High-resolution PET Imaging; Image Processing and Reconstruction
Dr. Reader carried out his doctoral research at the Institute of Cancer Research (University of London, UK) before taking up a lectureship in 1999 at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). After a sabbatical in 2005 working at an INSERM unit in Paris and at Orsay, he was promoted to senior lecturer at the University of Manchester (UK). He was appointed as an associate professor at McGill University in 2008, based in the brain imaging centre (BIC) of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) where he also continues to hold a Canada Research Chair in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging (renewed until 2018).
Dr. Reader’s research concerns advancing the fields of 3D and 4D image reconstruction, system modeling, data correction and analysis for positron emission tomography (PET). Innovations in these areas can significantly improve image quality for functional and molecular imaging of the human body, improving image resolution and even halving the error levels in functional parameters compared to conventional data processing techniques.
Recent publications:
Neuroscience; Medical Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Dr. Pike obtained his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Memorial University and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. (Hons., 1990) at McGill University with his thesis research focused on stereotactic radiosurgery and magnetic resonance angiography respectively. He conducted postdoctoral studies in Radiological Sciences at Stanford University and joined the faculty of McGill in 1993. From 1999J2013 Dr. Pike was Director of the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute and was the Killam Professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery and a James McGill Professor with appointments in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. In September 2013 Dr. Pike joined the University of Calgary as the CAIP Chair in Healthy Brain Aging and Head of the Division of Image Science and Deputy Head (Research) in the Department of Radiology. He is also a Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.
Dr. Pike investigates magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods and applications for basic and clinical neuroscience research. His recent research has focused on quantitative MRI techniques for measuring tissue microstructure and physiology. He has used his methods to demonstrate focal pathology in multiple sclerosis patients that antedate the development of conventional MRI visible lesions by up to two years. He has also performed pioneering studies on the relationship between cerebral blood flow and oxygen metabolism in the cortex over a broad range of activation and inhibition conditions in healthy subjects and patients. Dr. Pike has published more than 200 scientific papers and book chapters, is an editor of the journal NeuroImage, chairs the CIHR MPI grants panel, and serves on the advisory board for numerous international programs.
Recent publications:
Biofinormatics; Multimodality Image-guided and Adaptive Radiotherapy; Radiobiological Modelling
Issam El Naqa received his B.Sc. (1992) and M.Sc. (1995) in Electrical and Communication Engineering from the University of Jordan, Jordan and was awarded a first place young investigator award for his M.Sc. work. He worked as a software engineer at the Computer Engineering Bureau (CEB), Jordan, 1995G1996. He was awarded a DAAD scholarship to Germany, where he was a visiting scholar at the RWTH Aachen, 1996G 1998. He completed his Ph.D. (2002) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA, receiving highest academic distinction award for his PhD work. He completed an M.A. (2007) in Biology Science from Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA, where he was pursuing a postGdoctoral fellowship in medical physics and was subsequently hired as a Instructor (2005G2007) and then an Assistant Professor (2007G2010) at the departments of radiation oncology and the division of biomedical and biological sciences and was an adjunct faculty at the department of Electrical engineering. He is currently an Associate Professor at McGill University Health Centre/Medical Physics Unit and associate member of at the departments of Physics, Biomedical Engineering, and Experimental medicine. He is certified Medical Physicist by the American Board of Radiology. He is a recognized expert in the fields of image processing, bioinformatics, computational radiobiology, and treatment outcomes modeling and has published extensively in these areas. He is an acting member of several academic and professional societies, which include IEEE, AAPM, ASTRO, ESTRO, and COMP and participates in their meetings and serves in their task groups. His research has been funded by several federal and private grants and serves as a peerGreviewer and associate editor for several leading international journals in his areas of expertise. He is currently a designated FRSQ and CIHR scholar.
Our lab’s general research interests are in the areas of oncology bioinformatics, multimodality image analysis, and treatment outcome modeling. The primary motivation is to design and develop novel approaches to unravel cancer patients’ response to chemoradiotherapy treatment by integrating physical, biological, and imaging information into advanced mathematical models. These models could be used to personalize cancer patients’ chemoradiotherapy treatment based on predicted benefit/risk. Our group’s research interests involve three themes:
Bioinformatics: design and develop datamining methods and software tools to identify robust biomarkers of treatment outcomes from clinical and preclinical data.
Multimodality image-guided and adaptive radiotherapy: design and develop methods and algorithms for multimodality registration/segmentation, feature extraction, and real time treatment planning optimization.
Radiobiological modeling: design and develop predictive models of tumor and normal tissue response to radiotherapy by exploring physical and biological interactions using systemG based and machine learning approaches. Design and development of therapeutic interventions for protection of normal tissue toxicities
Recent publications:
Radiation Physics and Dosimetry; Monte Carlo Calculations; Calorimetry; Detectors; Small Fields
Seuntjens is Professor and Director of Medical Physics at the Medical Physics Unit, McGill University. His research topics revolve around the applications of advanced dosimetry techniques in clinical radiation therapy. This includes development of new detectors in small field dosimetry, radiation standards, as well as the application of Monte Carlo techniques for radiation transport calculations at the macro and microscopic level. Dr. Seuntjens is also investigating the application and clinical translation of modulated electron radiation therapy as well as other clinically-inspired research topics in a collaborative context with other PIs. Dr. Seuntjens’ research
Research topics revolve around the applications of advanced dosimetry techniques in clinical radiation therapy. This includes development of new detectors in small field dosimetry, radiation standards, as well as the application of Monte Carlo techniques for radiation transport calculations at the macro and microscopic level. Dr. Seuntjens is also investigating the application and clinical translation of modulated electron radiation therapy as well as other clinically-inspired research topics in a collaborative context with other PIs. Dr. Seuntjens’ research is supported by the CIHR and NSERC.
Recent publications:
Molecular Biophysics; Microbiology; Immnology
Jay L. Nadeau is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Physics at McGill University (2004Gpresent) whose research interests include nanoparticles, fluorescence imaging, and development of instrumentation for detection of life elsewhere in the Solar System. Her group was the first to label bacteria with quantum dots, and to explore the possibility of using fluorescent labels as tools for detection of traces of extraterrestrial life. Every year she travels to the Canadian High Arctic to do field work at the McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS), a Mars analog site at nearly 80 degrees North latitude. She has published over fifty papers on topics ranging from theoretical condensed matter physics to experimental neurobiology to development of antiGcancer drugs, in the process using almost every single one of the techniques described in this book. Her work has been featured in New Scientist, Highlights in Chemical Biology, Radio Canada’s Les Années lumière, Le Guide des Tendances, and in educational displays in schools and museums. Her research group features chemists, microbiologists, roboticists, physicists, and physicianG scientists, all learning from each other and hoping to speak each other’s language. A believer in bringing biology to the physicists as well as physics to the biologists, she has created two graduate level courses: Methods in Molecular Biology for Physical Scientists and Mathematical Cellular Physiology. She also teaches Pharmacology in the medical school and is actively involved in creating and improving multipleGmini interviews (MMIs) for medical school admission. She received her PhD in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1996.
The research in the Nadeau lab focuses on design of nanomaterials with photophysical properties that allow them to push the boundaries of biological sensing and targeting. By creating probes that are brighter, longerGlasting, sensitive to novel processes and at smaller spatial scales, we will be able to create therapeutic agents as well as to address critical biological questions such as how networks of cells communicate, how bacterial biofilms form, and what signals are critical for inducing cell death. Specific projects include: biofunctionalization of heavyGmetalGfree semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) for in vivo theranostics; generation of targeted gold nanoparticle conjugates for clinical trials in melanoma and other cancers; development of radiosensitizing nanoparticles for cancer therapy; and development and testing of techniques and instruments for realGtime, 3D cellular imaging, including holographic microscopy and photoacoustic imaging.
Recent publications:
Neurology; Biomedical Engineering; Medical Image Analysis; Image-guided surgery
Dr Collins is a professor in the departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery, and Biomedical Engineering at McGill University of Montreal, Canada, associate member of the Center for Intelligent Machines at McGill and associate member for the Center for studies on aging. I work at the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre of the Montreal Neurological Institute. I am head of the Image Processing Laboratory. He teaches BDME650, the Advanced Medical Imaging course in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Collins works on the use of computerized image processing techniques such as non-linear image registration and model-based segmentation to automatically identify structures within the human brain and to quantify anatomical variability. He investigates neuroscientific applications of three dimensional (3D) digital image processing methods for disease diagnosis, prognosis and image-guided surgery.
These techniques are applied to large databases of magnetic resonance (MR) data from normal subjects to quantify normal anatomical variability in pediatric, young adult and elderly populations. The techniques have also been used to automatically quantify global and regional brain atrophy in MS patients and to look at morphological changes associated with diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s dementia.
In image-guided neurosurgery (IGNS), these techniques provide the surgeon with computerized tools to assist in interpreting anatomical, functional and vascular image data, permitting the effective planning and execution of minimally invasive neurosurgical procedures. Automated atlasing is essential in IGNS for thalamotomy and pallidotomy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, or temporal-lobe depth-electrode implantation in the diagnosis of epilepsy, since tissue targets in these procedures cannot be viewed directly on MR. Computerized atlasing minimizes trauma to the patient and allows resection of the smallest amount of brain tissue necessary for effective therapeutic treatment.
Recent publications:
Scintillation Fiber Dosimetry; Radiotherapy Physics; Brachytherapy Physics; Dose Calculations
Luc Beaulieu received his PhD from Université Laval in 1996. After a postdoctoral fellowship in Berkeley, California, he worked as a research scientist at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington. In 2000, he took the leadership of the medical physics research group at Quebec City University Hospital. Under his leadership, a formal graduate medical physics teaching curriculum was setGup and became CAMPEP accredited in 2011. Dr. Beaulieu is a full professor (tenured) at Université Laval and Director of the CAMPEP graduate program. He is a member of the AAPM Brachytherapy Subcommittee, of TGG192, was the Chair of TGG186 (published in 2012) and now leads the AAPM/ESTRO/ABG Working Group on ModelGBased Dose Calculations in brachytherapy. As of 2014, he has mentored more than 65 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, published 169 peerGreviewed manuscripts and over 330 abstracts at national and international meetings. He is a recognized expert in scintillation dosimetry and brachytherapy.
The ongoing objective of Prof. Beaulieu’s research program is to increase the accuracy of dose measurements and dose calculations for any radiation based procedures including, but not limited to, radiation therapy, diagnostic and interventional radiology. This is achieved through a comprehensive research program combining elements of basic and applied research in medical physics and biomedical engineering. The program hinges on radiation physics, optics, numerical optimization problems, image and signal processing and highGperformance computing. The program is subGdivided along four main research tracks, namely 1) development of new radiation dosimeters, 2) applied medical image processing, 3) numerical computation in optimization problems and high precision particle transport and dose calculations, and 4) a developing trac.
Recent publications:
Image Processing; X-ray; CT; PET; SPECT; GPU Processing
Philippe Després is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics at Université Laval and a Medical Physicist at CHU de Québec. He was trained at Université Laval (MSc 2000, Physics), Université de Montréal (PhD 2005, Physics) and University of California, San Francisco (postdoc 2005G2007, Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Imaging). He has been involved in numerous projects encompassing hardware and software aspects of medical imaging modalities such as XGray, CT, PET and SPECT. He has worked on lowGdose XGray imaging (scanningGslit xenon microstrip detector), advanced imaging techniques (multiG energy XGray imaging), and solidGstate detectors for molecular imaging (PSAPD and CZTGbased PET and SPECT). He also has developed highGperformance computing approaches with commodity graphics hardware (GPUs) that have led to innovative applications in image processing/reconstruction and radiation dose calculation, including a fast GPUGbased Monte Carlo engine to simulate energy transport in matter. He holds grants from NSERC, CIHR, FRQGS and has established research collaborations with numerous industrial and academic partners both locally and abroad.
The research program pursued by Prof. Després is geared towards the use of highGperformance computing to tackle problems in Medical Physics. Specifically, physicsGrich models are used to reach better, more accurate solutions in a variety of clinical situations. These physicsGrich models however are numerically challenging and usually require large computing resources. As these problems are often intrinsically parallel, they can be implemented on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and benefit from their massively parallel architecture (hundreds of cores per processor). Therefore, the numerical burden of realistic modeling is alleviated by the use of GPUs; acceleration factors of 10 to 1000x have been achieved with this technology compared to traditional CPU implementations. This level of performance lets envision the clinical deployment of better solutions in radiation dose calculation and tomographic image reconstructionG. In the first case, a fast GPUG based Monte Carlo engine was developed to simulate the transport of energy in matter. This allows for more accurate dose calculations in external beam radiation therapy, brachytherapy, radiology and nuclear medicine while maintaining calculation times that are compatible with a clinical workflow. In tomographic image reconstruction, GPUG accelera ed iterative algorithms integrating physicsGbased priors have been developed to achieve fewGviews, lowGdose or artefact suppressing solutions.
In PET and SPECT molecular imaging, efforts are invested in the development of a quantitative imaging platform. An automatic blood activity counter is being developed to monitor the amount of radiotracer available for uptake as a function of time in order to feed pharmacokinetic models and extract valuable physiological information from imaging studies.
Recent publications:
Radiochromic Flim Dosimetry; Brachytherapy Physics; PET Imaging in Radiotherapy
Slobodan Devic obtained his M.Sc. degree in nonGideal plasma physics and his Ph.D. degree in Solid State Physics in 1997 at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. He moved to the USA in 1998 where he worked as a Research Associate in Radiation Oncology Physics at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, Missouri. Subsequently, he moved in 2000 to the Montreal General Hospital and McGill University where he was enrolled into the Medical Physics Residency program. Upon finishing his residency in 2002 he joined the Medical Physics Unit at the McGill University and, in 2008, he moved to his current position at the SMBD Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. He is a Fellow of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine and his major research interests are radiochromic film dosimetry and its applications, image guided brachytherapy with particular interest in preGoperative endorectal brachytherapy, and the incorporation of the functional imaging information into radiotherapy treatment planning process. Dr. Devic is also teaching Physics in Nuclear Medicine course at the McGill University and as of 2009 he became a member of the Editorial board of the Medical Physics journal.
Research program of Slobodan Devic revolves around:
Recent publications:
High-resolution PET Imaging; Image Processing and Reconstruction
Neuroscience; Medical Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Bioinformatics; Multimodality Image-guided and Adaptive Radiotherapy; Radiobiological Modelling
Radiation Physics and Dosimetry; Monte Carlo Calculations; Calorimetry; Detectors; Small Fields
Molecular Biophysics; Microbiology; Immnology
Neurology; Biomedical Engineering; Medical Image Analysis; Image-guided surgery
Scintillation Fiber Dosimetry; Radiotherapy Physics; Brachytherapy Physics; Dose Calculations
Image Processing; X-ray; CT; PET; SPECT; GPU Processing
Radiochromic Flim Dosimetry; Brachytherapy Physics; PET Imaging in Radiotherapy