Current and Past Research Projects

• Morphometry and DTI analysis of small animal (rats, mice) in studies of developmental pathologies. Projects in intra-uterine cocaine exposure, intra-uterine alcohol exposure, and anti-psychotic medication exposure.
• DTI Fiber analysis and shape analysis of brain structures within NAMIC NIH roadmap NCBC.
• DTI Fiber tract properties of early myelinated tract in Krabbe's leukodystrophy.
• Brain morphometry in schizophrenia via asymmetry analysis of simulated white matter paths
• Shape analysis of brain structures (hippocampus, caudate, globus pallidus, putamen, thalamus, lateral ventricles, corpus callosum) using medial and boundary shape descriptions in 2D and 3D. Projects in pediatric and adults studies (cross-sectional, longitudinal and twin studies) of autism, fragile-X, MPS, schizophrenia and normal development.
• Open source framework for shape analysis of anatomical structures.
• Methodological bias in shape analysis.
• Evaluation of different correspondence and alignment methods regarding shape modeling and statistical shape analysis.
• Pre-surgical to post-surgical outcome shape analysis in mandibular and maxilllar surgery.
• Shape morphing: Model based extrapolation of most probably anatomical shape for segmentation and image-free surgeries.
• Shape modeling of bone structures for orthopedic implant design evaluation
• Population based atlas computation for human and small animal brain morphometry.
• Computer Aided Surgery system for planning, modeling and delivery of biological ankle joint replacement.
• Segmentation of bone structures in pre- and intra-operative of CT, IsoC3D (Iso-centric 3D Fluoroscopy) and ultrasound datasets.
• Co-registration of pre- and intra-operative CT, IsoC3D (Iso-centric 3D Fluoroscopy) and ultrasound datasets.
• Intra-operative reconstruction of bile vessel tree (cholangiography) for enhanced surgical navigation.
• Validation of image processing methods in single and multi-site studies
• Automatic computation of Field-Of-View and local spatial distortions in MRI using geometric phantoms
• Intensity inhomogeneity correction in MRI
• Interactive segmentation, labeling and visualization of 3D medical image datasets
• Robust multi-channel brain tissue segmentation
• Multi-channnel Multiple Sclerosis lesion segmentation

Functions and Awards

• Co-Director, Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratories (NIRAL)
• Co-Director, Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center's (NDRC) Developmental Neuroimaging Laboratory
• UNC site PI NA-MIC project
• Organization of MICCAI 2007 workshop on 3D segmentation in the clinic: a grand challenge
• Organizing comitee MICCAI 2005: www.miccai2005.org
• Session chair: Enabling Technologies CAS-H (Computer Aided Surgery around the Head), Interlaken, Feb. 2003
• Best paper award committee CAOS (Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery), Marbella, June 2003
• Reviewer for the following journals and conferences: Medical Image Analysis, IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging, IEEE Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Information Fusion Journal, Journal of Biomechanics, IEEE Trans. Information Technology in Biomedicine, IEEE Trans. Biomedical Engineering, Biological
• Psychiatry, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, Academic Radiology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Interventions MICCAI, IEEE Symposium on Biomedical Imaging ISBI.
• Editorial Boards: Medical Image Analysis, SPIE Medical Imaging: Image Processing conference