Matthew Howe
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Contact Lens for Detecting Intraocular Pressure
20-0034 – Background Glaucoma is a progressive eye condition that damages the optic nerve leading to vision loss or blindness. The primary treatable risk factor for glaucoma patients is increased intraocular pressure (IOP). IOP is measured regularly in eye exams to screen, diagnose and assess treatment responses for glaucoma. Current devices used by ophthalmologists to measure IOP, such as the Goldman... Read More
Ultrasound Mediated Delivery of Therapeutics and Disruption of Drug Resistant Biofilms
20-0102 – Background Biofilms are aggregates of microorganisms embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix and can attach to each other or to surfaces, including a patient’s skin or soft tissue, or an implanted medical device, such as a catheter. Microorganisms that make up biofilms can include bacteria, fungi, and protists. Biofilms are prevalent in many infections and are resistant to... Read More
Brain Infusion System Safety Sheath
19-0045 – Convection enhanced delivery (CED) is a method for delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier to the brain and central nervous system. CED can be used to treat various disease, including brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, and is generally characterized as a minimally invasive technique. While CED has shown some promise in clinical applications, the current... Read More
Rapidly Synthesized Radiolabeled PET Tracers with Improved Biological Characteristics
16-0078 – Background Positron-emission tomography (PET) is a medical imaging technique that utilizes radiolabeled tracers to aid in disease diagnosis for oncology, neurology, cardiology, and infectious diseases. PET imaging allows for detailed characterization of physiological processes, such as metabolism and blood flow. Most often PET is utilized by oncologists for cancer diagnosis and identification... Read More
Surgical Bed and Ligature Holder for Generating a Mouse Model to Study Periodontitis
18-0024 – Periodontal disease results in a loss of gingival tissue, periodontal ligament, and is a major contributor to tooth loss in adults. It is estimated that nearly 50% of the adult population in the United States is affected by periodontal disease. Experimental animal models for periodontal disease are essential for understanding the origin and evolution of the pathology in humans and are... Read More
Early breast cancer screening method by differentiating malignant from benign lesions
20-0104 – Current ultrasound-based systems are not able to differentiate between malignant or benign breast cancer, which is an important aspect of early breast cancer screening. A method has been developed combining acoustic radiation force-based ultrasound and measurement of tissue anisotropy to identify malignant breast cancer. Several viscoelastic characteristics are measured in the lesion and... Read More
Quantitative Viscoelastic Response (QVisR) Ultrasound to Diagnose, Treat, and Monitor Disease in Patients
20-0010 – Diagnosis of a disease using non-invasive biomarkers is a much safer alternative compared to surgical methods. Non-invasive biomarkers also accelerate the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients. Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a method, termed Quantitative Viscoelastic Response (QVisR) ultrasound, to quantitatively assess underlying tissue... Read More
Double-Profile Intersection (DoPIo) Elastography to Diagnose, Treat, and Monitor Disease in Patients
20-0015 – Diagnosis of a disease using non-invasive biomarkers is a much safer alternative compared to surgical methods. Non-invasive biomarkers also accelerate the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients. Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed Double-Profile Intersection (DoPIo) elastography, which is an acoustic radiation force (ARF)-based ultrasound imaging... Read More
Nanofibers for targeted treatment of aortic aneurysms
20-0042 – Background Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), occurs when there is an enlarged portion of the abdominal aorta, and accounts for approximately 10,000 deaths per year in the United States. Current treatments include surgical intervention or minimally invasive laparoscopic repair. However, the AAA can rupture, and the patient will not survive surgery or sometimes even reach the hospital. There are... Read More
Nanofibers for targeted treatment of pulmonary disease
20-0070 – Background Pulmonary hypertension is a progressive and severe condition with severe, and often fatal, consequences. Despite remarkable therapeutic advancements over the last thirty years, mortality rates remain as high as 40%. Current therapies largely target the major regulatory pathways involved in vascular tone. These therapies are associated with considerable limitations such as, a short... Read More
Assessment of Pulmonary Fibrosis Using Ultrasound Multiple Scattering
20-0036 – Pulmonary fibrosis affects is a progressive, inflammatory and fibro-proliferative lung disease and affects approximately 200,000 patients in the United States. The disease causes a change in the micro-architecture of the lung, such as thickening of the alveolar walls and the formation of patchy scars. Conventional uses of lung ultrasound in these patients is based on a standardized set of... Read More
Improved Techniques for Quantitative MRI
19-0061 – Background Quantification of tissue properties, such as the T1 and T2 relaxation times, in the human body through quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, is desired for clinical applications and research areas. Compared to qualitative imaging techniques, quantitative imaging can provide more accurate and unbiased information of a patient and make it easier to objectively compare different... Read More
Smart Medical Imaging Protocols
17-0036 – Background Currently, a wide array of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols are pre-defined for different diseases. For example, in neurological diseases, there are protocols for epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc. Under each disease category, the protocols are further divided into pediatric or adult patients, and each protocol consists of a collection of MRI sequences aiming to... Read More
Accelerated Acquisition of Diffusion MRI
20-0058 – Background Diffusion MRI (dMRI) is used to quantify brain tissue microenvironments and obtain accurate estimates of axonal orientations for tractography by utilizing the characteristics of the molecular diffusion of water. Precise acquisition of dMRI images requires probing water molecules in multiple diffusion scales and directions, which consequently increases acquisition time. Increased... Read More
Retrospective Artifact Correction of MRI through Unsupervised Deep Learning
20-0060 – Background Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) is highly prone to motion artifacts, which is difficult to prevent in the case of pediatric patients. Improving image quality and removing artifacts retrospectively using supervised learning, requires the generation of paired data, consisting of images with and without artifacts of the same subject. Explicit generation of such images is... Read More
Fumarate prodrugs to treat or prevent schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
19-0155 – Background The incidence of psychotic disorders is increasing worldwide. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that can become chronic, severe, and is often socially and occupationally disabling. Antipsychotic drugs are currently used to treat schizophrenia and other brain disorders like depression, dementia, and bipolar disorder. These drugs don’t work for approximately one third of... Read More
Tensegrity Wheel with Force-Based Motion
17-0124 – A tensegrity wheel capable of being steered simply by applying force, has been developed. Terrestrial, long distance travel, either on Earth or a celestial body, benefits from overall weight reduction. Tensegrity structures are inherently lightweight and can facilitate weight reduction. The tensegrity wheel invented at UNC Chapel Hill is of much simpler design than previously disclosed... Read More
Using phase-changing nanodroplets to dissolve blood clots with ultrasound
18-0123 – Thrombosis, or pathologic blood clot formation, causes many vascular diseases. UNC researchers have developed a new method for using ultrasound to dissolve blood clots which improves on existing thrombosis treatment practices. The technique combines ultrasound with use of nanodroplets which convert from liquid to gas when exposed to ultrasound energy. This phase change enhances the disruption... Read More
Nanofiber-based immunotherapeutic drug delivery specifically targeted to the atherosclerotic niche
18-0152 – A nanodrug delivery system has been developed which precisely targets controlled immunotherapeutics to the atherosclerotic niche. This system is comprised of therapeutic peptides tethered to nanofibers which self-assemble from peptide amphiphiles. These complexes are targeted specifically to atherosclerotic lesions. In addition to its specificity, the nanofiber-based delivery system stands... Read More
Novel Long-Acting Injectable Hydrogels for Controlled Drug Delivery
18-0167 – Background Osteoporosis is a chronic disease associated with a decrease in bone strength and increase in bone fractures, which lead to high rates of morbidity and mortality. It is estimated that osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people worldwide, which includes more than 40 million people over the age of 50 in the US alone, accounting for 55% of this age group. There are several... Read More
Improved removal of stimulation artifacts in intracranial electroencephalography
18-0136 – Cortical oscillations are associated with key cognitive functions and show impairment in many psychiatric disorders. They are most effectively measured using direct cortical stimulation (DCS) in intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG). A new algorithm has been developed to remove artifacts caused by DCS when recording iEEG signal. This technique, which has been validated on simulated and... Read More
Novel PET tracers for predicting tumor response to immunotherapy
17-0028 – Labeled Positron Emmision Tomography (PET) imaging tracers have been developed which can easily screen tumors for responsiveness to specific immunotherapies. This low-cost screening method prevents application of costly immunotherapy to non-responsive tumors. These novel tracers are also relevant to serotonin pathways important in diabetes and neurophysiology. Advantages:
Combined Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARGI) Ultrasound and Elastography for Improved Tissue Imaging
12-0104 – Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasound is a tissue imaging method where a short duration impulse (on the order of microseconds) of relatively high acoustic energy is transmitted into the body. The tissue’s response in terms of its peak displacement and subsequent recovery from displacement is used as an indicator of the tissue’s mechanical properties. The use of ARFI for... Read More
Topical Tigecycline to Control Endodontic Infections
18-0031 – Endodontic infections result from a variety of bacteria and require treatment, which can include tooth extraction. The severity of infection can lead to hospital stay, morbidity, and even mortality, if not cared for properly. Though antibiotics are ideal, some bacteria have developed a resistance, as a result of antibiotic use in both medicine and dentisty. Tigecycline is a promising... Read More
Novel System for Personalized Brain Stimulation to Alleviate Deficiencies in Higher Order Cognitive Function Cloud Infrastructure
17-0050 – A novel system that provides targeted and personalized brain stimulation to increase sleep spindle oscillations to alleviate deficiencies in higher order cognitive function, allowing for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological impairments. This technology is cloud infrastructure to support transcranial current stimulation device.
Novel System for Personalized Brain Stimulation to Alleviate Deficiencies in Higher Order Cognitive Function Software
17-0051 – A novel system that provides targeted and personalized brain stimulation to increase sleep spindle oscillations to alleviate deficiencies in higher order cognitive function, allowing for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological impairments. This technology is the firmware written to control transcranial current stimulation device. This piece of software controls the delivery and... Read More
Higher Frame Rate Ultrasound Imaging for Improved Detection of Human Physiological Events
17-0062 – Ultrasound imaging at high frame rates (50 Hz or greater) is reliant on plane-wave transmission. Unfortunately, high frame rate imaging is not conducive with compounding, or averaging, of different acoustic signals to improve image quality. With every ultrasound transmit being devoted to image quality, that is one transmission being lost for analysis of temporal changes in the image. As the... Read More
Device and Method for Improving Motor Memory and Other Cognitive Functions, a Potential Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease, Schizophrenia, Autism and ADHD
16-0010 – Research in understanding the role thalamo-cortical oscillations, like sleep spindles, play in cortical network dynamics and cognitive processes in humans has been impeded due to a lack of tools to monitor and selectively enhance rhythmic brain activity in real-time. Further, current treatment options for these disease aim only to help prolong functional capabilities and slow symptom... Read More
Improved Mechanical Imaging for Internal Organs and Muscles
16-0098 – Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging is a technique that utilizes ultrasound to characterize the viscoelastic property of tissue. It is understood that certain organ systems have directionally dependent characteristics (property known as anisotropy). Disease progression may change the mechanical response of tissue, and the ability to measure these changes along multiple axes is... Read More
Detection of Brain Motion with High-frame Rate Ultrasound Imaging
16-0141 – There is a lack of understanding of the mechanisms at work during a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Though brain motion has been extensively linked to TBI, direct quantifiable measurements are absent, which could aid in progressing understanding and diagnosis of TBI. The Pinton lab has developed an ultrasonic method for detecting the motion of the brain, at frame rates as high as 10,000 images... Read More
Precision Dentistry Model to Classify Periodontal Disease and Customize Patient Treatment
16-0170 – Background Periodontal diseases are common throughout the US population, with estimates between 50% - 90% of the population affected. Current clinical definitions of periodontal disease currently are based on experts’ decisions of what constitutes health, and various levels of disease, rather than allowing patterns of disease drawn from data to classify patients into mutually exclusive groups... Read More
Combined Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARGI) Ultrasound and Elastography for Tissue Imaging
08-0050 – Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasound is a tissue imaging method where a short duration impulse (on the order of microseconds) of relatively high acoustic energy is transmitted into the body. The tissue’s response in terms of its peak displacement and subsequent recovery from displacement is used as an indicator of the tissue’s mechanical properties. The use of ARFI for... Read More
Hinged Endoscopic Catheter for Improved Treatment of Intestinal Obstructions
18-0015 – Intestinal obstruction can result from a variety of medical problems, including gastric outlet obstruction, chronic ulcers, and cancer of the stomach or pancreas, and it leads to impaired or blocked digestion of food, numerous gastrointestinal symptoms, and malnutrition. A common solution to these cases is to bypass the obstruction by creating a connection between the stomach and the small... Read More
A Novel Therapeutic Approach using Endogenous Neurosteroids for Treating Inflammatory Disorders
17-0159 – Background Naturally occurring neurosteroids, such as pregnenolone and allopregnanolone, have shown protection against alcohol use disorder, depression, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and other neuropsychiatric disorders in animal models, however the mechanism of this protection is not well characterized. These disorders affect a large portion of the... Read More
Carving Instrument for Dental Composites
16-0137 – New materials for dental restoration, such as resin-based composite, have gained popularity over more traditional amalgam in dental practice. However, the existing hand-held carving tools in the market are not designed for carving modern fillings in the finishing process of dental restorations, which leads to higher failure rates, recurrent cavities, and patient injury. Researchers from the... Read More
Full Jaw Orthodontic Dentition Model by using human CT and microCT data
12-0071 – No summary available
Accurate Segmentation of Male Pelvic Organs from CT images via Regression-Based Deformable Models and Iterative Structural Refinement
16-0019 – This novel method automatically segments male pelvic organs from CT images with robustness to initialization that achieves better results than current deformable models, and could greatly enhance the accuracy of pelvic segmentation consequently preventing more accurate radiotherapy treatments to patients. Segmenting pelvic organs is a prerequisite for prostate cancer radiotherapy, as the... Read More
Acoustic Detection of Activated Ultrasound Phase-Change Contrast Agents
14-0009 – This novel method detects acoustic signatures unique to phase-contrast agents (PCCAs) that can be used to differentiate PCCAs from surrounding tissue and standard microbubble contrast agents. These unique signals are due to over-expansion and oscillating frequencies induced upon oscillation of PCCAs. Once activated by a primary source, the vaporization event can be monitored passively by... Read More
Vibration-Induced Stem Cell Chondrogenesis and Osteogenesis
14-0030 – A surgically implantable bioreactor that induces either chondrogenesis (cartilage development) or osteogenesis (formation of bone) from mesenchymal stem cells has been developed. In vitro studies in which vibratory signals were provided to both human and porcine mesenchymal stem cells demonstrated that at lower frequencies the cells differentiate into a cartilage phenotype, and will... Read More
Reconstruction of Super-Resolution Lung 4D-CT Using Patch-Based Sparse Representation
12-0105 – A method has been developed to increase the resolution of 4D-CT scanning of moving organs such as the lung using a unique patch-based mechanism. This method has been extensively evaluated using the DIR-lab 4D-CT dataset. By analyzing intensity difference maps from a lung region at particular respiratory phases, it is clear that this method provided super resolution when compared to linear... Read More
Embryonic Stem Cell Enrichment and Isolation Method
11-0078 – An innovative method has been developed to isolate very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) from peripheral blood with greater yields than previous methods. VESLs are small, pluripotent stem cells isolated from bone marrow and peripheral blood, and these cells can be propagated for several months without losing their molecular identity. While the exact identity of these cells remains... Read More
E-cadherin as a Biomarker of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
09-0108 – Screening methods for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) using E-cadherin as a biomarker has been developed. Support for this method is provided by comparative analysis of clinical samples from patients with GERD and patients with a healthy esophagus. The product of E-cadherin cleavage is detectable in plasma and at higher levels in GERD patients than controls, thus yielding its possible... Read More
Novel Software for Analysis of Displacement Wave Reflections with ARF Ultrasound Excitation
09-0120 – A novel, custom software has been developed that detects reflected displacement waves, which are caused during Acoustic Radiation Force (ARF) ultrasound imaging, for visualization via parametric images. Acoustic Radiation Force (ARF) ultrasound imaging exploits the mechanical properties of tissues to differentiate tissue structure and composition. Each ARF excitation induces displacement wave... Read More
Modification of Capsule Endsocopy for Enhanced Ability to Detect Gastrointestinal Lesions
05-0072 – An enhanced capsule endoscopy technology has been developed. In vivo experiments in mice using a near-infrared fluorescent probe activated in vivo by cathepsin B demonstrated that biochromoendoscopy (BCE) was able to precisely image adenomatous polyps and distinguish them from benign polyps and inflammatory lesions. BCE uses specific wavelength filters in combination with select activated... Read More