The mission of the Physics & Computing lab is to extract physiologic information from radiologic images, evaluate new radiotracers, improve the quantitative accuracy of PET imaging and to provide quality control for the PET scanners. Originally, the lab's research was primarily kinetic modeling of dynamic PET images and critically evaluating new radiotracers in collaboration with the Radiopharmaceutical Discovery Lab. This included measuring the density of different proteins in the brain [e.g., dopamine transporter (DAT), serotonin transporter (SERT), norepinephrine transporter (NET), D2-dopamine receptor, Amyloid-Beta], amino acid transport into tumor tissue, local cerebral glucose metabolism, and blood flow under different sets of conditions. More recently, the kinetic modeling techniques have been extended to determine renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rates from dynamic sets of MRI data. Currently we are working on incorporating subject motion, as measured by an external stereo camera, into image reconstruction to improve image resolution.
- John Votaw, PhD
Vice Chair for Research
Director, Physics & Computing
2 microPET scanners
HRRT scanner (high resolution PET brain imager)
3 whole body PET/CT scanners
2 multi node computer clusters
NIH Study Section Panel
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.
Young Investigator Award - First Place, Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) - Computer and Instrumentation Council
Baowei Fei, PhD, EngD
Assistant Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering
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. Dr. Fei received the 1st place award from the SNM Computer and Instrumentation Council. He has 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. Xiaofeng Yang, Dr. Jonathon Nye, Ms. Margie Jones, Dr. John Aarsvold, Ms. Nivedita Raghunath, Dr. Carolyn Meltzer and Dr. John Votaw.
Kinetic Modeling of Gd Transport through Kidneys
Improved Attenuation Correction in Myocardial PET/CT Imaging
Application of Diffusion Tensor MRI to Study Neurologic Disease
Motion Correction in Neuro PET Imaging
Nonparametric Estimation of Fluid Velocity from Phase-Contrast MRI
Amino Acid Transport into Tumors as a Function of Tumor Grade
Comparision of Beta Amyloid Deposits in the Brains of Patients with Late Life Depression and Alzheimer’s Disease
Quantitative Myocardial Blood Flow Measurements
SERT Modeling in Depression
Therapeutic Drug Occupancy Studies.
Jacob David - Lab Manager
Nivedita Candade, MS
Mary David
E-mail: mary.david@emoryhealthcare.org