BIOMEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING

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This project uses image processing techniques to analyze many types of biological, clinical and biomedical images. Current research focuses on three general areas: (1) the structural biology of macromolecules using image processing of electron micrographs and 3D recontructions; (2) medical imaging, which includes (a) PET, (b) ultrasound in speech pathology, (c) ultrasound in cardiac imaging, (d) CT imaging, (e) MRI, (f) imaging in cancer research, and (h) imaging related to neural disfunction; and (3) general laboratory imaging. The Image Processing Research Section, Computational Bioscience and Engineering Laboratory has a long term collaborative research effort with the institutes involving the use of image processing techniques and advanced computational techniques to analyze electron micrographs with the goal of determining macromolecular structures. Recent advances in computational techniques as well as experimental techniques has catapulted our research to the cutting edge of high-resolution analyses of 3D virus capsid structures. We were the first to break the 10A barrier for icosahedral capsid structures, as well as the first very high resolution capsid/Antibody structure, and we can provide the leadership to help others obtain significant improvements in resolution and understanding of important biological problems. In addition, we were the first to demonstrate that high performance computing can provide computational efficiency in the three-dimensional reconstruction of virus capsids. The Image Processing Research Section, Computational Bioscience and Engineering Laboratory has a long term commitment to providing computational and engineering expertise to a variety of clinical and biomedical activities at NIH. Specifically, PET, ultrasound, CT, MRI, imaging in cancer research, and imaging related to neural disfunction have been supported in a number of ways. For example, our participation in the development of new animal PET scanner technology has extended image resolution far beyond what was available from previous state-of-the-art scanners. We have been instrumental in the development of unique imaging software called NIH magic for the Cardiology Branch of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) which will contribute to the developing field of cardiac tissue viability studies. This software is also being used by Speech pathology in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine to perform 3D visualization. A comprehensive JAVA based image processing software package MIPAV has been written to segment and analyze tumors for Diagnostic Radiology and is being extended from CT to MRI, functional MRI as well as other imaging modalities. An ongoing collaboration with NCI involves imaging 2D microscopic samples obtained in the CGAP project. Finally, an imaging assessment of neural functioning is being evaluated in collaboration with NIMH. MIPAV is also used by NIDCR to perform longitudinal studies to analyze the efficacy of treatments. - Image processing, visualization, high performance computing, structural biology, virus structure, 3D reconstruction, herpesvirus