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CREOL Colloquium Series: Lihong V. Wang "Photoacoustic tomography: High-resolution in vivo imaging at new depths"
Friday, March 14, 2008 10:30 PM to 12:00 PM CREOL Room 102
Lihong V. Wang, Ph.D.Gene K. Beare Distinguished ProfessorOptical Imaging LaboratoryDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. LouisEmail: lhwang@biomed.wustl.edu URL: http://oilab.seas.wustl.edu
We develop biophotonic technologies for functional and molecular imaging by physically combining non-ionizing electromagnetic and ultrasonic waves via energy transduction. Key applications include early-cancer detection and functional brain imaging. Unfortunately, electromagnetic waves in the non-ionizing spectral region do not penetrate biological tissue in straight paths as x-rays do. Consequently, high-resolution pure optical imaging technologies are limited to within about one optical transport mean free path (~1 mm) of the surface of biological tissue. Ultrasonic imaging, on the contrary, provides good image resolution but suffers from strong speckle artifacts as well as poor contrast in early-stage tumors. We have developed ultrasound-mediated imaging modalities by combining electromagnetic and ultrasonic waves synergistically to overcome the above problems.
In photoacoustic tomography (PAT), an expanded pulsed laser beam diffuses into the biological tissue and generates a small but rapid temperature rise, which causes the emission of ultrasonic waves as a result of thermoelastic expansion. The short-wavelength ultrasonic waves are then detected to form high-resolution tomographic images.
Thermoacoustic tomography (TAT) is similar to photoacoustic tomography except that low-energy radio-frequency pulses, instead of laser pulses, are used. Although the long-wavelength radio-frequency waves diffract rapidly in the tissue, the short-wavelength ultrasonic waves provide high spatial resolution.
Dr. Lihong Wang studied for the Ph.D. degree at Rice University, Houston, Texas under the tutelage of Drs. Robert Curl, Richard Smalley and Frank Tittel. He currently holds the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He has authored and co-authored two books, including one of the first textbooks in Biomedical Optics. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature Protocols, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Optics Letters, and IEEE Transactions. He has delivered 160 plenary, keynote, and invited talks. He received the NIH FIRST award, NSF CAREER award, and Outstanding Young Scientist Award sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Medical, Inc. and the Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology.
Dr. Wang is chair of the International Biomedical Optics Society. He is also a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Optical Society of America, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. He serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Biomedical Optics and Applied Optics.
CREOL Colloquium SeriesContact: Aristide DogariuPresentation starts at 11:00 AM preceded by mingling & refreshments from 10:30.
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