Computational sciences and nuclear medicine imaging

核医学成像技术以其分子特征和卓越的灵敏度在现代医学中发挥着重要作用。通过提供有关放射性同位素标记的示踪分子生物分布的体内功能信息，它们不仅可以识别改变的解剖结构和功能以帮助诊断疾病，还可以定位分子受体位点，研究患病细胞表达的生物标记，并监测特定疾病过程的存在和程度。医学影像研究组 (MIRG) 研究计划的主要目标是利用先进的物理、数学和计算机科学（此处统称为“计算科学”）开发新的和改进的诊断核医学方法，这些方法适用于日常临床实践以及医学和分子研究。 MIRG 的研究涉及几个密切相关的领域：定量成像、动态功能成像、数据分析和可视化以及新型成像技术的研究。我们未来的一些目标包括：(1) 基于我们统一的定量 SPECT 方法 (qSPECT) 结合自动 3D 体积分割例程（基于水平集和类似方法）以及由于伽马光子、X 射线和电子的能量沉积而对内部剂量进行详细的蒙特卡罗计算，开发精确的剂量测定技术，(2) 进一步研究应用现代数学优化技术与不同的正则化方案来重建多维系列动态图像，(3) 开发软件、构建和测试康普顿相机的。基于康普顿散射光子检测并使用固态探测器的新一代相机有可能提供亚毫米分辨率的真正分子成像手段（目标是对特定细胞进行成像）。

Nuclear medicine imaging techniques, with their molecular characteristics and exceptional sensitivity, play an important role in modern medicine. By providing in-vivo functional information about the biodistribution of tracer molecules labeled with radioactive isotopes, they allow not only for identification of altered anatomy and function to help diagnose disease, but also for locating molecular receptor sites, studying biological markers expressed by diseased cells, and monitoring the presence and extent of specific disease processes. The main objective of the research program of the Medical Imaging Research Group (MIRG) is to use advanced physics, mathematics and computer science (jointly called here "Computational Sciences") to develop new and improved methods for diagnostic nuclear medicine, ones suitable for use both in everyday clinical practice and in medical and molecular research. MIRG's research is in several closely related areas: quantitative imaging, dynamic functional imaging, data analysis and visualization, and the investigation of novel imaging techniques. Some of our future goals include: (1) the development of an exact dosimetry technique based on our unified quantitative SPECT method (qSPECT) combined with an automatic 3-D volume segmentation routine (level-set based and similar methods) and detailed Monte-Carlo calculations of internal dose due to energy deposition by gamma photons, X-rays and electrons, (2) further research on the application of modern mathematical optimization techniques with different regularization schemes to reconstruct a multidimensional series of dynamic images, (3) development of software, construction and testing of a Compton camera. The new generation of cameras, based on detection of Compton scattered photons and using solid state detectors can potentially provide means for truly molecular imaging with sub-millimeter resolution (with the goal to image particular cells).