
  • Scientific Associate, Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital, 2004-2007.

    Recent Selected Peer-Reviewed Funding
     
  • Ontario Research Fund, 2018-2023.
    Multimodality optical imaging advancement and integration in a neurosurgical experimental operating room.
    PI: Yang VXD.
    $1,578,153
  • Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), 2017-2020.
    Lab-in-Fibre: Smart glass probing and distributed sensing microsystems.
    PI: Herman P; Co-I: Yang VXD.
    $1,950,000
  • CHRP (CIHR/NSERC partnered), 2017-2020.
    Comprehensive Image-Guided Planning System for Personalized Treatment.
    PI: Yang VXD.
    $507,000
  • National Research Council (NRC), 2015-2016.
    IRAP: Cranial surgical navigation.
    Scientific Officer: Yang VXD.
    $350,000
  • FedDev, 2015-2018.
    IBI Initiative: Surgical navigation technology.
    Scientific Officer: Yang VXD.
    $977,000
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), 2014-2019.
    Discovery Grant: Optical coherence tomography, optical topographical imaging and fluorescence guided surgical laser ablation.
    PI: Yang VXD.
    $185,000
  • Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), 2014-2019.
    Biophotonics Experimental Operating Room.
    PI: Yang VXD.
    $1,573,897
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), 2013-2016.
    Strategic Project Grant - Controlling femtosecond laser processing: smart fibers, catheters, and lab-on-fiber concepts
    PI: Herman P; Co-Is: Yang VXD and Aitchison JS.
    $627,275
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), 2013-2017.
    Biophotonics and bioengineering.
    PI: Yang VXD.
    $817,406
  • Ontario Brain Institute, 2012-2014.
    Novel Imaging of Carotid Plaque for Assessment of Stroke Risk and RealTime Monitoring of Stent Placement.
    PI: Yang VXD.
    $177,053

Selected Distinctions and Awards

  • George Armstrong Peters Prize, Dept. Surgery, University of Toronto, 2017
  • Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation Award for 7D Surgical, 2017
  • Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Bioengineering and Biophotonics, 2013-2018
  • Early Researcher Award, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, 2009
  • Alan R. Hudson Resident Teaching Award, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, 2009

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Lee K, Dobashi Y, Herman P, Madden JDW, Yang VXD. Improved charging and strain rates by laser perforating polypyrrole actuator electrodes. Smart Mater Struct. In press. DOI: 10.1088/1361-665X/aae863.
  • Jakubovic R, Ramjist J, Gupta S, Guha D, Sahgal A, Foster FS, Yang VXD. High-frequency micro-ultrasound imaging and optical topographic imaging for spinal surgery: initial experiences. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2018 Nov;44(11):2379–87.
  • Guha D, Jakubovic R, Gupta S, Fehlings MG, Mainprize T et al. Intraoperative error propagation in 3-dimensional spinal navigation from nonsegmental registration: a prospective cadaveric and clinical study. Global Spine J. 2018 Oct 9. DOI: 10.1177/2192568218804556.
  • Jakubovic R, Guha D, Gupta S, Lu M, Jivraj J et al. High speed, high density intraoperative 3D optical topographical imaging with efficient registration to MRI and CT for craniospinal surgical navigation. Sci Rep. 2018 Oct 5;8(1):14894. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32424-z.
  • Jakubovic R, Ruschin M, Tseng CL, Pejovic-Milic A, Sahgal A, Yang VXD. Surgical resection with radiation treatment planning of spinal tumors. Neurosurgery. 2018 May 15. DOI: 10.1093/neuros/nyy176. [Epub ahead of print]
  • Sarzetto F, Gupta S, Alotaibi NM, Howard P, da Costa L, Heyn C, Maralani PJ, Guha D, Swartz R, Boyle K, Yang VXD. Outcome Evaluation of Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Treated with Endovascular Thrombectomy: a Single-Institution Experience in the Era of Randomized Controlled Trials. World Neurosurg. 2016 Dec 22. pii: S1878-8750(16)31366-3.
  • Guha D, Jakubovic R, Gupta S, Alotaibi NM, Cadotte D, da Costa LB, George R, Heyn C, Howard P, Kapadia A, Klostranec JM, Phan N, Tan G, Mainprize TG, Yee A, Yang VXD. Spinal intraoperative three-dimensional navigation: correlation between clinical and absolute engineering accuracy. Spine J. 2016 Oct 21. pii: S1529-9430(16)31035-X.
  • Vuong B, Genis H, Wong R, Ramjist J, Jivraj J, Farooq H, Sun C, Yang VXD. Evaluation of flow velocities after carotid artery stenting through split spectrum Doppler optical coherence tomography and computational fluid dynamics modeling. Biomed Opt Express. 2014 Nov 26;5(12):4405-16.
  • Mariampillai A, Standish BA, Moriyama EH, Khurana M, Munce NR, Leung MK, Jiang J, Cable A, Wilson BC, Vitkin IA, Yang VXD. Speckle variance detection of microvasculature using swept-source optical coherence tomography. Opt Lett. 2008 Jul 1;33(13):1530-2.
  • Mariampillai A, Leung MK, Jarvi M, Standish BA, Lee K, Wilson BC, Vitkin A, Yang VXD. Optimized speckle variance OCT imaging of microvasculature. Opt Lett. 2010 Apr 15;35(8):1257-9.
  • Munce NR, Wright GA, Mariampillai A, Standish BA, Leung MK, Tan L, Lee K, Courtney BK, Teitelbaum AA, Strauss BH, Vitkin IA, Yang VXD. Doppler optical coherence tomography for interventional cardiovascular guidance: in vivo feasibility and forward-viewing probe flow phantom demonstration. J Biomed Opt. 2010 Jan-Feb;15(1):011103.
  • Cheng KH, Standish BA, Yang VXD, Cheung KK, Gu X, Lam EY, Wong KK. Wavelength-swept spectral and pulse shaping utilizing hybrid Fourier domain modelocking by fiber optical parametric and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. Opt Express. 2010 Feb 1;18(3):1909-15.

For all publications, please see Dr. Yang’s Google Scholar Profile.