Medical Imaging Research
The medical imaging research group comprises two faculty members, Sarah Patch and Vladislav V. Yakovlev, interested in a wide array of topics ranging from algorithm development for direct image reconstruction to non-invasive methods for chemically tissue imaging.
Dr. Patch's current research focus is thermoacoustic tomography (TCT), a hybrid imaging technique. Her long-term goal is to quantify the robustness of TCT across different sizes, depths, and types of cancer (lobular, ductal carcinoma, etc.). Ideally, TCT deposits RF energy impulsively in time and uniformly throughout the imaging object, causing thermal expansion. Cancerous masses preferentially absorb RF energy, heat and expand faster than neighboring healthy tissue, creating a pressure wave, which is detected by ultrasound transducers at the edge of the object. Dr. Patch has developed an inversion formula for idealized TCT data and now works to account for physical and experimental effects upon TCT data. Other areas of research include cone beam reconstruction of xray CT data and motion correction for Propeller MRI. Early work in diffuse tomography was motivated by optical/NIR imaging.
For more information: Dr. Patch's research website.
The Yakovlev lab’s efforts in the area of Medical Imaging are focused on the developing of non-invasive tools for chemically specific tissue imaging. Using advanced optical spectroscopy based on vibrational Raman spectroscopy, we have succeeded in real-time quantitative chemical imaging of subsurface layers of tissues. This research is relevant to the early cancer diagnostics, obesity and diabetes management. Significant efforts are devoted to improvement of molecular sensitivity of photoacoustic imaging. This is accomplished by employing the vibrational contrast of linear and nonlinear optical absorption. By utilizing the unique optical properties of recently developed metamaterials, we are currently investigating the next generation of ultrasound transducers, whose sensitivity will be improved by more than two orders of magnitude, capable of high-resolution three-dimensional imaging.
