Prof. Benjamin M. Ellingson Ph.D.
About Benjamin Ellingson
Prof. Benjamin M. Ellingson is Professor of Radiology, Psychiatry, Bioengineering, and Neurosurgery within the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he has held a faculty position since July 2010. He serves as Director of MRI Research, Director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Imaging Laboratory (BTIL), and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Computer Vision and Imaging Biomarkers (CVIB). His research focuses on the development, testing, validation, and implementation of advanced MR and PET imaging biomarkers for early diagnosis, biological characterization, and therapeutic response assessment in neuro-oncology. He is a member of the UCLA Brain Tumor Program and holds advisory roles with multiple industry partners relating to advanced imaging techniques, radiographic response assessment, and image interpretation in brain tumor clinical trials.
Prof. Ellingson’s research interests encompass advanced functional and structural MR imaging of primary brain tumor physiology and response to treatment, imaging biomarkers for brain tumors, voxel-wise spatiotemporal modeling of physiological imaging parameters, predictive tumor growth and invasion models, diffusion and perfusion MRI, and molecular imaging of brain and body cancers. He has specific expertise in radiogenomics in glioblastoma and in the development of cell invasion, motility, and proliferation level estimate (CIMPLE) maps derived from serial diffusion MR images. His methodological contributions include quantitative volumetric analysis of conventional MRI response in recurrent glioblastoma, spatially quantifying microscopic tumor invasion and proliferation using voxel-wise solutions to glioma growth models, and serial diffusion MRI approaches validated as biomarkers for human glioma cellularity.
His translational work bridges investigator-initiated methodology and the operational requirements of sponsored multi-center trials. He has co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed original research articles and holds several patents relating to neuroimaging. Active funded research programs include NIH/NCI-supported studies of quantitative molecular MR-PET imaging of glycolysis in glioblastoma (R01CA279984), the role of decorin and diffusion MRI in anti-VEGF efficacy for recurrent glioblastoma (R01CA270027), and simultaneous multinuclear metabolic MRI in human brain tumors (DoD CDMRP CA200290). He also serves as Core Principal Investigator for the UCLA Brain Tumor SPORE Neuro-Imaging Core (P50CA211015).
Prof. Ellingson has extensive experience in the integration, quantitation, and interpretation of imaging in multicenter clinical trials in brain cancer. He serves as Chair of the Neuro-Imaging Committee for the NIH-funded Adult Brain Tumor Consortium (ABTC), Chair of the Imaging Committee for the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation Consortium for Early Phase Clinical Trials, Chair of the Imaging Committee for the Glioblastoma Global Adaptive Trial, and Co-Chair of the imaging committee for brain tumor trials run by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. He is also a member of the ACRIN head/neck/neuro imaging committee and sits on several academic and patient advisory steering committees.
His operational trial contributions are evidenced by named authorship on imaging methodology papers within specific named trials. He is listed as a named contributor on the INDIGO trial (vorasidenib in IDH1-mutant or IDH2-mutant low-grade glioma, published in Lancet Oncology 2025, PMID: 41175888), a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial. A framework paper for statistical parametric mapping using a Phase III trial dataset (Clinical Cancer Research 2026, PMID: 41837753) and a Phase I/II study of pamiparib and metronomic temozolomide for recurrent IDH-mutant gliomas (Neuro-Oncology 2026, PMID: 41099363) further evidence his operational imaging role in sponsored trials.
Prof. Ellingson has co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed original research articles and holds several patents relating to neuroimaging. He has received the SNO Award for Excellence in Neuroimaging from the Society for Neuro-Oncology (2019), the Art of the Brain — Johnny Mercer Foundation Brain Tumor Research Award (2013), the ACRIN Young Investigator Award from the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (2012), and the W.S. Moore Young Investigator Award in Clinical Research from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2010). Recent work appears in Lancet Oncology, Nature Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, Neuro-Oncology, and AJNR American Journal of Neuroradiology. He serves on the RANO (Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology) working group, with published contributions to RANO criteria for brain metastases amino acid PET imaging and for grade 1–3 glioma clinical trial endpoints. His ORCID is 0000-0002-2764-6640.
Prof. Ellingson completed his undergraduate training at Milwaukee School of Engineering, graduating with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2003. He then pursued graduate studies at Marquette University, graduating with an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2005, followed by a Ph.D. in Functional Imaging — Biomedical Engineering, completed jointly at Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2008. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Radiology and MRI Physics at the Medical College of Wisconsin from 2008 to 2010. He joined the faculty of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in July 2010, where he has held his current professorial positions across Radiology, Psychiatry, Bioengineering, and Neurosurgery.