Name: Kelsey Kubelick

PhD Defense Presentation

Date: 12/13/19

Time: 12 pm

Location: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) Seminar Room, EBB Krone 1005

Committee Members:

Stanislav Emelianov, PhD (Advisor)

Eleanor Barber, PhD

C. Ross Ethier, PhD

Andrés García, PhD

Francisco Robles, PhD

Krishnendu Roy, PhD

Title: Development of ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging tools for tracking cells and particles

Abstract: Development of novel therapies heavily relies on histology to evaluate outcomes.  While histology provides detailed information at the molecular level, drawbacks include highly invasive, destructive sample preparation. To this end, clinical translation of novel therapies would be expedited by further developing minimally invasive, longitudinal imaging methods to inform therapy design or provide clinical feedback.  Combined ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging augmented with contrast agents is an excellent option to address this need.  Complimentary information provided by US/PA imaging allows morphological, functional, and cellular/molecular assessment of tissue. 

This research describes development of a US/PA imaging toolbox, consisting of contrast agents, imaging protocols, imaging hardware, and detection algorithms, that can be tailored for a variety of applications where longitudinal, in vivo imaging of specific cells or particles is desired.  To demonstrate versatility, these US/PA imaging tools were developed and combined in different ways for implementation in three distinct applications: 1) stem cell monitoring in ophthalmology to aid development of glaucoma therapies; 2) intra- and postoperative monitoring to guide stem cell therapies of the spinal cord; and 3)  monitoring particle trafficking to the lymph node to inform vaccine design.  Although the applications investigated here were extremely different, common themes were identified, highlighting broad relevance of the US/PA imaging toolbox and common opportunities for later development.  Overall, the tools developed here lay the foundation for design of custom US/PA imaging platforms in the future.