Faculty Directory › UConn Health

Henry M. Smilowitz, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology


Academic Office Location: Cell Biology UConn Health 263 Farmington Avenue Farmington, CT 06030-6125
Phone:	860-679-2710
Fax:	860-679-3693
Website(s):	Cell Biology Graduate Program Neuroscience Graduate Program

Research
Lab Rotations
Publications

a. Use of gold nanoparticles for tumor imaging, vascular imaging and as a radiation enhancer for tumor therapy.

b. Use of iron and gold nanoparticles for tumor hyperthermia

c. Development of novel brain tumor therapies for experimental, advanced, imminently lethal intracerebral malignant gliomas and melanomas in rats and mice using a combination of radiation therapy and immunotherapy.

d. Novel biomarkers in human breast cancer.

Accepting Lab Rotation Students: Fall Block 2024, Spring 1 and 2 Block 2025

Lab Rotation Projects

Our laboratory is involved in a number of research projects in the fields of cancer, cancer immunotherapy, cancer therapy, tumor and vascular imaging, as can be seen by the following publications. Please contact the Smilowitz Lab for specific projects.

1. Experimental Therapeutics of Brain Tumors: We introduce glioma or melanoma cells into rat or mouse brains and allow the tumors to occupy about 2% of the brain (analogous to human brain tumors at the time of diagnosis) before therapy is started. We first treat with a form of radiation therapy followed by a form of experimental immunotherapy under development. A variety of immunological assays are performed in addition to survival studies.

Journal Articles

Baseline sLAG-3 levels in Caucasian and African-American breast cancer patients.
Swede, Helen; Ridwan, Sharif M; Strandberg, Jillian; Salner, Andrew L; Sporn, Jonathan R; Kuo, Lynn; Ru, Karen; Smilowitz, Henry M Breast cancer research and treatment 2024 Nov;208(1):193-200
Radiation-induced dormancy of intracerebral melanoma: endotoxin inflammation leads to both shortened tumor dormancy and long-term survival with localized senescence.
Ridwan, Sharif M; Emlein, Rose; Mesbahi, Asghar; Annabi, Andrew; Hainfeld, James F; Smilowitz, Henry M Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/500262-023-03481-9 2023 Aug;
Accelerated brachytherapy with the Xoft electronic source used in association with iodine, gold, bismuth, gadolinium, and hafnium nano-radioenhancers.
Mesbahi, Asghar; Rajabpour, Saeed; Smilowitz, Henry M; Hainfeld, James F Brachytherapy, 2022 Nov-Dec21(6)968-978 doi: 10.10161/j.brachy 2022.06.008. Epub 2022 Aug 21 2022 Aug;
Iodine nanoparticles (Niodx) for radiotherapy enhancement of glioblastoma and other cancers. An NCI Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory study
Hanfeld JF, Ridwan SM, Stanishevsky Y, Smilowitzn HM Pharmaceutics 2022 Feb;
Novel Iodine nanoparticles target vascular mimicry in intracerebral triple negative human MDA-MB-231 breast tumors.
Ridwan, Sharif M; Hainfeld, James F; Ross, Vanessa; Stanishevskiy, Yaroslav; Smilowitz, Henry M Scientific reports 2021 Jan;11(1):1203
Distributions of intravenous injected iodine nanoparticles in orthotopic u87 human glioma xenografts over time and tumor therapy.
Ridwan, Sharif M; El-Tayyeb, Ferris; Hainfeld, James F; Smilowitz, Henry M Nanomedicine (London, England) 2020 Oct;15(24):2369-2383
Iodine nanoparticle radiotherapy of human breast cancer growing in the brains of athymic mice.
Hainfeld, James F; Ridwan, Sharif M; Stanishevskiy, F Yaroslav; Smilowitz, Henry M Scientific reports 2020 Sep;10(1):15627
Roadmap for metal nanoparticles in radiation therapy: current status, translational challenges, and future directions.
Schuemann, Jan; Bagley, Alexander; Berbeco, Ross; Bromma, Kyle; Butterworth, Karl T; Byrne, Hilary; Chithrani, Devika B; Cho, Sang Hyun; Cook, Jason R; Favaudon, Vincent; Gholami, Yaser Hadi; Gargioni, Elisabetta; Hainfeld, James F; Hespeels, Félicien; Heuskin, Anne-Catherine; Ibeh, Udoka Maverick; Kuncic, Zdenka; Kunjachan, Sijumon; Lacombe, Sandrine; Lucas, Stephane; Lux, Francois; McMahon, Stephen J; Nevozhay, Dmitry; Ngwa, Wilfred; Payne, J Donald; Penninckx, Sébastien; Porcel, Erika; Prise, Kevin M; Rabus, Hans; Ridwan, Sharif M; Rudek, Benedikt; Sanche, Leon; Singh, Bijay; Smilowitz, Henry M; Sokolov, Konstantin V; Sridhar, Srinivas; Stanishevskiy, Yaroslav; Sung, Wonmo; Tillement, Olivier; Virani, Needa Alnoor; Yantasee, Wassana; Krishnan, Sunil Physics in medicine and biology 2020 May;
Iodine nanoparticles enhance radiotherapy of intracerebral human glioma in mice and increase efficacy of chemotherapy.
Hainfeld, James F; Ridwan, Sharif M; Stanishevskiy, Yaroslav; Panchal, Rahul; Slatkin, Daniel N; Smilowitz, Henry M Scientific reports 2019 Mar;9(1):4505
Small, Long Blood Half-Life Iodine Nanoparticle for Vascular and Tumor Imaging.
Hainfeld, James F; Ridwan, Sharif M; Stanishevskiy, Yaroslav; Smilowitz, Nathaniel R; Davis, James; Smilowitz, Henry M Scientific reports 2018 Sep;8(1):13803
Intravenously-injected gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) access intracerebral F98 rat gliomas better than AuNPs infused directly into the tumor site by convection enhanced delivery.
Smilowitz, Henry M; Meyers, Alexandria; Rahman, Khalil; Dyment, Nathaniel A; Sasso, Dan; Xue, Crystal; Oliver, Douglas L; Lichtler, Alexander; Deng, Xiaomeng; Ridwan, Sharif M; Tarmu, Lauren J; Wu, Qian; Salner, Andrew L; Bulsara, Ketan R; Slatkin, Daniel N; Hainfeld, James F International journal of nanomedicine 2018 Jan;133937-3948
Dependence of gold nanoparticle radiosensitization on cell geometry.
Sung, Wonmo; Ye, Sung-Joon; McNamara, Aimee L; McMahon, Stephen J; Hainfeld, James; Shin, Jungwook; Smilowitz, Henry M; Paganetti, Harald; Schuemann, Jan Nanoscale 2017 Apr;95843-5853
Increasing radiation dose improves immunotherapy outcome and prolongation of tumor dormancy in a subgroup of mice treated for advanced intracerebral melanoma.
Smilowitz, Henry M; Micca, Peggy L; Sasso, Daniel; Wu, Qian; Dyment, Nathanial; Xue, Crystal; Kuo, Lynn Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII 2015 Dec;65127-39
Cytomegalovirus-Based Vaccine Expressing a Modified Tumor Antigen Induces Potent Tumor-Specific CD8(+) T-cell Response and Protects Mice from Melanoma.
Qiu, Zhijuan; Huang, Huakang; Grenier, Jeremy M; Perez, Oriana A; Smilowitz, Henry M; Adler, Barbara; Khanna, Kamal M Cancer immunology research 2015 Jan;3(5):536-46
Infrared-transparent gold nanoparticles converted by tumors to infrared absorbers cure tumors in mice by photothermal therapy.
Hainfeld, James F; O'Connor, Michael J; Lin, Ping; Qian, Luping; Slatkin, Daniel N; Smilowitz, Henry M PloS one 2014 Jan;9(2):e88414
Gold nanoparticle imaging and radiotherapy of brain tumors in mice.
Hainfeld, James F; Smilowitz, Henry M; O'Connor, Michael J; Dilmanian, Farrokh Avraham; Slatkin, Daniel N Nanomedicine (London, England) 2013 Oct;8(10):1601-9
Microlocalization of lipophilic porphyrins: non-toxic enhancers of boron neutron-capture therapy.
Smilowitz, Henry M; Slatkin, Daniel N; Micca, Peggy L; Miura, Michiko International journal of radiation biology 2013 Aug;89(8):611-7
Therapy model for advanced intracerebral B16 mouse melanoma using radiation therapy combined with immunotherapy.
Smilowitz, Henry M; Sasso, Daniel; Lee, Edward W; Goh, Gyuhyeong; Micca, Peggy L; Dilmanian, F Avraham Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII 2013 Jul;62(7):1187-97
Micro-CT enables microlocalisation and quantification of Her2-targeted gold nanoparticles within tumour regions.
Hainfeld, J F; O'Connor, M J; Dilmanian, F A; Slatkin, D N; Adams, D J; Smilowitz, H M The British journal of radiology 2011 Jun;84(1002):526-33
MHC class I and TCR avidity control the CD8 T cell response to IL-15/IL-15Rα complex.
Stoklasek, Thomas A; Colpitts, Sara L; Smilowitz, Henry M; Lefrançois, Leo Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2010 Dec;185(11):6857-65
Gold nanoparticles enhance the radiation therapy of a murine squamous cell carcinoma
Hainfeld J.F., Dilmanian F.A., Zhong Z., Slatkin D.N., Kalef-Ezra J.A., Smilowitz H.M. Physics in Medicine and Biology 2010 Jan;55(11):3045-3059
Radiotherapy enhancement with gold nanoparticles.
Hainfeld, James F; Dilmanian, F Avraham; Slatkin, Daniel N; Smilowitz, Henry M The Journal of pharmacy and pharmacology 2008 Aug;60(8):977-85
Orthotopic transplantation of v-src-expressing glioma cell lines into immunocompetent mice: establishment of a new transplantable in vivo model for malignant glioma.
Smilowitz, Henry M; Weissenberger, Jakob; Weis, Joachim; Brown, Judith D; O'Neill, Rachel J; Laissue, Jean A Journal of neurosurgery 2007 Apr;106(4):652-9
Synergy of gene-mediated immunoprophylaxis and microbeam radiation therapy for advanced intracerebral rat 9L gliosarcomas.
Smilowitz, H M; Blattmann, H; Bräuer-Krisch, E; Bravin, A; Di Michiel, M; Gebbers, J-O; Hanson, A L; Lyubimova, N; Slatkin, D N; Stepanek, J; Laissue, J A Journal of neuro-oncology 2006 Jun;78(2):135-43
Gold nanoparticles: a new X-ray contrast agent.
Hainfeld, J F; Slatkin, D N; Focella, T M; Smilowitz, H M The British journal of radiology 2006 Mar;79(939):248-53
The use of gold nanoparticles to enhance radiotherapy in mice.
Hainfeld, James F; Slatkin, Daniel N; Smilowitz, Henry M Physics in medicine and biology 2004 Sep;49(18):N309-15
The combination of X-ray-mediated radiosurgery and gene-mediated immunoprophylaxis for advanced intracerebral gliosarcomas in rats.
Smilowitz, H M; Coderre, J A; Nawrocky, M M; Tu, W; Pinkerton, A; Jahng, G H; Gebbers, N; Slatkin, D N Journal of neuro-oncology 2002 Mar;57(1):9-18
Early detection of oleic acid-induced lung injury in rats using (111)In-labeled anti-rat intercellular adhesion molecule-1.
Weiner, R E; Sasso, D E; Gionfriddo, M A; Thrall, R S; Syrbu, S; Smilowitz, H M; Vento, J Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine 2001 Jul;42(7):1109-15
Biodistribution of copper carboranyltetraphenylporphyrins in rodents bearing an isogeneic or human neoplasm.
Miura, M; Joel, D D; Smilowitz, H M; Nawrocky, M M; Micca, P L; Hoch, D A; Coderre, J A; Slatkin, D N Journal of neuro-oncology 2001 Apr;52(2):111-7
Long-term immunological memory in the resistance of rats to transplanted intracerebral 9L gliosarcoma (9LGS) following subcutaneous immunization with 9LGS cells.
Smilowitz, H M; Joel, D D; Slatkin, D N; Micca, P L; Nawrocky, M M; Youngs, K; Tu, W; Coderre, J A Journal of neuro-oncology 2000 Jan;46(3):193-203
The combination of boron neutron-capture therapy and immunoprophylaxis for advanced intracerebral gliosarcomas in rats.
Smilowitz, H M; Micca, P L; Nawrocky, M M; Slatkin, D N; Tu, W; Coderre, J A Journal of neuro-oncology 2000 Jan;46(3):231-40
Phosphotyrosine phosphatase activity in human platelets.
Smilowitz, H M; Aramli, L; Xu, D; Epstein, P M Life sciences 1991 Jan;49(1):29-37
Enhancing In Vivo preclinical studies with VivoVistTM and photon counting Micro-CT imaging.
Badea CT, Rickard A, Allphin A, Clark DP, Ghaghada KB, Ridwan S, Smilowitz H, Hainfeld JF, Mowery YM. SPIE Medical Imaging 1293 C-29 Feb 21, 2024
In silico analysis of optimum photon energy spectra and beam parameters for iodine nanopariticle-aided orthovoltage radiation therapy of brain tumors. Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International https://doi.org/10.1177/00375497221135630
Mesbahai A, Sadeghian M, Smilowitz HM, Hainfeld JF. 2022
In Silico analysis of optimum photon energy spectra and beam parameters for iodine nanoparticle-aided orthovoltage radiation therapy of brain tumors.
Mesbahi A., Sadeghian , Smilowitz HM, Hainfeld JF Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International 99:539 (2023) doi:10.1177/00375497221135630

Book Chapters

Gold nanoparticles and infrare heating. use of the Hydrosun wIRA irradiator:
Hainfeld JF and Smilowitz HM Water filtered infra-A radiation: From Basics to Practice. Peter Vaupes, Editor. Springer, 2022. 2022 Apr;

Erratums

Correction: Dependence of gold nanoparticle radiosensitization on cell geometry.
Sung, Wonmo; Ye, Sung-Joon; McNamara, Aimee L; McMahon, Stephen J; Hainfeld, James; Shin, Jungwook; Smilowitz, Henry M; Paganetti, Harald; Schuemann, Jan Nanoscale 2017 Jul;911338

Letters

Author's reply [2]
Hainfield J.F., Slatkin D.N., Focella T.M., Smilowitz H.M. British Journal of Radiology 2007 Jan;80(949):65