Before changing fields to optical imaging, the candidate has worked doing research in elementary particle physics and general relativity in the area of superstring theory. The long term career goal of the candidate is to become an independent researcher who has a unique set of knowledge and breadth of experience in numerical and analytical modeling as well as in biomedical engineering and medical sciences in order to develop new medical imaging tools and applications contributing to understanding tumor management. The immediate goal of the candidate is to upgrade an existing hybrid x-ray/near-infrared tomography system for pre-clinical time-domain measurements, making it optimal for imaging glioma tumors grown in mice. The main research objective of this proposal is to develop new data acquisition methods and algorithms to create tomography images that provide synergistic anatomical and functional information pertaining to glioma tumor growth. Fluorescence molecular tomography and diffuse optical tomography studies will be performed based on different optical markers potentially providing complementaryinformation. The proposed methods will use structural anatomical images from x-ray tomography as prior information enhancing the utility of optical tomography data. The research will be conducted in synergy with a clinical trial underway at Dartmouth College evaluating how glioma tumor resection guided by fluoresence imaging can positively affect patient survival. Dartmouth has significant resources in the field of medical and engineering graduate education, and the candidate will use this career transition award to train at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the Medical School and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, with a central appointment in the Engineering School. The candidate's research career will be developed by (i) taking courses in medical engineering, tissue biochemistry and biostatistics, (ii)taking part in related events and lectures, (iii)attending group meetings at the NCI funded Cancer Center, (iv) presenting research results at oncology, radiology and imaging conferences, (v) planning with scientists working in biomedical companies developing pre-clinical instruments, and (vi)making use of the NCI resources in molecular imaging agent development.
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