Hyperquantitative Optical Molecular Imaging to Reduce Morbidity in Head and Neck Cancer Surgery

ABSTRACT

The focus of this presentation will be on highlighting methods for extracting quantitative physiological and biomolecular parameters from contrast-enhanced imaging approaches. Parameters of interest will include blood flow, vascular permeability, cell-surface receptor concentrations, and other drug targets. Several preclinical and clinical applications will be covered, including surgical margin assessment in head and neck cancer tumor resection, rapid and noninvasive lymph node biopsy, early prediction of diabetic retinopathy, and in vivo monitoring of drug binding.

BIOGRAPHY

Ken Tichauer is an Associate Professor and the Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs in Biomedical Engineering at Illinois Tech in Chicago where he has been a faculty member since 2013. Ken’s lab focuses on developing imaging systems, protocols, and data analysis procedures to help extract quantitative molecular and functional information from biological tissue. Much of the lab’s work at present is done in collaboration with head and neck cancer surgeons with an aim of reducing morbidity in primary tumor resection and lymph node biopsy procedures using novel fluorescence-guided surgery techniques.