Imaging - The overall mission of the Imaging Core is to provide the resources, personnel, andtraining needed to develop, modify, repair, and implement the multi-modality imaging platform for datacollection, processing, and evaluation at the clinical sites of the proposed NTR Research Center. The CoreDirector is Katsuo Kurabayashi, PhD at the University of Michigan who will oversee the operation of thisresource, and will address the needs of each clinical site for proper function, calibration, and standardization ofthe wide area endoscope and confocal microscope imaging systems used for clinical data collection. Inaddition, he will direct the development of new endoscope compatible instruments that provide improvedimaging performance, such as the dual axes confocal microscope that can image in vertical cross-sections withover 500 (am tissue penetration to assess for neoplastic invasion and micro-metastases. Sakae Takehana isthe Core Co-Director and will be responsible for providing the wide area endoscopy systems for imaging thefluorescent-labeled peptides from Olympus Medical Systems Corp in Tokyo, Japan. In addition, he will leadthe effort to tune the fluorescence filter specifications on the Lucera videoendoscope to optimize signalcollection from the dye and to develop near-infrared fluorescence imaging techniques in the future. RolfWolters, PhD is also a Core Co-Director and is from STI Medical Systems Inc in Honolulu, HI. He will beresponsible for providing image processing software to perform registration of the multi-modal images,including the white light and fluorescence data from the videoendoscope. Dr Wolters will work closely with theSite Directors and CRAs from each clinical center to analyze the video data, provide imagie registration andcorrelation to pathology, and develop diagnostic maps to help the clinician identify dysplastic regions forguiding tissue biopsy. Because of the large geographical distance between the home facilities of the CoreDirectors, they will discuss the NTR Core imaging instrumentation needs via teleconference on a bi-weeklybasis. Implementation and follow up of action items will be performed in the appropriate optical engineeringlab, including 1) Olympus Medical Systems Corp for modification, tuning, and repair of the Luceravideoendoscopes, 2) STI Medical Systems Inc for modification, trouble-shooting, and debugging of imageprocessing and feature extraction software, and 3) University of Michigan Medical Innovations Center for thedesign, prototyping and fabrication of the dual axes confocal microscope.
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