Medical imaging
Technological advances now allow us to image the human body at scales from a single molecule to the whole body.
Technological advances have made human imaging possible at scales from a single molecule to the whole body. By linking the anatomical data collected with emerging imaging technologies to computer simulations, researchers now can form truly functional images of individual patients. These images will allow physicians not only to see what a patient’s organs look like but also how they are functioning even at the smallest dimensions. A major challenge is how to store, analyze, distribute, understand and use the enormous amount of data associated with thousands of images.
Biomedical engineering stands at the forefront of this effort because its researchers are able to integrate the engineering tools needed to solve the technological problems of image analysis with the deeper knowledge of the underlying biological mechanisms. Already, members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, in close collaboration with the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Radiology, have pioneered the use of imaging technology in computational anatomy, neuropsychiatry, computer-integrated surgery and cardiac procedures.
Now, researchers are expanding their imaging efforts into other modalities and organ systems. Ultimately, their work will contribute to advancing image-guided therapy and to the early diagnosis and treatment of a host of disorders, including heart disease and brain dysfunction.
Included in Medical Imaging Research
- Creating new systems and methods for measuring and analyzing imaging data in humans, developing mathematical and computational approaches to compare data across individuals, and applying these techniques to understand, diagnose and treat disease.
- Using novel imaging techniques to provide information on three-dimensional structure and function at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ and organism level.
- Improving ways to image blood flow and cardiac motion with magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound and fluoroscopy.
- Finding and modeling the cerebral cortex to understand both normal and abnormal shape and the relation to genetic and environmental disease.
- Developing bio-inspired algorithms for recognizing objects and actions in video.
