A NIH R01 grant is awarded to Dr. Xia and Dr. Xu on smartphone-based foot ucler imaging
Nov. 27, 2023
Lab News
A new NIH R01 grant is awarded to Dr. Xia and Dr. Wenyao Xu on smartphone-based foot ucler imaging. This grant will allow the team to develop mobile-based imaging techniques for chronic ulcer management and treatment planning. This is the 3rd NIH R01 grant received from the interdisplinary team to combine biomedical techniques with computional science and engineering.
Advanced Science reports our 3D Unet for improve the vascular imaging in human
Oct. 7, 2023
Lab News
This work implements a 3D fully-dense (3DFD) U-net to linear array based photoacoustic tomography and utilizes volumetric simulation and mixed precision training to increase efficiency and training size. Results indicate that the new algorithm will have a significant impact on preclinical and clinical photoacoustic tomography.
Dr. Xia received $990,000 research agreement from Qualcomm Inc to develop medical imaging and sensing techniques
June, 2022
Lab News
Dr. Xia received a 3-year $990,000 research contract with Qualcomm Inc. to develop medical imaging and sensing techniques. The grant will allow the team to develop new sensing techniques for wearable applications.
UB gets $1.6 million NIH grant to improve medical imaging for leg ulcers
July 7, 2021
Lab News
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The National Institutes of Health are helping to fund an evolution in medical imaging, and a University at Buffalo-led research team is leading the way.Jun Xia, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, received a $1.6 million grant to improve medical imaging for people with chronic leg ulcers. The project is a collaboration with the surgery clinic of UBMD Physician’s Group and other UB researchers.
Optics and Biometrics
May, 2021
Lab News
Forget passwords—identity verification cannow be accomplished with the touch of a finger or in the blink of an eye as the biometrics field expands to encompass new techniques and application areas.
New technique provides 3D, in vivo picture of intestinal motility disorders
April, 2021
Lab News
Some of the most intractable gastrointestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease, are motility disorders, where the contents of the intestines don’t proceed normally through the GI tract. Such disorders are known to have a strong brain-microbiome connection, but preclinical research has typically been limited to in vitro studies or anesthetized animal models, neither of which provide a realistic picture of gut motility.
Translational Photoacoustic Imaging for Disease Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Surgical Guidance
April, 2021
Lab News
Dr. Xia led a feature issue in Biomedical Optics Express that covered all aspects of translational photoacoustic research. Application areas include screening and diagnosis of diseases, imaging of disease progression and therapeutic response, and image-guided treatment, such as surgery, drug delivery, and photothermal/photodynamic therapy. The feature issue also covers relevant developments in photoacoustic instrumentation, contrast agents, image processing and reconstruction algorithms.
3D Biometric Authentication Based on Finger Veins Almost Impossible to Fool
Sep. 30, 2020
Lab News
WASHINGTON — Biometric authentication, which uses unique anatomical features such as fingerprints or facial features to verify a person’s identity, is increasingly replacing traditional passwords for accessing everything from smartphones to law enforcement systems. A newly developed approach that uses 3D images of finger veins could greatly increase the security of this type of authentication.
Mammogram device under development to use light, ultrasound to better screen patients for breast cancer
Sep. 28, 2020
Lab News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo has received a four-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a new, portable breast-imaging system that has the potential to better identify breast cancer.
UB biomedical engineer Jun Xia receives Qualcomm Faculty Award
Jul. 15, 2020
Lab News
Jun Xia, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been awarded a 2020 Qualcomm Faculty Award to support his research on the application of photoacoustic imaging in wearable technologies.
Breast Imaging System Could Help Detect Cancer Early
Feb. 14, 2020
Lab News
The Dual Scan Mammoscope, or DSM, is similar to a mammogram, in that patients stand upright to have their breast compressed for imaging. Unlike mammograms, however, the DSM requires only mild compression of the breast, likely reducing the severity of pain that women can experience during the procedure. In initial laboratory tests, the research team imaged breast sizes B, D and DD. The study highlights the D breast test, which shows imaging through 7 centimeters — the first time a photoacoustic system produced imaging that deep, the research team believes. Xia says the DSM method shows promise in detecting tumors in the sub-millimeter range, provided they exhibit sufficiently developed blood vessels.
Portable photoacoustic breast imaging system shows promise during initial lab tests
Nov. 27, 2019
Lab News
A new, portable breast imaging system under development in Buffalo has the potential to better identify breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue. That is among the findings of a study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering in August. The study was led by University at Buffalo researchers in collaboration with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Windsong Radiology. “We’re developing a new imaging system — it’s called a Dual Scan Mammoscope — that combines light and ultrasound technology. We believe it has the potential to help detect breast cancer earlier, thereby increasing survival rates,” says UB researcher and the study’s lead author, Jun Xia.
2019 Komen Western New York Race for the Cure®
June 2019
Lab News
Dr. Xia and his team participated in 2019 Komen Western New York Race for the Cure under the banner of UB BME. This is an important community event that helps accomplish several goals: Honors breast cancer survivors and co-survivors, Memorializes those who have lost their battle to the disease, Raises vital funds for education, screening, treatment, and national research programs. Save the date and join our team!
Study: Barley May Be Next Great Medical Imaging Drink
July 18, 2018
Lab News
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences researchers have found barley may be used as an edible contrast agent to show doctors what’s happening inside their patients’ bodies. The researchers studied more than 200 types of tea, chocolate, herbs and other foodstuffs before finding that roasted barley — when struck by a common laser — can illuminate the throat and gastrointestinal tract. “It’s really incredible. Here you have this common grain — it has been grown all over the world for thousands of years, and used to make tea, bread, beer — and we’re just now finding another use for it as a contrast agent for medical imaging,” says Jun Xia, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, which is a joint program between the Jacobs School and UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The study was published in May in the journal Biomaterials
2018 Komen Western New York Race for the Cure®
May 2018
Lab News
Dr. Xia and his team will be participating in 2018 Komen Western New York Race for the Cure under the banner of UB BME. This is an important community event that helps accomplish several goals: Honors breast cancer survivors and co-survivors, Memorializes those who have lost their battle to the disease, Raises vital funds for education, screening, treatment, and national research programs. Save the date and join our team!
Saturday, June 9, 2018
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New laser diodes promise compact optoacoustic platforms
Jan 2017
Lab News
With optoacoustics having "come of age" as an imaging technique, the hottest topics in the sector now revolve around development of effective clinical systems for human applications. The group led by Jun Xia of the University at Buffalo has now demonstrated a possible route to overcoming these hurdles and assisting the technique's clinical acceptance, through the use of a compact and high-power laser in photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT). The technique was applied to the in vivo study of mice and human tissues, in work published by Biomedical Optics Express.
Jan. 17, 2017
$450,000 Susan G. Komen® Research Grant Awarded To UB
2017
Country 106.5 WYRK Radio
Jun Xia, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in UB’s Biomedical Engineering Department, will use the $450,000 grant to develop a new screening technology for women with dense breast tissue. This non-invasive imaging technique, called photoacoustic tomography, combines light and ultrasound technology. It has the potential to better identify breast cancer and address an unmet clinical need in these patients. The grant is part of $30.7 million for 98 research grants Komen is distributing across the country in the coming year, with a focus on new treatments and understanding of the most lethal forms and stages of breast cancer. Komen funding to institutions in 27 states and 7 countries also includes research into new screening technologies, treatments for metastatic and aggressive types of breast cancer and disparities in breast cancer outcomes.
Read more...Case Study: Photoacoustic Imaging of Hand Vasculature Using the Verasonics Vantage System
2017
Verasonics
Invited by Verasonics, Dr. Xia wrote a case study about how to use the Vantage system for photoacoustic imaging.
Experimental procedure:
1. Setup connections between Vantage 128 and Continuum laser
• Connect the laser, function generator, and the Vantage 128 according to the following diagram
• The function generator will output 10 Hz TTL as the master clock.
• Both the laser flashlamp and Vantage 128 will be triggered by the falling edge of TTL signal(SeqControl(11).condition ='Trigger_1_ Falling';).
Read more...Selected Cover Picture: 2nd Generation Slit-based PAT for Vascular Imaging in Human
2017
Journal of Biophotonics
Slit-based photoacoustic tomography is a newly developed technique that improves the elevation numerical aperture of a linear array through acoustic diffraction. The slit, placed at the acoustic focus of a linear array, effectively forms an array of virtual detectors with high receiving angle, which subsequently improves the elevation resolution. However, due to the complex implementation, our
Read more...New laser Diodes Promise Compact Photoacoustic Platforms
2017
Optics.org
An international group led by Jun Xia of the University at Buffalo has now demonstrated a possible route to overcoming these hurdles and assisting the technique's clinical acceptance, through the use of a compact and high-power laser in photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT). The technique was applied to the in vivo study of mice and human tissues, in work published by Biomedical Optics Express. "There are three major portable light sources: LED, laser diode, and diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL), and we have tried all three," commented Xia, summarizing the current options available.
Read more...Veggie Juice that Illuminates the Gut
2016
EurekAlert
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The pigment that gives spinach and other plants their verdant color may improve doctors' ability to examine the human gastrointestinal tract. That's according to a study, published today (July 11, 2016) in the journal Advanced Materials, which describes how chlorophyll-based nanoparticles suspended in liquid are an effective imaging agent for the gut. "Our work suggests that this spinach-like, nanoparticle juice can help doctors get a better look at what's happening inside the stomach, intestines and other areas of the GI tract," says Jonathan Lovell, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint program between UB's
Read more...Photoacoustics Enables High-res Functional Connectivity Imaging of the Mouse Brain
2014
BioOptics World
Using optical excitation and acoustic detection, Washington University researches have developed a functional connectivity photoacoustic tomography (fcPAT) system, which, for the first time, allows noninvasive imaging of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in the mouse brain, with a large field of view and a high spatial resolution. Research associate Mohammad Avanaki, Ph.D., describes RSFC as one of the most exciting discoveries in neuroimaging: It aims to identify low-frequency, spontaneous cerebral hemodynamic fluctuations, which are highly correlated with the local neuronal activity.
Read more...Imaging Technology in Mice Enhances Human Brain Research
2014
SPIE Newsroom
One of many approaches to studying neurological function involves imaging the brain's functional connectivity, an observational analysis of neuronal activity in different parts of the brain. Recent research suggests that fluctuations in the activity of separate groups of neurons are interactively correlated, although they do not affect one another's activity directly. Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) imaging is one technique that is emerging to identify low-frequency, spontaneous cerebral fluctuations in hemodynamics—such as blood oxygenation and total hemoglobin concentration—that are associated with these functional connections. A hallmark of functional organization in the brain's cortex is
Read more...Going with the Flow
2013
Physics Synopsis
Measuring local blood flow inside living creatures provides insight into both normal functions and diseases. Ultrasound can probe deep within tissues by using the Doppler shift of the sound waves’ frequency to detect the motion of blood cells. But this effect is unmeasurable for blood moving slower than about ten millimeters per second. In Physical Review Letters, Lidai Wang and his colleagues at Washington University, Missouri, demonstrate that ultrasonic waves can instead be used to heat a small volume of blood, thereby “tagging” it. The motion of this tagged blood is then tracked by a light-based technique. In a test setup, they measured speeds as low as a quarter of a millimeter per second.
Read more..Thermal Technique Improves Blood-flow Measurements
2013
Physics World
A new method for imaging the flow of blood has been developed by researchers in the US. By using ultrasound to thermally tag blood, along with photoacoustics to image the resulting heat flow, the new technique is considerably more sensitive than the conventional Doppler ultrasound method that is currently used. While presently at the in vitro testing stage, this technique might have a variety of clinical applications, especially in medical diagnosis. Being able to image the flow of blood within deep tissue would provide valuable information for the diagnosis and understanding of many diseases, with potential applications including functional brain imaging, detection of vascular diseases
Read more...ScienceShot: A Window Into Your Veins
2013
Science
Now there’s a better way to spy on the blood in your veins. Doctors already have two techniques to monitor obstructions in blood vessels, but they both have limitations. The first, Doppler ultrasound imaging, involves irradiating tissue with ultrasound waves; the waves that reflect off flowing blood acquire a Doppler shift, which can be used to pick out blood and calculate its speed. Doppler can't distinguish flowing blood from surrounding tissue unless it's moving quickly, however, which makes minor blood vessels invisible. The second technique, photoacoustic imaging, uses an
Read more...Noninvasive Photoacoustic Computed Tomography of Mouse Brain Metabolism In Vivo
2013
F1000Prime
Optical imaging is beginning to come to age. It has long held great promise as a tool for interrogating surface tissues because of the flexibility in selection of fluorophores. While some information has long been available with the use of a signal from intrinsic contrast with hemoglobin or cytochromes, applications have been limited either to those demanding
Read more...