BME Briefs

Machine Learning Technique Promises Early Detection of Osteoarthritis

Gustavo Rohde, professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Virginia, is senior author of a collaborative research study in machine learning to identify patients vulnerable to osteoarthritis.

Microbubbles, Microfluidics, and Molecular Localization: Our Latest Publications

Congrats to Yanjun, Feifei and Elizabeth authors of the lab's four most recent publications:

• Yanjun Xie for "Real-time control of microbubble diameter from a flow-focusing microfluidic device" (a conference paper in IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium).
• Yanjun Xie for "Closed-loop feedback control of microbubble diameter from a flow-focusing microfluidic device" (Journal paper in Biomicrofluidics).
• Feifei Zhao for "A Targeted Molecular Localization Imaging Method Applied to Tumor Microvasculature" (a journal paper in Investigative Radiology). 
• Elizabeth Herbst for "Enhanced visualization of intratumoral microbubbles using singular value thresholding combined with normalized singular spectrum area" (Conference paper in IEEE IUS).

Improving Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: New Coulter Award

Hossack Lab has been awarded $97K from the UVA-Coulter Partnership for "Super resolution molecular imaging for improved prostate cancer diagnostic performance."  Our proposal addresses new methods of ultrasound parameter setting and signal processing to yield approximately five fold improvement in resolution for ultrasound imaging combined with imaging of molecular signature of cancer.

Team Manifold Conducts Virtual Research

This year’s team is the 14th Virginia iGEM team to compete in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, the Giant Jamboree, following a legacy of successful teams and their inventive synthetic biology solutions. Under the guidance of our advisors, Professor Papin and Professor Kozminski (Biomedical Engineering and Biology Departments, respectively), Virginia iGEM has consistently received recognition at the competition, as well as seeding biotech startups Agrospheres INC and Transfoam LLC. Along with a strong reputation to live up to, the 2020 Team has been incredibly resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Dr. Saucerman is promoted to full Professor!

Dr. Saucerman is now a full Professor of Biomedical Engineering! This promotion marks of the BIG career milestones for a professor of BME, right up there with first NIH ROI award (for Jeff, that was 2009), NSF CAREER Award (2013), and promotion to associate professor with tenure (2013). 

Undergraduate Summer Research: Biomedical Engineering Student Is Creating Literature Database

One in an occasional series featuring undergraduate students who are participating in summer research projects.

Christian Jenkins, a fourth year biomedical engineering major, is spending the summer doing research with Don Griffin, assistant professor in biomedical and chemical engineering .

“I’m analyzing publications on porous biomaterial from the last decade and using that information to write a literature review and create a database that allows researchers to easily filter through subtopics within the biomaterial field,” he said.

The nature of the project allows him to work remotely from his apartment in Charlottesville, but he said he misses walking through the hospital late at night and cannot wait to be safely on Grounds again in the fall.

ISMRM 2020 abstracts accepted

Congratulations! Salerno lab's ISMRM 2020 abstracts have been accepted:

Matt's first-authored abstract Automatic quantification of ultra-high resolution quantitative first pass spiral perfusion imaging using Deep-learning based segmentation and motion correction has been accepted as oral presentation!

Ruixi's first-authored abstract Continuous Acquisition of Cine Images and T1 Map using a Free-breathing Respiratory Motion-corrected Dual Flip Angle Inversion Recovery Spiral Technique at 3T has been accepted as oral presentation!

Junyu's first authored abstract High resolution spiral simultaneous multi‐slice first‐pass perfusion imaging with whole-heart coverage at 1.5 T and 3 T has been accepted as oral presentation!

Salerno lab attended SCMR 2020 in Orlando, Florida, USA

Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) is the biggest society for cardiac magnetic resonance ressearchers. Like ISMRM, SCMR holds its annual meeting every spring. This year, SCMR's 23rd annual meeting is hold in Orlando, Florida, USA in Feb 2020. Our salerno lab members Matthew Van Houten, Ruixi Zhou and Junyu Wang attended the conference and presented their works.

Xitong Wang is going to join our lab

Xitong Wang, who is finishing her master at USC this May, will join our lab as a PhD student in the fall of 2020!

Xitong, welcome!

Elizabeth Earns Fellowship from the American Heart Association

Elizabeth Herbst has won an American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Fellowship! Her project focuses on the use of ultrasound molecular imaging to characterize the aneurysmal abdominal aorta.