Eye of Horus

• Activities in the Optical Diagnostic and Applications Laboratory (ODA Lab) aim at fostering interdisciplinary basic and applied research in novel optical instrumentation for 3D optical imaging and visualization systems, image analysis, and assessment methodology. Applications include medical imaging and visualization, personal displays, optical testing for optical fabrication. Instruments include augmented reality and virtual reality systems, novel camera designs, curvature sensors, biomedical probes for non invasive imaging and intervention.
  
  
• Several national and international sponsors, collaborators and industrial partners participate in the research efforts. Governmental support is given through grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Health (NIH), NYSTAR Foundation, STRICOM, the US Army Rearch Office and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). State funds are awarded by the Florida Photonics center of Excellence (FPCE). Finally many industrial partners have committed to join force with the ODA Lab.
  
  
• For information on visiting the lab or contacting its members, please visit the contact section of the site.
  
  

Highlights

• Florida Tech 2009 Report
  
  Real-time Lung Radiotherapy using Dynamic Lung Models
  
  M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Jannick Rolland, P.I.

  Imagine a future when doctors use truly x-ray vision to see inside a patient's body.

  While they haven't perfected Superman-like vision yet, researchers taking part in a Matching Grants Research Project from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council are working on a new technology that will help doctors visualize the movements of an internal organ - the lungs - in real time. Doctors at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have partnered with simulation experts at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to develop a program that will show the physicians a model of a patient's lungs so they can better administer radiation treatment to tumors.

  Created by UCF researchers Dr. Jannick Rolland and Dr. Anand Santhanam, the technology utilizes a head-mounted display that projects a 3-D lung model on goggles designed to give the appearance that a physician is seeing through a patient's chest. That model is a moving, breathing lung, specific to that patient, expanding and contracting with each breath as that patient's physiology would direct it.

  The concept arose when the Army's Simulation, Training & Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) was looking for a way to train physicians and military medics to assess internal trauma not easily recognizable on external inspection. Rolland's then-graduate student, Santhanam, utilized his experience in real-time rendering to develop a model that solved this problem: a simulation that creates a sense of real-time vision into the human body.

  Doctors at Orlando's M. D. Anderson Cancer Center quickly recognized an application for this technology in solving a problem of their own: targeting moving tumors in patients with lung cancer.

  The joint grant from M. D. Anderson and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council totaled more than $150,000, which includes funding for the researchers and the four UCF graduate students involved in the project.

  "With our FHTCC grant, we are able to continue validating our model of human physiology and motion while working with M. D. Anderson to better optimize cancer treatment," said Rolland.

  Santhanam likened the radiation procedure to trying to shoot a moving bird with a stationary gun. "If our partner physicians at M. D. Anderson can predict where the tumor is, our model can simulate how it moves with the lung tissue as a patient breathes."

  The simulation takes on additional challenges in certain situations when a patient's normal breathing pattern changes. If the patient is nervous or panicky, the model can adapt to their physiology during a faster rhythm of breathing, making it even more precise in determining the movement and position of the tumor and in predicting how much of the tumor can be targeted with the radiation, says Santhanam.

  The model is developed by taking a series of scans of the lungs while the patient breathes and, much like still frames assembling into film, the computer pieces together the images to create a fluid model. Because the models are designed to match each individual's physiology, this scanning procedure is performed for every patient.

  "This technology has the capacity to become an essential tool in gaining fundamental knowledge of functional anatomy-not just structural anatomy," says Rolland. "There is a huge need for future medical students to understand physiology and pathologies beyond static models. The idea is to use these models to learn faster". "The precision of the model also gives the doctor the ability to react to what they're seeing and make decisions quickly," adds Santhanam.

  Rolland and Santhanam are already looking to apply this technology into other areas of medical modeling in the future including the liver, heart and prostate.

  Update:
  
  Patrick Kupelian, MD Anderson PI; Jannick Rolland & Anand Santhanam, UCF co-PIs (2008-2010)
  The joint grant from M. D. Anderson and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council totaled more than $150,000, which includes funding for the researchers and the four UCF graduate students involved in the project.
  
  A first joint grant from M. D. Anderson and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (2006-2010) totaled $150,000, in support of Dr. Anand Santhanam to take this project clinical.
  

• Jun 01 2008 - Rolland and Sanathanam of ODALab/CREOL and Olusegun Ilegbusi, Alain Kassab, and Eduardo Divo of MMAE, Bari Ruddy Hoffman of Health and Public Affairs, in collaboration with Patrick Kupelian (MD) of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Orlando has received the prestigious James and Esther King Grant for a total of $1 Million for the period of two years. This grant will enable the development of advanced radiotherapy monitoring methods that will corporate physics and physiology based 3D lung dynamics for predicting the amount of radiation dose delivered on the lung tumor and its surrounding tissues.
  
  
• July 18 2009 - ODALab in collaboration with the Mechanical Materials and Aerospace Engineering department at the UCF has received the prestigious award of I4 Research Corridor Matching grant for a total of $331,763 for a period of two years. This grant will enable the development of advanced visualization techniques that will further enhance the novel framework of incorporating the 3D lung dynamics for lung radiotherapy. Dr. Anand Santhanam is the principal investigator of the grant.