During the residency years in urology at Yale, Nelly became heavily drawn to the diagnostics aspect of patient care and decided to change her specialty to radiology. Given her affinity for innovation, Nelly joined the Abdominal Imaging at UCLA Radiology as a postdoctoral fellow.
Magnetic Resonance image guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) could be the ultimate form of noninvasive surgery. It destroys tumors without making any incisions. This "knifeless surgery" is done as an out- patient procedure and under conscious sedation.Nelly is working on the only non-invasive thermoablative technology (MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery) clinically available and will be involved with multi-center trials involving MRgFUS application of genitourinary and gynecologic disorders.
We believe that Nelly will bring UCLA to the forefront of focused ultrasound surgery technology thanks to the mentorship of highly accomplished advisors — Drs. David Lu and Steven Raman — as well as UCLA's strive to offer novel, minimally invasive treatment options for patients.
Nelly has already written a chapter and a manuscript related to MRgFUS technology and is preparing a research grant to study MRgFUS in liver application. Having Nelly on our team has been a great asset, and we look forward to Nelly's significant contributions to our body of knowledge in focused ultrasound surgery.
Graduating with Phi Beta Kappa Honors from the University of California, Riverside, Nelly Tan obtained her medical doctorate from the David Geffen School of Medicine. During medical school at UCLA, Nelly spent a year at the National Institutes of Health, where she both patented two assays for testing small molecule inhibitors of c-Met tyrosine kinase receptors and published a chapter in "Angiogenesis". She also enjoyed working in the community and founded the first student-run health clinic in Riverside County. After medical school, Nelly began her residency in urology at Yale; she became heavily drawn to the diagnostics aspect of patient care and decided to change her specialty to radiology.
