U of U’s Imaging Technology Team Demonstrates
 the Power of Collaboration

Acceleration in collaboration between researchers, more funding from outside of Utah, more high end jobs in Utah, increased prominence for Utah's research universities, and progress toward solving big issues: these are some of the hoped-for benefits of recruiting leading scientists to Utah under the USTAR initiative and they are materializing, as the experience of the University of Utah's Imaging Technology team shows. 

The team - anchored by USTAR researchers Guido Gerig, Tom Fletcher and Tolga Tasdizen - puts Utah at the international forefront in the field of neuroimage analysis. The team's goal is to develop technology and computer modeling that leads to earlier detection and more effective treatment of Alzheimer's, Autism, Multiple Sclerosis, Depression, Schizophrenia, and other debilitating conditions. 

The team includes "incumbent" U of U experts such as Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute director Chris Johnson, as well as professors Sarang Joshi and Ross Whitaker and a cadre of graduate students and highly skilled staff members. At its core, the cadre of experts exemplifies a cross-functional collaboration between the SCI Institute and the U of U's Brain Institute. 

"Guido Gerig is one of the world's most highly regarded neuroscientists," said Johnson, a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science. "His participation in a grant application carries a lot of weight and has certainly made funding organizations pay more attention to what's happening in Utah."

The number and quality of research findings the Imaging Technology team has produced also makes people sit up and take notice. The team reported a total of 19 journal and 26 peer reviewed conference papers for 2008-2009. "The acid test of credibility is when other researchers around the world cite your findings in their own publications," Johnson said. "When you look at the most frequently cited papers in Medical Image Analysis in the 2009 impact factor window (2006 and 2008), seven of our team members helped to write three publications in the top ten most cited papers."

(A complete list of the top 10 papers is shown below. The Utah collaborators' publications were numbers 3, 6, and 8 on the list.)

Publishing leading research underscores the progress the team is making toward solving some of medicine's big issues. "Understanding the brain may be the 21st century's great challenge," Johnson said. "We're making progress in understanding Autism, as one example. Many subjects require long-term care and costly therapy, so with more effective neuroimaging of early brain development, we're moving closer to developing early detection and early intervention. This will lead to better patient outcomes and lower medical and societal costs."

In terms of extramural funding - the funding researchers garner from federal, industry and other external sources such as foundations - the Imaging Technology team shows a high level of productivity. Over two years, the state has invested approximately $1.5 million in the USTAR team. Currently, that investment has yielded an $8.1 million inflow of federal research grants, with another $6.8 million in pending applications.

There are also long-term commercial opportunities, according to Johnson. Examples include SCI-developed software for high-end imaging devices and identification of biomarkers (specific cells, genes, enzymes or other biological properties) to develop more effective diagnostic products.

Scott Anderson, president of Zions First National Bank and USTAR Governing Authority member, believes that the Imaging Technology team embodies the power of complementary research strengths. 

"When USTAR was first discussed in 2005, we proponents stressed the catalyzing effect that top researchers from out of state would have when they moved here and engaged with our in-state experts," Anderson said. "It's great to see new levels of creative, collaborative research emerging, and I firmly believe this is just the beginning."

Anderson notes that comparable collaborations are happening across the entire range of USTAR research activities. "We've added to our already considerable firepower in the fields of energy, nanotechnology, digital media and more. We told people to be patient, but we can clearly say that patience is paying off."

Top 10 Cited Paper in Medical Image Analysis (2006-2009)

1) SPASM: A 3D-ASM for segmentation of sparse and arbitrarily oriented cardiac MRI data
van Assen H.C., Danilouchkine M.G., Frangi A.F., Ordas S., Westenberg J.J.M., Reiber J.H.C., Lelieveldt B.P.F.

2) Deformable registration of diffusion tensor MR images with explicit orientation optimization
Zhang H., Yushkevich P.A., Alexander D.C., Gee J.C.

3) Fiber tract-oriented statistics for quantitative diffusion tensor MRI analysis
Corouge I., Fletcher P.T., Joshi S., Gouttard S., Gerig G.

4) Segmentation of anatomical structures in chest radiographs using supervised methods: A comparative study on a public database
van Ginneken B., Stegmann M.B., Loog M.

5) Automatic registration of portal images and volumetric CT for patient positioning in radiation therapy
Khamene A., Bloch P., Wein W., Svatos M., Sauer F.

6) Multi-modal image set registration and atlas formation
Lorenzen P., Prastawa M., Davis B., Gerig G., Bullitt E., Joshi S.

7)United Snakes
Liang J., McInerney T., Terzopoulos D.

8) Adaptive Markov modeling for mutual-information-based, unsupervised MRI brain-tissue classification
Awate S.P., Tasdizen T., Foster N., Whitaker R.T.

9)Cardiac function estimation from MRI using a heart model and data assimilation: Advances and difficulties
Sermesant M., Moireau P., Camara O., Sainte-Marie J., Andriantsimiavona R., Cimrman R., Hill D.L.G., Chapelle D., Razavi R.

10) Segmentation of volumetric MRA images by using capillary active contour
Yan P., Kassim A.A.

About USTAR

The Utah Science Technology and Research initiative (USTAR) is a long-term, state-funded investment to strengthen Utah's "knowledge economy" and generate high-paying jobs. Funded in March 2006 by the State Legislature, USTAR is based on three program areas. The first area involves funding for strategic investments at the University of Utah and Utah State University to recruit world-class researchers. The second area is to build state-of-the-art interdisciplinary facilities at these institutions for the innovation teams. The third program area involves teams that work with companies and entrepreneurs across the State to promote science, innovation, and commercialization activities. For more information, go to www.innovationutah.com or follow http://twitter.com/Innovationutah.