Three-Time Grant Recipient Pays It Forward
Florence L. Chiang, MD, PhD, credits her start in radiology in part to an RSNA Resident Research Grant. As a third-year medical student taking an elective course in radiology, she had the chance to help Frank Yu, MD, with a project funded by the R&E Foundation.
“This was my first exposure to radiology research,” said Dr. Chiang, “And this positive experience changed the trajectory of my career in medicine. At the time, I was in the process of applying to a surgical specialty but decided ultimately to pursue radiology with a focus on research.”
Today, Dr. Chiang is an assistant professor and neuroradiologist in the Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center with secondary appointments in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, Advanced Imaging Research Center, and in Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. True to her decision to make a career in radiology research, she leads a research laboratory in computational neuroimaging that is working to develop imaging biomarkers to improve patient monitoring and accelerate neurotherapeutic development in multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.
This research interest has been fueled three times by RSNA research grants. She received an RSNA Research Resident Grant in 2019 during her radiology residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to develop a network-based imaging marker of neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis using resting-state functional MRI.
Then, while completing a fellowship in neuroradiology in 2023 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Dr. Chiang received the Ralph Schlaeger Charitable Foundation/RSNA Research Fellow Grant. Her research project focused on continuing the development of a network-based imaging marker to track brain changes in people with multiple sclerosis before significant brain tissue loss occurs. By using advanced imaging techniques like high-gradient diffusion MRI to better understand alterations in brain networks, she worked to develop an imaging marker that can improve monitoring of disease progression and help evaluate new treatments designed to protect and repair the brain.
“This grant was important because it allowed me to collect preliminary data and generate new lines of inquiry for future studies,” Dr. Chiang shared. “This work was awarded the Cornelius G. Dyke Award for best manuscript by the American Society of Neuroradiology in 2024. We have extended our research to more fully capture the disease process in multiple sclerosis by investigating neuroinflammation alongside brain network changes via PET and MRI, which is a study currently funded by the RSNA Research Scholar Award.”
Dr. Chiang’s current RSNA Research Scholar grant was awarded in 2025 and runs through 2027.
In gratitude for the many ways the Foundation has funded her research and helped her advance important questions about multiple sclerosis disease progression, Dr. Chiang is committed to paying it forward. She has volunteered several times for a Foundation study section, playing a critical role in the grant review process.
She said, “It feels full circle for me as I review grants for the RSNA. I dedicate my time because I know how important these grants and research training opportunities are for junior investigators. It has been such a pleasure working with the grants staff and leadership who work tirelessly every grant cycle to keep things running, and whenever there is an opportunity to help, I try my best to contribute.”
To learn more about volunteering with the RSNA R&E Foundation, reach out to Victoria Peterson at vpeterson@rsna.org. Grant applications for the 2027 grant cycle opened Oct. 1 with deadlines in January and February 2027. Learn more about applying for a grant.