Quantitative Image Analysis in Biology and Medicine

When: Wednesday, October 29, 
2014
Where: PGH 232
Time: 11:00 AM

Speaker: Prof. Fatima Merchant, University of Houston, Engineering Technology

Host: Prof. Ioannis Kakadiaris

The need for quantification has skyrocketed in the fields of biology and medicine. Scientists in life sciences and clinicians now rely on computational processing for a myriad of analyses related to basic science and/or clinical research, screening and diagnosis. Today, modern imaging technologies allow for acquisition and visualization of multidimensional and multiparametric data. These multidimensional imaging modalities rely heavily on computational approaches for digital image acquisition, visualization and image analysis for quantification and data interpretation. In this presentation, I will discuss various applications of multidimensional image quantification ranging from analyses of submicron cellular structures to large dimensions such imaging of the human torso.

At the cellular level, a current paradigm in genome biology is that understanding nuclear architecture will be the cornerstone for the discovery of how genomes function in health and disease. Aneuploid chromosomes are a frequently observed trait in cancers, thus understanding how the positioning of genetic material in the nuclear space is essential to elucidate how genetic instability leads to cancer. A novel framework for 3D image processing and modeling the spatial localization of chromosomal signals within the nucleus will be presented that highlights disparities in diploid versus aneuploid chromosomes.

Moving from analyses at a single cell level to multicellular tissues, I will describe the utility of the zebrafish model of in-vivo blood vessel formation as a tool for chemical risk assessment. Time-lapse confocal multidimensional imaging of embryonic vasculature in the zebrafish is used in conjunction with digital image analysis to monitor and quantify the effect of toxins on vascular development. Non-rigid registration is used to capture changes in vascular morphology over time.

Finally, multidimensional stereophotogrammetry allows analyses of the human anatomy at a larger scale. Breast reconstruction is an important part of the breast cancer treatment process for many women. Recently, stereophotogrammetry have been used by plastic surgeons for evaluating surgical outcomes. Novel algorithms for automating the analysis of breast morphology will be presented.

Bio:

Dr. Fatima A. Merchant is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Technology at the University of Houston, with joint appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering. She also holds adjunct faculty positions in the Department of Computer Science, at the University of Houston, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, and is affiliated faculty of the Center of Nuclear Receptors and Cellular Signaling at the University of Houston. In September 2008, Dr. Merchant joined the University of Houston and established her research laboratory in Computational Biology and Medicine. Her research involves biomedical imaging, automated microscopy, and tissue engineering, specifically targeted towards understanding of cellular mechanisms and genetic variations in the pathology of disease.

Dr. Merchant received her BE degree from The University of Bombay, India in 1989. She concluded her graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving her Master of Science in 1992, and her Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 1995. From July 1995 through July 1997 she was a Research Fellow at the Harvard Medical School, Boston. She completed a certification in Bioinformatics, from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver in 2002. From August 1997 – May 2007, she was a Lead Research Engineer at ADIR, a subsidiary of IRIS International, Inc.

Over the past decade, Dr. Merchant has received numerous research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) amounting to ~ $3 million. She also serves on several NIH and NSF (National Science Foundation) proposal review committees. Dr. Merchant has authored numerous publications and book chapters on technologies in life science and imaging, and co-edited a book on microscope image processing. She has received merit awards from India, Germany, England and the USA for her contributions to biomedical engineering.