Medical Instrumentation Research Overview

Bluestein, Danny

Professor

Danny.Bluestein@sunysb.edu

Summary : Despite major progress, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in the western world. One of the major culprits in cardiovascular disease and in devices designed to treat or restore impaired cardiovascular function is the non-physiologic flow pattern that enhances the hemostatic response mainly through platelet activation. Platelets have long been regarded as the preeminent cell involved in physiologic hemostasis and pathologic thrombosis. An innovative technique for measuring flow induced platelet activation has been developed, and its utility demonstrated in experiments conducted in recirculation devices (models of arterial stenosis, Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), and mechanical heart valves). The mechanisms by which the non-physiologic flow patterns induce platelet activation and generate free emboli, that enhance the risk of cardioembolic stroke, was demonstrated in vivo with mechanical heart valves implanted in the sheep model. The results of this research will aid in elucidating physical forces that regulate cellular function in flowing blood, and may be applied to improve the design of blood recirculating devices and to develop more potent drugs for treating cardiovascular diseases.

Carlson, Josh

Research Assistant Professor

carlsonjm79@gmail.com

Summary : The human brain is highly tuned for detecting salience within one’s environment. In particular, social signals of threat such as fearful facial expressions are preferentially processed and automatically capture observers’ attention. Indeed, these social signals are so powerful that they can influence behavior even when subliminally processed. Much of my research is aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms underlying salience detection within low signal-to-noise environments including subliminal processing conditions. Furthermore, my research examines how differences in brain activity relate to individual differences in one’s ability to detect salience. The hope is that by understanding the brain mechanisms underlying individual differences in human behavior clinicians will be able to better focus treatment efforts for psychopathological behaviors. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), structural MRI, electroencephalogram event-related potentials (EEG/ERP), genetics, and peripheral physiology (e.g., cortisol and heart rate) are all utilized in this research.

Chen, Weiliam

Associate Professor

Weiliam.Chen@sunysb.edu

Summary : Our research is focused on the application of biocompatible/biodegradable natural carbohydrates to address various clinically relevant biomedical problems including wound repair, cerebral aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, abdominal aortic aneurysm endoleak and controlled delivery of therapeutic agents (small molecules, proteins and DNA) through interdisciplinary research efforts. Localized application provides the maximum efficacies of therapeutic agents while minimizing their undesirable effects. Other efforts are targeted towards ophthalmic issues and enhancing the biological responses of polymeric medical devices.

Chon, Ki

Professor

Ki.Chon@sunysb.edu

Summary : The cardiac autonomic nervous system is responsible for maintaining proper homeostasis, or balance, of the cardiovascular system. One of our major areas of research is to detect, quantify, and interpret differences in dynamic characteristics of the cardiac autonomic nervous system between normal and diseased subjects, in an attempt to find a marker for increased risk of sudden cardiac death. Identifying and quantifying differences in the dynamic characteristics of autonomic function between normal and diseased conditions may lead to a better understanding of the role of autonomic function imbalance in diseased conditions, and should have important clinical diagnostic and prognostic applications. Another active research area is the development of computational modeling approaches to understand differences in dynamics of renal autoregulatory mechanisms between normotensive and hypertensive conditions. For both areas of research, we are developing novel linear and nonlinear signal processing techniques that can be successfully applied to achieve the research objectives.

Djuric, Petar

Professor

Petar.Djuric@sunysb.edu

Summary : The theory of signal processing and its applications to a wide range of engineering and scientific problems. Recently, his work in biomedical engineering has been related to the development of computational methods for prediction of cellular and intercellular processes modeled by biochemical reaction networks. Another field of interest is signal processing of data obtained by magnetic resonance spectroscopy with applications to quantification of neural stem cells. Djuric is a Senior Member of IEEE and is a Member of the American Statistical Association and the International Society for Bayesian Analysis. He has been invited to lecture at many universities in the United States and overseas. He has also been Associate Editor of several journals and Guest Editor of special issues.

Du, Congwu

Associate Professor and Scientist

congwu@bnl.gov

Summary : The broad goal of this laboratory is to develop advanced optical instrumentation to detect and characterize the physiological processes in the living biological systems such as brain and heart. More specifically, cutting-edge optical spectroscopy and imaging techniques are developed that permit simultaneous detection of cerebral blood flow, blood volume and tissue oxygenation, as well as intracellular calcium in vivo. We are interested in studying drug-induced abnormalities of the brain function. Cocaine is chosen as one of the preliminary drugs for our research applications because it affects cerebral hemodynamcs, metabolism, and neuronal activities in the brain. The mechanisms that underlie cocaine’s neurotoxic effects are not fully understood, partially due to the technical limitations of current neuroimage techniques to differentiate cerebrovascular from neuronal effects at sufficiently high temporal and spatial resolutions. To solve this problem, we have developed a multimodal imaging platform that combines multi-wavelength laser speckle imaging, optical coherence tomography, and calcium fluorescence imaging to enable simultaneous detection of cortical hemodynamics, cerebral metabolism, and neuronal activities of animal brain in vivo, as well as its integration with microprobes for imaging neuronal function in deep brain regions in vivo. Promising results of in vivo animal brain functional studies demonstrate the potential of this novel multimodality approach to compliment other neuroimaging modalities (e.g., PET, fMRI) for investigating brain functional changes such as those induced by drugs of abuse.

Liang, Jerome Z.

Professor of Radiology, Computer Science, and Physics

jzl@mil.sunysb.edu

Summary : Jerome Liang focuses his attention on the development of quantitative SPECT systems, 3D virtual endoscopy, and computer aided diagnosis. This work includes creating a quantitative SPECT imaging modality as a cost-effective means for patient diagnosis as well as developing a high resolution PET as a functional research imaging modality. Liang is also striving to create a virtual colonoscopy as a cost-effective procedure for colon screening and to construct an automatic method for brain-tissue segmentation for diagnosis of disorders. In addition, he plans to build various models, in terms of physics, mathematics, and statistics, to simulate the practical problems above and then to validate the models by experiments. Liang has published his findings in journals such as Magnetic Resonance Medicine.

Lin, Wei

Research Assistant Professor

Wei.Lin@sunysb.edu

Summary : Embedded system is the key component of a medical instrument. It is a computer system that performs specific measurement and control functions within a device. It can be a complete computer system on a single circuit board running real time operating system or a miniature system using a microcontroller. Recently, Field Programmable Array (FPGA) has become a versatile integrated circuit component that can be programmed to perform specific functions in hardware. This allows us to build multiple computing cores on one chip for deterministic parallel processing. Our lab is specialized in the development of embedded systems for medical applications. We use LabVIEW from National Instrument extensively for system integration and the development of real time systems with FPGA technology. One of our research focuses is the development of a low cost wireless platform for hospital patient care and home healthcare. The system includes a patient portable unit that can perform measurements of the patient vital signs and send the patient data wirelessly and securely to the data gateway. The data can be forwarded through internet to data center such as electronic health record (EHR) for analysis and review by physicians. The system will provide mobility to non-critical patients, enhance the efficiency of healthcare professionals and reduce the overall healthcare cost.

Liu, Jonathan

Assistant Professor

Jonathan.Liu@stonybrook.edu

Summary : Our laboratory develops biomedical optical devices for diagnostics and therapy. Examples include miniature microscopes for real-time optical biopsy of living tissues, as well as spectral imaging devices for in vivo molecular screening of disease biomarkers. Our projects are multi-disciplinary and collaborative, involving the development of advanced optical instrumentation, the use of molecularly-targeted contrast agents, the validation of technologies with preclinical animal models and tissue culture, as well as the translation of devices into the clinic.

Mueller, Klaus

mueller@cs.sunysb.edu

Summary : Klaus Mueller's areas of interest are medical, scientific and information visualization, visual analytics, medical imaging, computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality, and high-performance computing. He has pioneered the use of programmable commodity graphics hardware boards (GPUs) for the acceleration of a wide variety of computer tomographic (CT) reconstruction algorithms and medical physics phenomena. Applications include diagnostic imaging, radiotherapy, electron microscopy, ultrasound tomography for breast mammography, and others. In the visual analytics area he works on devising new high-dimensional data visualization frameworks and combining them with statistical pattern recognition and machine learning to create intuitive interactive analytical reasoning environments for medical professionals. He is also working towards a comprehensive visual data mining environment for neuroscientists, called BrainMiner, to enable a more targeted and experiential derivation of brain functional models from large collections of knowledge and data.

Pan, Yingtian

Professor

Yingtian.Pan@sunysb.edu

Summary : 2D and 3D cross-sectional optical imaging of biological tissue at close to cellular resolution (e.g., 10um) and at depths of 1-3mm can have significant impacts on noninvasive or minimally invasive clinical diagnosis of tissue abnormalities, e.g., tumorigenesis. Laser scanning endoscopes, based on optical coherence tomography (OCT), have been developed and tested on a wide variety of tissues both ex vivo and in vivo. Encouraging results based on animal and human studies show that LSE can provide morphological details correlated well with excisional histology, suggesting its potential for optical biopsy or optically guided biopsy to reduced negative biopsies in clinical practice. Current research of Dr. Pan’s lab is focused on early-stage epithelial cancer detection, diagnosis of cartilage injury and healing, and assessment of engineering tissue growth. In addition, Dr. Pan’s lab studies skin dehydration, geriatric incontinence and laser/biochemical attack to the eye using OCT and light microscopy.

Qin, Yi-Xian

Professor

Yi-Xian.Qin@sunysb.edu

Summary : Early diagnostic of osteoporosis allows for accurate prediction of fracture risk and effective options for early treatment of the bone disease. A new ultrasound technology, based on focused transmission and reception of the acoustic signal, has been developed by Dr. Qin and his team which represents the early stages of development of a unique diagnostic tool for the measure of both bone quantity (density) and quality (strength). These data show a strong correlation between non-invasive ultrasonic prediction and micro-CT determined bone mineral density (r>0.9), and significant correlation between ultrasound and bone stiffness (r>0.8). Considering the ease of use, the non-invasive, non-radiation based signal, and the accuracy of the device, this work opens an entirely new avenue for the early diagnosis of metabolic bone diseases.

Rubin, Clinton

Distinguished Professor & Chair

Clinton.Rubin@sunysb.edu

Summary : Encouraging results show that the application of extremely low level strains to animals and humans will increase bone formation, and thus may represent the much sought after "anabolic" stimulus in bone. More than 15 years of research into non-invasive, non-pharmacological intervention to control osteoporosis, was referenced in Dr. Rubin's paper published in the journal Nature (August 9, 2001; 412:603-604). Dr. Rubin's studies suggest that gentle vibrations on a regular basis will help strengthen the bones in osteoporosis sufferers and increase bone formation. In his study, adult female sheep treated with gentle vibration to their hind legs for 20 minutes daily showed almost 35% more bone density. Clinical trials have been completed on post-menopausal women, children with cerebral palsy, and young women with osteoporosis, all with encouraging results. In expanding the research platform into other physiologic systems, current work demonstrates that these low-level signals influence mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, such that their path to adipocytes is suppressed, and markedly reduces adipose tissue.

Vaska, Paul

Professor and Scientist

vaska@bnl.gov

Summary : Medical imaging techniques have undergone substantial growth in recent years, in both the research and clinical arenas. The standard anatomical imaging modalities of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been complemented by quantitative functional approaches like positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Our lab develops new instrumentation and processing techniques not only to enhance the functional capabilities of PET, but also to combine it with synergistic modalities such as MRI to provide unprecedented, multidimensional information for cancer diagnosis, brain research, and many other applications. We have developed a miniaturized brain scanner for rodents (RatCAP) which avoids the potentially confounding effects of general anesthesia in rat brain studies, and even allows for the simultaneous study of behavior along with neurochemistry by PET. We have also developed new approaches for very high spatial resolution in PET, including a solid-state imager using cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) which achieves sub-mm resolution, and a monolithic scintillator detector with depth-encoding capability via a novel maximum likelihood positioning algorithm. And we have developed multiple imaging systems for simultaneous imaging with PET and high-field MRI, including a rodent brain scanner, a whole-body rodent system, and a prototype clinical breast imager. The research encompasses the development of new detector materials and concepts, low-noise microelectronic signal processing, high-throughput data acquisition methods, Monte Carlo simulation, and new data processing techniques to optimize the extraction of quantitative information from the PET data.