Medical Imaging Research Group (MIRG)

Research

Photoacoustics

Photoacoustic imaging provides insight into optical contrasts in biological tissue at ultrasonically defined spatial resolution, thus providing increased penetration depth compared to its optical imaging counterparts. This modality can quantify a wide range of endogenous (hemoglobin, melanin, etc.) and exogenous (chemical dyes, nanoparticles, etc.) chromophores via their spectral signatures. Since vascular abnormalities are early indicators in various diseases, photoacoustic imaging can derive structural and functional information about blood vessels by monitoring hemoglobin. Using photoacoustic imaging, our lab is interested in studying the effect of neoadjuvant therapies such as radiotherapy and immunotherapy on the pancreatic tumor microenvironment. Another ongoing study is to measure and monitor drug uptake in mild hyperthermic environments. The figure here shows a schematic diagram of our photoacoustic imaging system used for breast imaging.

Journal Articles