News

Research work at QBIL made the cover of Medical Physics
In the June issue of Medical Physics, the QBIL paper entitled “3D ultrasound image segmentation using wavelet support vector machines” made the cover of the journal. Medical Physics is an official science journal of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. - June 2012

Akbari H, Fei BW (corresponding author). 3D ultrasound image segmentation using wavelet support vector machines, Medical Physics 2012;39:2972-2984. Full Text

To read the June issue of Medical Physics, please visit: http://online.medphys.org/resource/1/mphya6/v39/i6

Dr. Baowei Fei was invited to particpate the NIH Biomedical Imaging Technology (BMIT) Study Section.
Dr. Fei was invited to particpate the NIH Biomedical Imaging Technology (BMIT) Study Section. The BMIT Study Section reviews grant applications involving basic, applied, and pre-clinical aspects of the design and development of medical imaging system technologies, their components, software, and mathematical methods for studies at the cellular, organ, small or large animal, and human scale.
- Feb. 2012

Research Work at QBIL received the Cum Laude Poster Award at the 2011 SPIE Medical Imaging Conference.
Prostate image segmentation research received the Cum Laude Poster Award at the SPIE Medical Imaging: Visualization, Image-guided Procedures and Modeling Conference in Orlando, Florida on February 14, 2011. The research work was entitled "Automatic 3D segmentation of ultrasound images using atlas registration and statistical texture prior". Authors contributed to this work include X. Yang, D. Schuster, V. Master, P. Nieh, A. Fenster and B. Fei at Emory University. - February 2011

Dr. Baowei Fei received an Award for a Developmental Research Project from the Emory SPORE in Head and Neck Cancer.
Emory University Winship Cancer Institute (Emory WCI) Head and Neck Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) is funded by the NIH/NCI. The overall goal of the Emory WCI HNC SPORE is to improve prevention and treatment of head and neck cancer with emphasis on new discoveries, rapid translation to patients who are suffering, disability and morbidity caused by the disease. In this Developmental Research Project, Dr. Fei will collaborate with Drs. Georgia Chen, Dong Shin, and Ronald Voll and develop molecular imaging technology and photodynamic therapy for treatment of head and neck cancer in animal models. - February 2011

For more information about the Emory SPORE in Head and Neck, please visit: http://winshipcancer.emory.edu/SPORE-ed/index.htm

Congratulations to Andrew Chi for being admitted to the 2015 Class of the Medical College of Georgia.
On February 4, 2011, Andrew Chi received the admission letter to the 2015 Class from the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University. Andrew is scheduled to graduate from Emory College in May of 2011 with a Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry and Bachelor's of Arts in East Asian Studies. - February 2011

Dr. Baowei Fei received a five-year NIH R01 grant on molecular image-directed, 3D ultrasound image guided biopsy.
Prostate cancer affects 1 in 6 men in the USA. Every man over the age of 45 is at risk for prostate cancer. Systematic transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsy is the standard method for a definitive diagnosis of prostate cancer. More than 1.2 million prostate biopsies are performed annually and the medical cost is more than two billion dollars each year. However, this technique has a significant sampling error and is characterized by low sensitivity (39-52%). The current biopsy approach can miss up to 30% of prostate cancers. As a negative biopsy does not preclude the possibility of a missed cancer, both the physicians and patients face challenges in making treatment decisions. Due to the increasing number of younger men with potentially early and curable prostate cancer, this problem must be addressed in order to improve cancer detection rate. This project is to develop a molecular image-directed, 3D ultrasound-guided system for targeted biopsy of the prostate. If completely developed, the multimodality molecular image-guided system will be able to be used not only for biopsy but also for brachytherapy, radiofrequency thermal ablation, cryotherapy, and photodynamic therapy. The research could improve prostate cancer detection by using novel molecular imaging technology and by using a new three-dimensional image-guided biopsy device. The molecular image-guided system can be used not only for improved biopsy of diseases but also for minimally invasive therapy of cancers.
- January 2011

Dr. Baowei Fei's research is highlighted by Emory Magazine
Double Vision - By Mary J. Loftus
"The combined system can provide opportunities for basic research and can open a new window to studying diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, drug addiction, cancer, and cardiovascular disease," says Assistant Professor of Radiology Baowei Fei, a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar. Dr. Fei's team is working to develop and improve imaging software for the hybrid system. - Autumn 2010

For more information, please visit: http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/2010/autumn/scanner.html

Dr. Baowei Fei's work on MR/PET is highlighted as a featured innovation at the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) at Emory University
Magnetic resonance imaging (MR) shows details about the soft tissues of the body, such as every curve and indentation in the brain, while positron emission tomography (PET) records processes, such as how much energy is being used or how much blood is flowing into a region. When these imaging techniques were combined in the same scanner a few years ago, a real challenge since the MRI's strong magnetic field and the PET's detector and electronics tend to interfere with each other scientists started thinking about the potential wealth of information that could be provided.

For more information, please visit:
When Two is Better Than One: Perfecting the Combined MR/PET

Dr. Baowei Fei's work on photodynamic therapy and nanoparticle-based drug delivery was highlighted by Nature Materials
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising method for treating several cancers that uses photosensitizers. The photosensitizer accumulates in target tissue and is excited using light, generating reactive oxygen species that induce cell death. To enter the target area PDT drugs need to be lipophilic, however this presents problems: lack of solubility in the physiological conditions experienced en route to the target means that they usually take at least 24 hours to get to the tumour. Baowei Fei, Clemens Burda and co-workers have synthesized a PDT drug complex that significantly decreases the delivery time and enables quantitative monitoring of the process. Polyethylene glycol (PEG; a compound approved for human intravenous applications) is attached to gold nanoparticles functionalized with the PDT drug, silicon phthalocyanine-4. Chains of PEG wrap around the drug allowing the system to disperse in aqueous conditions. Free silicon phthalocyanine-4 takes 1-2 days to accumulate in a tumour site; using the new complex this is reduced to less than two hours in vivo in cancer-bearing mice with the tumour reducing in size within one week of treatment.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v7/n9/full/nmat2268.html

Dr. Baowei Fei received a Coulter Translational Research Award to develop quantification tools for combined MR/PET
PET (Positron Emission Tomography) provides insight into the metabolic and functional alterations related to pathologic process, and CT (Computed X-Ray Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) reveal anatomical changes due to diseases. The combination of two imaging modalities significantly expands their utility, improving sensitivity and specificity for disease detection and diagnosis. With this grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University Dr. Fei and his team will develop image quantification tools that include image registration, classification, segmentation, and attenuation correction for potential use in combined MR/PET. - July 2010

Dr. Baowei Fei received a Young Investigator Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM)
At the 57th Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) in Salt Lake City, Utah in June 2010, Dr. Baowei Fei received the Young Investigator Award for his research on Image Quantification and Attenuation Correction for Combined MRI/PET from the SNM. Dr. Fei received the 1st place award from the SNM Computer and Instrumentation Council. He and his co-colleagues have developed tools for image registration, classification, segmentation and attenuation correction for the potential use in combined MRI/PET. Other colleagues who contributed to this work include Mr. X. Yang, Dr. J. Nye, Ms. M. Jones, Dr. J. Aarsvold, Ms. N. Raghunath, Dr. C. Meltzer and Dr. J. Votaw. – June 2010.

Dr. Baowei Fei received a Pilot grant from the NIH-funded Emory Molecular and Translational Imaging Center
We envision that molecular imaging can detect cancer at the cellular level, can monitor drug distribution in vivo, can guide therapy to the target, and can evaluate efficacy immediately after therapy. Dr. Fei and his team will develop and evaluate multimodality imaging methods (fluorescence imaging, PET and MR imaging) for early detection of therapeutic response in pre-clinical cancer models. - September 2009.

Dr. Baowei Fei was selected as a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar
The Georgia Cancer Coalition established the Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program as the cornerstone of its research agenda. The goal of the program is to recruit to Georgia leading and nationally renowned cancer clinicians and scientists who are engaged in the most promising areas of cancer research. The selection of the scholars is closely aligned with the National Cancer Institute's "Extraordinary Opportunities in Cancer Research," which has identified areas of discovery that hold promise for making significant progress against all cancers. This competitive and prestigious award carries with it a five-year grant payable to Emory University to support Dr. Fei's research on cancer imaging. - June 15, 2009

For more information about Georgia Cancer Coalition, please visit: http://www.georgiacancer.org

The Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program: http://www.georgiacancer.org/res-distinguished.php

Dr. Baowei Fei received a URC grant to fund his research project entitled "Motion Correction and Quantitative Image Analysis for Kidney MR Imaging."
The project is supported by the NIH sponsored Atlanta Clinical and Translational Institute (A-CTSI). (Co-Pls:Baowei Fei and Diego Martin. Co-investigator: John Votaw) - May 12, 2009

For more information about the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Institute, please visit: http://www.atlantactsi.org

For more information about the University Research Committee (URC), please visit: http://www.urc.emory.edu