Research Interest: Development of novel imaging approaches and analysis strategies to better understand the psychiatric and neurological brain disorders

Mentor: Dr. Milan Sonka Deep learning can be a powerful tool, but the inherent “black box” nature of these methods makes it significantly more difficult to build the trust necessary to make the translation from research to clinical practice. My research focuses on developing explainable deep learning techniques for the segmentation and classification of 3 and 4-D pulmonary CT images. The generated explanations can provide the evidence and clarification necessary to help clinicians better understand and validate the decisions made by these models. As a further step, we are also researching the use of these generated explanations for anomaly detection. By detecting regions of CT images that cause inconsistent explanations, we can automatically detect abnormalities such as lung nodules or pneumothorax.

Research Interest: Enhancement of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models of the deposition of aerosols in the human lung

Research Interest: Cardiovascular biomechanics, finite element method, geometric modeling, 3D reconstruction, mechanical testing of biologic tissues

Research Interest: Image processing, medical imaging, signal processing, cardiopulmonary imaging

Research Interest: Tensor scale-based image analysis, digital topology and geometry, object class uncertainty theory in images segmentation and classification

Mentor: Dr. Kung-Sik Chan; I am a PhD student in the statistics department at the University of Iowa. I work on statistical analyses to see how smokers can decrease inflammation in their lungs through the restoration of perfusion in areas of smoking associated infiltrates. My focus is on taking into account the bias that can exist in randomized controlled trials due to missing data from dropouts. This bias can hide practically important findings as well as remove an ability to make cause and effect statements about the findings.

Research Interest: Tissue engineering, multi-scale mechanics to engineer in vitro models of tissues, and biomechanics of the lung

Research Interest: Multimodal investigation of lung nodules, incorporating computed tomography, nuclear imaging, and histopathology

Research Interest: Medical image processing and analysis

Research Interest: Free Radical Biology and Medicine

Mucociliary transport (MCT) is an important innate defense mechanism of the airways. Mucus traps particulate matter that enters the lung, while ciliated cells propel mucus out of the airways. Failure of this defense is implicated in many airway diseases including Cystic Fibrosis (CF). The goal of my research is to develop an imaging assay to measure MCT in healthy and CF disease states. I utilize dynamic PET imaging to capture MCT overtime and apply imaging processing techniques to quantify the movement and identify differences between CF and healthy subjects.

Research Interest: pulmonary diseases and lung infections, advanced airway imaging modalities and analysis

Research Interest: Quantitative PET, cyclotron-based radionuclide production, and small animal imaging

Research Interest: Computational fluid dynamics, biofluid mechanics, materials processing

Mentor: Dr. Kristan Worthington Qi Wang is an MD-PhD trainee at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program. Her current research involves utilizing photopolymerizable biomaterial to develop an in vitro model for studying pulmonary fibrosis. Photopolymerizable biomaterials are versatile and relatively easy to manipulate to control chemistries and stiffnesses. Thus, they are excellent substrates for studying lung cell behavior as they can be used to mimic stiffness, chemistry and cyclical strain experienced during healthy and pathological conditions. By observing cell behavior on our in vitro lung system using microscopy, we can gain an understanding of how fibrosis progress given specific substrate chemistry and mechanical stimuli.

Research Interest: Study of mechanisms of action of anti-cancer monoclonal antibodies, and development of novel approaches to immunotherapy of lymphoma

Research Interest: Biology of cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogenesis

Research Interest: Computer-aided medical surgery and diagnosis, biomedical image analysis

Research Interest: Gene transfer to human airway epithelia in particular to develop gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, fluid composition of the airway surface liquid and how it affects innate immunity