Medical Imaging Research Laboratory

Research

Dr Watkin’s research focuses on neuro-imaging of the brain related to speech production, multimodal contrast agents for the imaging and treatment of head and neck cancer, the develop biosensors for medical monitoring and targeted therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer.

Current Research Projects

Ultrasound Mediated Delivery of therapeutic for the Treatment of Metastatic Cancer

One of the major problems facing drug delivery of chemo-toxic agents especially in the head and neck region is the dose limiting systemic load associated with direct compound injection into the blood stream. This has lead to drug resistance, physiological and other associated long term changes due to systemic action. Reducing the systemic load and concentrating drug delivered to a specifically targeted head and neck cancer locations has potential benefits to patients, healthcare delivery professionals, insurers and the pharmaceutical industry. The success of recently developed passive liposome drug delivery systems underscores the need for a nanoliposomes drug delivery carrier with an active method of drug release using real time image guidance. Site targeted nanoliposomes would have the potential to not only concentrate localized drug delivery but also reduce further the systemic load and permit more frequent treatments to induce apoptosis and prevent cancer cell proliferation.

Non Invasive Microscopic MRI Neuro-Imaging Studies of Vocal Motor Control Pathways

Our objectiveSeptember 13, 2007 the sound generation neural pathways in the zebra finch and to develop a confidence map for volumetric registration across multiple imaging modalities since the strength and weakness of each modality might not be well understood yet as a function of 3D locationSeptember 13, 2007res. For example, one would like to pose questions about what can be derived from MRI only and with what confidence. We plan to answer these questions by using the gold standard - histo-cytological cross sections - and understanding what could not be derived from MRI with a high confidence from MRI alone.

High Resolution, Label-Free Photonic Crystal Biosensor for Cancer Cell Imaging Powerpoint file

This research focuses on the development of a label-free method for detecting the attachment of human cancer cells to a biosensor surface for rapid screening for biological activity, in which attachment of a cell results in highly localized increase of the resonant reflected wavelength of a photonic crystal narrowband reflectance filter incorporated into a standard 96-well microplate. The imaging detection instrument is used to determine the spatial distribution of attached cells by mapping the shift in reflected resonant wavelength as a function of position.  The method enables monitoring of cancer cell attachment, cell proliferation, and cell detachment that is induced by exposure of the cells to drug compounds.  We are exploring the use of this method as an early screening technique for the rapid quantification of the rate of cancer cell proliferation and subsequently as a means for quantifying cell detachment resulting from apoptosis that is induced by exposure of the cells to cytotoxic chemicals.

High Performance Computing and 3D Integration of Multi-Modal Medical Imaging Volume Reconstruction [as an NCSA Fellow]

In order to inspect and analyze high-resolution 3D volumes with large spatial coverage, medical researchers and practitioners have to mosaic a set of spatial tiles (small spatial coverage and high-resolution 2D images or 3D cross section volumes), align a set of data from cross sections, extract meaningful 3D characteristics and visualize the reconstructed data. This research focuses on the development of a unique system of software tools that enable geographically distributed researchers to optimize their data-driven registration decisions and 3D volume reconstructions by using web services and high performance computing (HPC) resources available at NCSA.