Over the past 30 years, medical imaging has advanced beyond mere projection to cross-sectional views at ever-higher speeds and resolutions that enhance observation of medical problems and provide more opportunities for minimally invasive therapeutics. The Ohio State University Medical Center’s Department of Radiology has been a pacesetter in biomedical imaging research that translates to innovative clinical applications.
The research backbone of the Imaging Signature Program - led by Michael Knopp, MD, PhD, professor of Radiology - is the Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging (aka Biomedical Structural, Functional and Molecular Imaging at Ohio State). The Wright Center was launched in May 2003 with state funding from a $9.1 million Third Frontier Grant and an $8 million Biomedical Research and Technology (BRTT) award. Knopp is principal investigator for both. The Center advances magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and mobile imaging technologies while creating an extensive imaging and bioinformatics structure. It also supports other biomedical research endeavors at Ohio State. Transinstitutional efforts have involved the Ohio Supercomputer Center, Ohio State Computer Science and Engineering, and Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Imaging Signature Program highlights of 2007
- Faculty recruitments included: Jamal Al Taani, MD (instructorclinical, Interventional Radiology); Adele Lipari, MD (assistant professor, Clinical/Mammography); Ryan Niederkohr, MD (assistant professor, Nuclear Medicine); Mitva Patel, MD (assistant professor, Abdomen Mammography); Parshan (Paul) Ramsingh, MD (assistant professor-clinical, Abdomen Imaging, Nuclear Medicine); Doug Windler, MD (assistant professor clinical, Mammography, Body Imaging); and Jun Zhang, PhD (instructor, Imaging Research).
- The Department of Radiology raised its research recognition and funding, which has surpassed $43 million.
- The Division of Imaging Research has approximately $34 million in awards. The BRTT - Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging (WCI-BMI) and BRCP - Biomedical
Structural, Functional and Molecular Imaging Enterprise, Part 2 awards have attracted an additional $19.5-plus million in public/private research funding and led to more than 200 new positions in Ohio. Activities related to these projects have helped patients in neurology, urology, cardiology and oncology.
- Imaging progress was demonstrated in the use of a global positioning system in the operating room that allows surgeons to make smaller scalp incisions and remove smaller segments of the skull, and in specimen imaging using the integrated Siemens’ Inveon CT and Inveon PET system that was placed in Ohio State’s Biomedical Research Tower in March 2007. This equipment is part of a personalized medicine approach in oncologic surgery.
- The 9th Midwest DNA Repair Symposium, held in Columbus in May 2007, was hosted and chaired by Altaf Wani, PhD, of Radiology’s Division of Radiobiology. An October 2007 symposium at Ohio State titled “Ohio: The Global Pioneer in Biomedical Imaging” presented imaging opportunities and collaborations while highlighting such successes as the WCI.
- In a molecular study on the development of anticancer anthracyclines, researchers have been evaluating anthracycline analogs with modified sugar moieties for activity against topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II. Unexpected results have led to new insights into mechanisms of photodynamic therapy, the treatment of cancer with visible light and photoactive drugs that produce singlet oxygen.
- Core lab activities continued to rise. The lab’s capabilities have been recognized with awards from the pharmaceutical industry and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B. Budgeted funding exceeds $3.3 million.
- The WCI-BMI received a $1.5 million grant from the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health to study and establish imaging biomarkers for predicting effective treatments. This work will help standardize imaging as biomarkers for clinical trials and care in cancer and other diseases. The grant will support one of the first projects of the Biomarkers Consortium, a public-private biomedical research partnership formed in 2006 to identify biological markers for use by researchers, regulators and healthcare providers.