John Kurhanewicz, PhD, who has been UCSF faculty in the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, and Pharmaceutical Chemistry since 1993, joined the UCSF Department of Urology with a joint appointment in 2007. He is a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biology, the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UCSF-UC Berkeley Bioengineering Graduate Group. Kurhanewicz serves on grant review panels for the National Cancer Institutes, National Institute of Health, American Cancer Society and the Department of Defense. He has served as scientific reviewer for over 20 different journals and has been a major contributor, with his courses in molecular and advanced imaging in oncology, to meetings of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Radiologic Society of North America.

Kurhanewicz is recognized internationally for his research in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) of patients with prostate cancer and was involved in the development and translation of this technology into the clinic. He is Director of the UCSF Prostate Imaging Program and the Hyperpolarized High Field NMR Facility For Metabolic Profiling of Human Disease. Kurhanewicz has been awarded major grants for the development and application of MR metabolic imaging to prostate cancer patients and biomarker development. His other areas of research include: hyperpolarized 13C MR imaging, diffusion and perfusion imaging of prostate cancer on high field MR scanners; the identification of new biomarkers using a combination of ex vivo HR-MAS spectroscopy, pathology and gene expression of tissue samples and bio-fluids.