BIOIMAGING
Director: Xinmai Yang, Ph.D.
Bioimaging science is an evolving field of biomedicine and bioengineering that involves the development and application of imaging technologies and computational software tools to answer biological questions in life sciences. This discipline brings together engineers, computer scientists, physicists, biologists, chemists and clinicians engaged in the development of equipment and methodologies for characterizing tissue properties and examining its structure and function through in vivo or ex vivo visualization at multiple resolutions, ranging from molecular and cellular to organ level. The imaging technologies are mainly based on the principles of optics, photonics, magnetic resonance, nuclear medicine, radiation, ultrasonics and spectroscopy. Modern applications of bioimaging include multi-photon imaging, image-guided interventional procedures, surgical planning, oncology treatment planning, endoscopic and laparoscopic surgeries and virtual telemedicine. Image processing and analysis is an important part of bioimaging and allows measurement and quantification of anatomical, physiological and/or clinically meaningful parameters. This track is closely linked to the other tracks of the bioengineering program because of supplying critical supportive data. For example, as part of bioimaging, gene-array imaging and analysis provide data for mining with the techniques used in bioinformatics.
As the students in this track are prepared for careers in industry, academia and public service, they are trained in the current bioimaging modalities; fundamentals of physical and mathematical principles and operations, hardware and software, image contrast produced and its interpretation, image quality analysis and measures, quality control tests with phantoms, receiver operating characteristics and target detectability, molecular and cellular contrast agents. Students are exposed to in vivo and ex vivo applications and learn biomarkers specific to individual modality and their utilities. Students use this knowledge to interpret the image contrast for understanding the basic anatomical and physiological relationships in normal and abnormal (e.g. disease) states and for accurate and reproducible clinical diagnosis or visualization.
Track Faculty

Titles
-Professor, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
-Professor, Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
-Biomolecular Engineering
Research Interests
-Nanoparticles and Colloids in Pharmaceuticals and Biomedicine

Titles
-Director, Hoglund Brain Imaging Center
-Professor, Neurology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Imaging Studies in Cognitive Recovery from Brain Injury and Stroke
Titles
-Professor, Neurology
-Associate Director, Alzheimer's Disease Center
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Utilizing MRI to examine how lifestyle factors such as exercise and diet influence brain aging and Alzheimer's

Titles
-Professor, Neurology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Developing neuroimaging (magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging) and signal processing methods to study brain bioenergetics and metabolic changes with aging and neurodegeneration in clinical and preclinical studies.

Titles
-Associate Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Vasculogenesis
-Tissue Movements During Early Development
-Extracellular Matrix Assembly
-Multicellular Motility

Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering
-Biomechanics & Neural Engineering
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
Research Interests
-Tissue Mechanics
-Computational Joint Mechanics

Titles
-Research Assistant Professor, Neurology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Use of sophisticated signal processing of electrophysiologic cardiac signals to understand fetal autonomic nervous system development (fetal imprinting) and infant visual development

Titles
-Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
Research Interests
-Optical/RF Measurement and Bioscensors
-Novel Photonic Devices
-Optical Communication Systems

Titles
-Associate Professor, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-In vivo characterization of neurodegenerative diseases using novel MRI techniques

Titles
-Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Computational analysis of cell and tissue dynamics during early embryogenesis
-The Cell Biology of Vascular Pattern Formation
-Physical Mechanisms of Morphogenesis
-Cell Surface-Extracellular Matrix Interactions
-Developmental Malformations

Titles
-Professor, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering
-Biomechanics & Neural Engineering
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
Research Interests
-Nano-micro-macro mechanics of calcified and soft tissues
-Constitutive modeling and computational methods
-Scanning acoustic microscopy and ultrasonic testing

Titles
-Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Program
-Vice Chair Education, Neurosurgery
-Associate Professor, Neurosurgery
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)

Titles
-Professor & Vice Chair of Research, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
-Director, Landon Center on Aging
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomechanics & Neural Engineering
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
Research Interests
-Neural Mechanisms of Recovery after Brain Injury
-implantable Devices for Brain Plasticity

Titles
-Associate Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-"Research in the lab is interdisciplinary and focuses on the dynamic nature of the extracellular matrix, the milieu that surrounds the cells, and contributes to their shape, locomotion, gene expression, and every aspect of their behavior...To study these dynamic molecules we use automated microscopes and fluorescent probes to perform time-lapse imaging of avian developmental events and the role of the ECM in these events."

Titles
-Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology and Neuroscience Graduate
-Program/Director, Microscopy and Analytical Imaging Resource Core Lab
Associated Tracks
-BioImaging
Research Interests
-The development and application of tools and workflows for multi-scale multi-modal correlated volume microscopies and three-dimensional volume reconstruction to unravel synaptic geometry

Titles
-Assistant Professor, Director of Basic Research
Associated Tracks
-Biomechanics & Neural Engineering
-Computational Bioengineering
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Neural encoding of hand and finger movements
-Brain-machine interfaces
-Data science/machine learning for neurotechnologies

Titles
-Professor, Director of Clinical Research
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Computational Bioengineering
Research Interests
-Rehabilitation Medicine

- Track Director, Computational Bioengineering
- Associate Professor, Electrical Eng. and Computer Sci.
Associated Tracks
-Computational Bioengineering
-Bioimaging
-Biomechanics & Neural Engineering
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
Research Interests
-Computational Medicine
-Computational Surgery
-Computational Anatomy
-Computational Biomechanics
-Patient-Specific Model and Mesh Generation
-Image Processing

Titles
-Professor, Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomolecular Engineering
Research Interests
-Utilizing cell adhesion molecules for targeted drug delivery and tissue engineering

- Director, Institute for Bioengineering Research
- Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor, Mech. Eng.
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering
-Biomedical Product Design & Development
Research Interests
Professor Spencer and her research team are designing, synthesizing, and developing novel biomaterials for the repair and replacement of mineralized tissues. Under in vivo conditions, failure of a repair or replacement generally begins at the biomaterial/tissue interface and thus, a key aspect of our work is understanding the fundamental phenomena that control biological interactions at material interfaces.

Titles
-Director, Center for Computational Biology
-Professor, Molecular Biosciences
Associated Tracks
-Computational Bioengineering
Research Interests
-Development of molecular recognition methods for structural genomics and bioinformatics

Titles
-Professor and Chair, Cancer Biology
-Associate Director for Basic Sciences
-Associate Director for Education
Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
-Computational Bioengineering
-Biomolecular Engineering
Research Interests
-Tumor progression, invasion, metastasis

Titles
-Professor, Molecular Bioscience
Associated Tracks
-Biomaterials, Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Drug discovery
-Drug delivery
-Cell biology/engineering
-Genetic engineering
-Nanotechnology

Associated Tracks
-Bioimaging
Research Interests
-Photoacoustic Imaging
-Biomedical Ultrasound