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Three Abstracts Accepted to SPIE



Three PULSE Lab abstracts were accepted to SPIE conferences this year.

SPIE Photonics West took place January 27- February 1, 2024, and the following work was presented by Jiaxin Zhang.

SPIE Medical Imaging is taking place February 18-22, 2024, and the following work was presented by Md Ashikuzzaman. 

In addition to the above papers, Prof. Bell was invited to be a session chair at SPIE Photonics West for the the Advanced Biomedical and Clinical Diagnostic and Surgical Guidance Systems XXII, Session 6: Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy on January 28th from 11:00 AM-12:20 PM PST.

Prof. Bell Elected Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA)

Congratulations to Prof. Bell on being elected as a Fellow of Optica!

Optica, formerly the Optical Society of America (OSA), is the oldest preeminent professional society in the field of optics and photonics, uniting and educating scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders, with over 22,000 members from more than 180 countries and 45 Nobel Laureates in its ranks.

Optica Fellows are members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics through distinguished contributions to education, research, engineering, business, and society. Fellows are selected by the society’s board of directors for this distinction, recognition, and honor, which is annually limited to approximately 0.5% of the society’s membership total at the time of election. 

Prof. Bell is honored specifically  “for pioneering contributions to photoacoustic imaging techniques and applications for surgical guidance.”

Optica News Release (Prof. Bell appears under surname “Lediju Bell” in this news release)

Meet the 2024 Fellows

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PULSE Lab Research Featured on CNN

Research conducted by PULSE Lab visiting PhD student, Guilherme S. P. Fernandes, and co-advisor, Prof. Muyinatu Bell, is featured on CNN.

The topic of the feature is an algorithm that Prof. Bell invented as a graduate student, which is now revealing capabilities to address skin tone bias in photoacoustic imaging. When using this technique to image through skin with light, darker skin tones produce more acoustic clutter than lighter skin tones, which introduces unwanted biases (e.g., Black patients have worse images than white patients, leading to a disparity in the ability to see the important content needed to make an accurate diagnosis). The novel and innovative algorithm, termed short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) beamforming, makes clearer pictures for all patients, regardless of skin tone. Prof. Bell collaborated with Prof. Theo Pavan and colleagues at the University of São Paulo in Brazil to test this algorithm on multiple volunteers, and the PULSE Lab hosted Guilherme over the past year to finalize this work, leading to the publication Mitigating skin tone bias in linear array in vivo photoacoustic imaging with short-lag spatial coherence beamforming.

SLSC beamforming was previously shown to reduce acoustic clutter in cardiac ultrasound images and in abdominal ultrasound images of patients with higher body mass indexes. The technique and its derivatives can also be used to clarify the fluid vs. solid content of indeterminate breast masses surrounded by dense breast tissue, thereby reducing unnecessary procedures and follow-ups when trying to detect breast cancer. Additional use cases include clarifying anatomical details in photoacoustic-guided surgery. These multiple examples demonstrate the expansive power, potential, and capabilities of designing more equitable imaging and healthcare technologies that serve a wider range of our global patient population.

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Prof. Bell Receives NIH R01 Grant

Prof. Bell received a $1.5M NIH R01 grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to support our project entitled, Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Hysterectomies. This project is motivated by the clinical challenges surrounding ureteral injury during hysterectomies, due to the close proximity of uterine arteries (which must be severed) and ureters (which must be preserved). Complications from accidental ureteral injuries include extensive repeat surgeries, complete kidney failure, sepsis, acute renal insufficiency, and patient death. The goal of this project is to establish optimal parameters to advance photoacoustic technology toward differentiation of ureters, uterine arteries, and tool tips during hysterectomies. This work will be completed in collaboration with primary co-investigator, Karen Wang, MD.

Four of our pioneering publications in this area include:

  • Wiacek A, Wang KC, Wu H, Bell MAL, Photoacoustic-guided laparoscopic and open hysterectomy procedures demonstrated with human cadavers, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 40(12):3279-3292, 2021 [pdf]
  • Wiacek A, Wang KC, Wu H, Bell MAL, Parking sensor-inspired approach to photoacoustic-guided hysterectomy demonstrated with human cadavers, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021 [pdf]
  • Wiacek A, Wang KC, Bell MAL, Dual-wavelength photoacoustic imaging for guidance of hysterectomy procedures, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, February 1-6, 2020 [pdf]
  • Wiacek A, Wang K, Bell MAL, Techniques to distinguish the ureter from the uterine artery in photoacoustic-guided hysterectomies, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, February 2-7, 2019 [pdf]

This work was initially funded by a Johns Hopkins Discovery Award.

JHU Malone Center Announcement

Prof. Bell Receives JHU Discovery Award

Dr. Muyinatu Bell and plastic and reconstructive surgeon collaborator Dr. Sami Tuffaha were among the 35 interdisciplinary faculty teams at Johns Hopkins selected to receive one of the 2023 JHU Discovery Awards. This award is designed to support cross-divisional research teams who are poised to arrive at important discoveries or creative works. The expectation is that these awards will spark new, synergistic interactions between investigators across the institution and lead to work of the highest quality and impact. This award will support their research topic of “Photoacoustic Assessment of Peripheral Nerve Injury.”

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Prof. Bell Elected SPIE Fellow

Congratulations to Prof. Bell on being elected as a Fellow of SPIE! SPIE Fellows are are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging and are honored for their technical achievements, service to the general optics community, and service to SPIE.

Prof. Bell was recognized for her “achievements in photoacoustic imaging techniques and applications for surgical guidance.” She is a regular attendee and author of two SPIE communities and was honored as a new 2023 Fellow within both communities. Prof. Bell received her SPIE Fellow pin and certificate at SPIE Photonics West, presented by Symposium Chair Jennifer Barton and SPIE President Bernard Kress. Three weeks later, she was honored with a Fellow certificate presentation at SPIE Medical Imaging, delivered by Symposium Chair Despina Kontos.

New SPIE Fellows Announcement

WSE Announcement

Four Abstracts Accepted to SPIE



Two PULSE Lab abstracts were accepted to SPIE conferences this year.

SPIE Photonics West is taking place January 28- February 2, 2023, and the following work was presented by Jiaxin Zhang.

SPIE Medical Imaging will take place February 20-24, 2023, and the following work will be presented by Khadijat Kokumo. 

The PULSE Lab also contributed to the following two collaborative works, which will also be presented at SPIE Medical Imaging.

In addition to the above papers, Prof. Bell was invited to be a session chair at SPIE Photonics West for the the Advanced Biomedical and Clinical Diagnostic and Surgical Guidance Systems XXI, Session 8: Novel Techniques on January 29th from 3:40-5:20 PM PST and for Multiscale Imaging and Spectroscopy IV, Session 7: Emerging Sources of Multiscale Contrast II on January 29th from 1:20 – 3:10 PM PST.

Prof. Bell Wins IEEE Ultrasonics Early Career Investigator Award

Prof. Muyinatu Bell (center) with UFFC-S Awards Chair, Prof. Jafar Sanie (left) and UFFC-S President, Prof. Mark Schaffer (right).

Prof. Bell was selected to receive the 2022 IEEE Ultrasonics Early Career Investigator Award, which was announced on  at the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium in Venice, Italy. This award recognize the achievements of a young researcher in the area of ultrasonics and its applications. Prof. Bell was recognized for “pioneering contributions to spatial coherence beamforming theory and deep learning methods for ultrasound and photoacoustic image formation.”

WSE Announcement

Prof. Bell Wins $1.15M Science Diversity Leadership Award

Congratulations to Prof. Bell on winning the inaugural Science Diversity Leadership Award! 

This $1.15 million award is offered by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in partnership with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to launch this program. The award recognizes and furthers the leadership and scientific accomplishments of excellent biomedical researchers who—through their outreach, mentoring, and teaching—have a record of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in their scientific fields. Recipients will additionally connect with each other and international scientific leaders through
gatherings over the course of the five years.

CZI Announcement

JHU Hub Announcement

Johns Hopkins Office of the Provost

Prof. Bell Wins Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award

Congratulations to Prof. Bell on winning the 2022 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award! 

Awarded to 38 early-career faculty this year, across all divisions within Johns Hopkins, the Catalyst Award honors the accomplishments, creativity, originality, and academic impact of its recipients. The award provides a $75,000 grant to conduct preliminary studies with the eventual goal of redefining laser safety for photoacoustic-guided liver surgery. In addition to the grant, the award comes with mentoring opportunities and institutional recognition.  

Two of our pioneering journal publications in this area include:

  • Huang J, Wiacek A,Kempski KM, Palmer T, Izzi J, Beck S, Bell MAL, Empirical Assessment of Laser Safety for Photoacoustic-Guided Liver Surgeries, Biomedical Optics Express, 12, 1205-1216, 2021 [pdf]
  • Kempski K, Wiacek A, Graham M, González E, Goodson B, Allman D, Palmer J, Hou H, Beck S, He J, Bell MAL, In vivo photoacoustic imaging of major blood vessels in the pancreas and liver during surgery, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 24(12):121905, 2019 [pdf]

It is a huge honor to be a recipient of this award, and all recipients will be celebrated at a university-sponsored event taking place on October 20, 2022! Congrats again to Prof. Bell! 

JHU Hub Announcement

HEMI Announcement

Prof. Bell Receives NIH R01 Grant

Prof. Bell received a $1.4M NIH R01 grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to support our project entitled, Minimizing Uncertainty in Breast Ultrasound Imaging with Real-Time Coherence-Based Beamforming. This project is motivated by the clinical challenges surrounding ultrasound images yielding inconclusive results in a subset of patients, necessitating biopsies, aspirations, or follow-up imaging, which increase patient anxiety and places additional burdens on the time available for clinical care and the resource allocations of our healthcare system. The goal of this project is to develop new, real-time ultrasound imaging technology that will simplify clinical workflows by distinguishing fluid-filled masses from solid masses and from complex cystic and solid masses, which all appear hypoechoic in traditional ultrasound B-mode images. This work will be completed in collaboration with breast radiologists Eniola Oluyemi, MD, Kelly Myers, MD, Emily Ambinder, MD, and Lisa Mullen, MD.

Three of our pioneering journal publications in this area include:

  • Wiacek A, Rindal OMH, Falomo E, Myers K, Fabrega-Foster K, Harvey S, Bell MAL, Robust Short-Lag Spatial Coherence Imaging of Breast Ultrasound Data: Initial Clinical Results, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 66(3):527-540, 2019 [pdf]
  • Wiacek A, Oluyemi E, Myers K, Mullen L, Bell MAL, Coherence-based beamforming increases the diagnostic certainty of distinguishing fluid from solid masses in breast ultrasound exams, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 46(6):1380-1394, 2020 [pdf]
  • Wiacek A, González E, Bell MAL, CohereNet: A Deep Learning Architecture for Ultrasound Spatial Correlation Estimation and Coherence-Based Beamforming, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 67(12):2574-2583, 2020 [featured on journal cover] [pdf]

This work has also been featured in the following articles and press releases:

We additionally have a pending patent for these ideas.

JHU Hub Announcement

Paper Accepted to Journal of Biomedical Optics

Congratulations to Eduardo González! His first author paper entitled, Dual-wavelength photoacoustic atlas method to estimate fractional methylene blue and hemoglobin contents, was accepted to the Journal of Biomedical Optics.

This work discusses a novel approach to estimate concentration levels from a mixture of two photoacoustic-sensitive materials after only two laser wavelength emissions. The work builds on our previously proposed acoustic atlas alternative to spectral unmixing, and it is the first to present an acoustic-based photoacoustic estimator that relies on training sets to estimate concentration levels from mixtures of photoacoustic-sensitive materials. Results are promising for real-time monitoring of the concentration of contrast agents in the operating room.

Citations:

González EA, Bell MAL, Dual-wavelength photoacoustic atlas method to estimate fractional methylene blue and hemoglobin contents, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 27(9):096002, 2022 [pdf]

González EA, Graham CA, Bell MAL, Acoustic frequency-based approach for identification of photoacoustic surgical biomarkers, Frontiers in Photonics, 2, 2021 [pdf]

Related News:

Journal Paper Accepted to Frontiers in Photonics

Four Abstracts Accepted to SPIE

Four PULSE Lab abstracts were accepted to various SPIE conferences this year.

SPIE Photonics West took place January 22-27, 2022, and the following work was presented by Michelle and Eduardo.

SPIE Medical Imaging will take place February 20-24, 2022, and the following work will be presented by Ben Frey.

In addition, Prof. Bell was invited to speak at SPIE Optics + Photonics, which will take place August 22-25, 2022, where she will deliver the presentation:

  • Bell MAL, Ultrasound Image Formation in the Deep Learning Age, SPIE Optics + Photonics, Emerging Topics in Artificial Intelligence, San Diego, California, August 22-25, 2022

Alycen Wiacek Named 2022 Siebel Scholar

Congratulations to Alycen Wiacek! She was named to the 2022 Class of Siebel Scholars — a highly selective group of individuals representing the top graduate students in the world. Alycen was recognized in the bioengineering category, and she is the only student not enrolled in the JHU BME PhD program to be recognized in this category this year. Alycen is also the first JHU ECE PhD student to receive this outstanding recognition. 

 

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30 Invited Talks by Prof. Bell in 2020-2021

Prof. Bell delivered a total of 17 invited talks to date in 2021 (compared to 13 in 2020 and over 70 talks total). Here is a summary of the 2020-2021 talk titles, dates, and locations, with additional highlights, announcements, and links to recordings wherever available:

2021

  1. Distinguished Keynote: 19th Annual Imaging Network Ontario (ImNO) Symposium, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Toronto, ON, March 22-23, 2021 [delivered via Zoom to ~180 participants]
  2. Plenary: IEEE EMBS Grand Challenge on Data Science: Medical Imaging, Ultrasound Image Formation in the Deep Learning Age, February 10, 2021 [delivered via Zoom webinar to ~230 participants]
  3. Invited: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Computational Medicine Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Chapel Hill, NC, May 20, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  4. Invited: SPIE Women in Optics Spotlight Series, Representation Matters: Role Models and Allies, May 12, 2021 [virtual delivery, recording available for SPIE members]
    • Promotional Advertisement:
  5. Invited: University of Virginia, Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Charlottesville, VA, April 30, 2021 [virtual delivery via Zoom to ~50 attendees]
  6. Invited: Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Milwaukee, WI, April 23, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  7. Invited: OSA Therapeutic Laser Applications Technical Group Special Event at the OSA Biophotonics Congress: Optics in the Life Sciences, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, April 14, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  8. Invited: AIUM Machine Learning in Application to Ultrasound Beamforming Session, Deep Learning Architectures and Applications for Ultrasound Image Formation, New York, NY, April 10-14, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  9. Invited: University of Colorado at Boulder, Applied Mathematics Colloquium, Ultrasound Image Formation in the Deep Learning Age, April 2, 2021 [virtual delivery, recording available on YouTube]
  10. Invited: Medtronic, Inc., Photoacoustic Vision for Surgical Guidance, San Francisco, CA, March 19, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  11. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, EECS Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Cambridge, MA, March 15, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  12. Invited: SPIE Photonics West, Photoacoustic Vision for Surgical Guidance, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  13. Invited: University of Toledo, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Bioengineering Seminar Series, Toledo, OH, March 5, 2021 [virtual delivery]
  14. Invited: University of Pennsylvania, Photoacoustic Vision for Surgical Robotics, GRASP On Robotics Seminar Series, Philadelphia, PA, February 26, 2021 [delivered via Zoom, recording available on YouTube]
  15. Invited: University of Washington, Bioengineering Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Seattle, WA, February 11, 2021 [delivered via Zoom]
  16. Invited: Photonics Spectra Conference, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, January 19-22, 2021
  17. Invited by AIUM’s Artificial Intelligence Summit Task Force: American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medical Ultrasound Imaging Summit, AI enabled US Signal Processing, January 13 & 20, 2021 [virtual delivery via Zoom to ~90 attendees]

2020

  1. Keynote: NeurIPS Black in AI Workshop, Ultrasound Image Formation in the Deep Learning Age, December 7, 2020 [virtual delivery via live stream with Zoom Q&A, recording available]
  2. Keynote: King’s College London (KCL) Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (BMEIS) Postgraduate Research (PGR) Symposium, Photoacoustic Imaging for Surgical and Interventional Guidance, July 20, 2020 [virtual delivery via MS Teams to approximately 175 participants]
  3. Plenary: SPIE Photonics West, BiOS Hot Topics Plenary Event, Photoacoustic Imaging Assistants for Minimally Invasive Surgeries & Procedures, San Francisco, CA, February 1, 2020 [Inaugural Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO) Speaker, selected for being the senior author of the most impactful paper published in JBO in 2019, recording available, livestream recording also available with over 1.2k views]
  4. Invited: 179th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Special Technical Session, “Death to Delay and Sum: Advanced Beamforming” Deep Learning the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, December 8-12, 2020 [virtual delivery via Zoom to ~45 attendees]
  5. Invited: University of California Irvine, Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Irvine, CA November 19, 2020 [delivered via Zoom to ~30 attendees, recording available on YouTube]
  6. Invited: University of Rochester, ECE Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Rochester, NY, November 11, 2020 [delivered via Zoom to ~30 attendees]
  7. Invited: University of Texas Austin, Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Austin, TX, October 29, 2020 [delivered via Zoom to ~35 attendees]
  8. Invited: University of California Davis, Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar Series, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Davis, CA, October 9, 2020 [delivered via Zoom to 170+ attendees]
  9. Invited: OSA Frontiers 2020 (FiO), Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Washington, D.C., September 13-14, 2020 [delivered via Zoom to 20+ attendees]
  10. Invited: IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, Photoacoustic Vision for Surgical Guidance, September 9, 2020 [delivered via Zoom to 80+ attendees]
  11. Invited: SPIE Journal of Biomedical Optics Hot Topics Webinar Series, Photoacoustic Imaging for Surgical and Interventional Guidance, one of three co-presenters in series entitled Photoacoustic Imaging: The Next Generation, August 17, 2020 [delivered via Demio to 200+ attendees, recording available]
  12. Invited: Duke University Ultrasound Seminar Series, Photoacoustic Spatial Coherence Theory, June 26, 2020 [delivered via Zoom with 40+ attendees]
  13. Invited: Ryerson University Physics Colloquium, Listening to the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Toronto, CA, March 2, 2020 [Last in-person talk before COVID-19 travel restrictions were imposed]

CANCELLED or POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19

  1. Invited: 179th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Special Technical Session, “Death to Delay and Sum: Advanced Beamforming” Deep Learning the Sound of Light to Guide Surgeries, Chicago, IL, May 11-15, 2020 (postponed to December 8-12, 2020 due to COVID-19)
  2. Invited: University of Rochester, Distinguished Lecture Series, Rochester, NY, April 15, 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19)
  3. Invited: Columbia University, ECE Seminar Series, New York, NY, March 24, 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19)
  4. Invited: AIUM Machine Learning in Application to Ultrasound Beamforming Session, Deep Learning Architectures and Applications for Ultrasound Image Formation, New York, NY, March 21-25, 2020 (canceled due to COVID-19)

Early Career Achievement Award Celebration, Invited Talk, and Five PULSE Lab Abstracts Accepted to SPIE Photonics West 2021

Five PULSE Lab abstracts were accepted to SPIE Photonics West. This conference is taking place virtually, March 6-11, 2021.

  1. Graham M, Dunne R, Bell MAL, Investigating the effects of compressional and elastic photoacoustic waves to predict transcranial photoacoustic image quality for guidance of minimally invasive neurosurgeries, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021
  2. Graham M, Creighton F, Bell MAL, Validation of eyelids as acoustic receiver locations for photoacoustic-guided neurosurgery, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021
  3. Wiacek A, Wang KC, Wu H, Bell MAL, Parking sensor-inspired approach to photoacoustic-guided hysterectomy demonstrated with human cadavers, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021
  4. González E, Jain A, Bell MAL, Photoacoustic differentiation of cortical from cancellous bone in the lumbar vertebrae of an intact human cadaver to prevent bone breaches during spinal fusion surgeries, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021
  5. Kempski KM, Graham MT, Wiacek A, Gubbi MR, Bell MAL, Generalized contrast-to-noise ratio as a metric of photoacoustic image quality, Proceedings of SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, March 6-11, 2021

This work spans two tracks within the SPIE Photonics West BiOS Conference:

In addition to these five PULSE Lab contributions:

  1. Prof. Bell was invited to present on the topic Photoacoustic vision for surgical guidance.
  2. Pof. Bell’s Early Career Achievement Award was celebrated in a live presentation by 2021 SPIE President David Andrews. The recording of this presentation will be available soon.

Prof. Bell Co-Authors Cell Commentary, Fund Black Scientists

Prof. Bell co-authored a publication in the scientific journal Cell with fellow colleagues at 15 institutions across the nation to shed light on NIH funding disparities. The publication is entitled Fund Black Scientists. All academics are encouraged to read it, digest the contents, and reflect on what we each want our role to be at this historic moment in time.

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Prof. Bell Wins SPIE Early Career Achievement Award

Congratulations to Prof. Bell, who was selected to receive the 2021 SPIE Early Career Achievement Award. This award recognizes excellence in academia, particularly with regard to significant and innovative technical contributions in the engineering or scientific fields of relevance to SPIE. The SPIE Awards Committee made this recommendation in recognition of Prof. Bell’s pioneering contributions to photoacoustic imaging for surgical guidance, including innovative technology designs, novel deep learning applications, informative spatial coherence beamforming theory, and visionary clinical possibilities.

Award Details

SPIE Announcement

ECE Announcement

HEMI Announcement

Malone Center Announcement

Prof. Bell Wins NSF Smart & Connected Health Award

Prof. Bell was awarded $1M from the NSF to advance cardiac procedures with the broader goal of replacing fluoroscopy one day. The objective of this award is to apply theoretical spatial coherence models and experimental optical analyses to understand the limits of a novel, integrated robotic-photoacoustic imaging system for guiding cardiac surgeries and interventions. This work will be completed in collaboration with Jonathan Chrispin, MD at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

More details on the basic principles of the proposed approach are available in our initial journal publication on this topic:

  • Graham M, Assis F, Allman D, Wiacek A, González E, Gubbi M, Dong J, Hou H, Beck S, Chrispin J, Bell MAL, In vivo demonstration of photoacoustic image guidance and robotic visual servoing for cardiac catheter-based interventions, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 39(4):1015-1029, 2020 [pdf]

This work has also been featured in the following articles and press releases:

We additionally have a pending patent for these ideas.

NSF Award Announcement

ECE Department Announcement

SPIE Photonics West Recap

The PULSE Lab recently returned from SPIE Photonics West 2020, after enjoying multiple opportunities for exposure throughout various aspects of this grand annual event with 23,000+ attendees. First, Professor Bell was invited to give a Hot Topics presentation during the conference Plenary session. She was selected as the inaugural Journal of Biomedical Optics speaker for having the most impactful paper in 2019.

We are live at the 2020 #SPIEBiOS Hot Topics with Muyinatu Lediju Bell (Johns Hopkins University)! Watch her tech talk on photoacoustic imaging assistants for minimally invasive surgeries, sponsored by the Journal of Biomedical Optics.

Posted by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics on Saturday, February 1, 2020

Three PULSE Lab students additionally presented aspects of their work on this hot topic.

Michelle Graham presented “Photoacoustic image guidance and robotic visual servoing to mitigate fluoroscopy during cardiac catheter interventions”

Alycen Wiacek presented “Dual-wavelength photoacoustic imaging for guidance of hysterectomy procedures”

Eduardo Gonzalez presented “A GPU approach to real-time coherence-based photoacoustic imaging and its application to photoacoustic visual servoing”

    In addition to these four technical presentations, PULSE Lab members who were involved in the first known in vivo demonstration of photoacoustic image guidance for abdominal surgeries were featured in the Show Daily Weekend Edition (see pg. 3).

    SPIE Event Highlights

    Optics Show Daily

    ECE Department Announcement

    LaserFocusWorld Announcement (see first paragraph & “Hot Topics and Other Plenaries” section)

    SPIE Newsroom

    Hot Topics Plenary Talk by Prof. Bell & Three PULSE Lab Abstracts Accepted to SPIE Photonics West 2020

    Three PULSE Lab abstracts were accepted to SPIE Photonics West. This conference will take place February 1-6, 2019 at the The Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

    1. A GPU approach to real-time coherence-based photoacoustic imaging and its application to photoacoustic visual servoing
      Eduardo Gonzalez, Mardava Gubbi, Muyinatu Bell
      4 February 2020 • 6:00 – 8:00 PM
    2. Dual-wavelength photoacoustic approach to guide hysterectomies
      Alycen Wiacek, Karen C. Wang, Muyinatu Bell
      4 February 2020 • 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM
    3. Photoacoustic image guidance and robotic visual servoing to mitigate fluoroscopy during cardiac catheter interventions
      Michelle Graham, Fabrizio Assis, Derek Allman, Alycen Wiacek, Eduardo Gonzalez, Mardava Gubbi, Huayu Hou, Jinxin Dong, Sarah Beck, Jonathan Chrispin, Muyinatu Bell
      4 February 2020 • 12:00 – 12:20 PM

    This work spans two tracks within the SPIE Photonics West BiOS Conference:

    In addition to these three PULSE Lab contributions, Prof. Bell was invited to present her research during the BiOS Hot Topics Plenary Event on Saturday, February 1, 2020.

    8:15 PM – 8:25 PM
    Photoacoustic Imaging Assistants for Minimally Invasive Surgeries and Procedures

    LaserFocusWorld Announcement (see first paragraph & “Hot Topics and Other Plenaries” section)

    ECE Department Announcement

    Show Daily Weekend Edition

    Prof. Bell Elevated to Senior Member of IEEE

    IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society and serves professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic, and computing fields and related areas of science and technology. Congratulations to Prof. Muyinatu Bell, who was elevated to the grade of IEEE Senior Member this year, an honor that is only bestowed on those who have made significant contributions to the profession. 

    IEEE Senior Members are eligible to hold executive IEEE volunteer positions, can serve as a reference for other applicants for Senior Membership, and are invited to participate on the panel to review Senior Member applications.

    The full IEEE criteria for elevating members to the Senior Member grade includes ten years of professional experience, five years of significant performance, and three references from current IEEE members holding Senior Member, Fellow, or Honorary Member grades. 

     

    ECE Department Announcement

    IEEE RAS Newsletter Announcement

    IEEE IUS 2019 Recap

    The PULSE Lab recently returned from an inspiring and memorable 2019 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), which took place in Glasgow, Scotland this year.

    The following highlights from our trip include a series of oral and poster presentations, contributions to a panel discussion with legendary photoacoustic experts, and a wonderful dose of Scottish cultural immersion during the Gala Dinner at Merchant Square:

    • Alycen Wiacek presented “CohereNet: A Deep Learning Approach to Coherence-Based Beamforming”
    • Arun Nair presented “One-Step Deep Learning Approach to Ultrasound Image Formation and Image Segmentation with a Fully Convolutional Neural Network”
    • Eduardo González presented “GPU Implementation of Coherence-Based Photoacoustic Beamforming for Autonomous Visual Servoing” 
    • Michelle Graham presented “Simulations and experimental assessment of optimal receiver locations for Photoacoustic image guidance during minimally invasive neurosurgeries”
    • Prof. Bell contributed her perspectives on surgery and deep learning applications for photoacoustic imaging in a one-of-a-kind panel discussion with an international swath of photoacoustic pioneers, including Paul Beard from University College London, Lihong Wang from California Institute of Technology, Stanislav Emelianov from Georgia Institute of Technology, and Matthew O’Donnell from University of Washington. The discussion was moderated by Michael Kolios from Ryerson University. 
    • Alycen Wiacek
    • Arun Nair
    • Eduardo González
    • PULSE Lab with bag piper
    • Michelle Graham
    • Michael Kolios
    • Photoacoustics Panel
    • Prof. Bell shares her perspectives

    Thanks to Kelsey Kubick from Georgia Institute of Technology and Eno Hysi from Ryerson University for providing pictures of the panel discussion!

    Paper Accepted to Journal of Biomedical Optics

    Congratulations to Kelley Kempski! Her first author paper entitled, In vivo photoacoustic imaging of major blood vessels in the pancreas and liver during surgery, was accepted to the Journal of Biomedical Optics. This work is the first to demonstrate in vivo blood vessel visualization with possible applications to a range of photoacoustic-guided pancreatic and liver surgeries.

    Special thanks to Alycen Wiacek, who mentored Kelley on this project in her role as Kelley’s graduate student mentor through the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics (CSMR) summer program. This program was recently renewed with 3 more years of funding support from the National Science Foundation.

    Citation: Kempski K, Wiacek A, Graham M, González E, Goodson B, Allman D, Palmer J, Hou H, Beck S, He J, Bell MAL, In vivo photoacoustic imaging of major blood vessels in the pancreas and liver during surgery, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 24(12):121905, 2019 [pdf]

    Related News:

    Kelley Kempski Wins Best Presentation Award

    SPIE Photonics West 2019 Recap

    Kelley Kempski Wins NSF GRFP Fellowship

    The Research Experience for Undergraduates in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics program receives a three-year grant from NSF

    Prof. Bell Wins ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award

    Congratulations to Prof. Bell, who was selected to receive a competitive ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, which is designed to help ORAU member institutions retain their best young faculty members. This award will provide seed funding for the project entitled, Robust Short-Lag Spatial Coherence Imaging of Hypoechoic Breast Masses, which focuses on development and patient testing of a novel beamforming method developed in the PULSE Lab to differentiate fluid-filled masses from solid breast masses with greater certainty than the current ultrasound beamforming methods used in breast clinics today. Fluid-filled masses are often benign, but with current uncertainty rates, many fluid-filled masses undergo the same costly, time-consuming, and anxiety-provoking diagnostic work-ups as malignant masses, which are often solid.

    The long-term goal of this research is to improve breast cancer screening and detection for the benefit of patients and for the redistribution of more healthcare system resources to cancer patients who need them most.

    Related Highlights:

    ORAU Press Release

    ECE Department Announcement

    Malone Center Announcement

    Muyinatu Bell named Maryland’s Outstanding Young Engineer

    Congratulations to Prof. Bell who was named as Maryland’s Outstanding Young Engineer by the Maryland Academy of Sciences and the Maryland Science Center. This award recognizes,  encourages, and increases public awareness of the important work and accomplishments of young engineers, age 35 and under, residing in the state of Maryland.  Important factors in the final decision are the recipient’s contributions to the advancement of his or her field of research, the possibility that this work could become a game changer, and the prospect of the recipient to rise to national and international prominence in the next 5-10 years.  

    Prof. Bell is recognized for her pioneering and innovative contributions to the field of photoacoustic-guided surgery. These innovations include novel light delivery systems that attach to surgical tools, coherence-based and deep learning beamforming techniques to clarify images, and integration of photoacoustic imaging systems with surgical and interventional robots. The award is accompanied by the Allan C. Davis medal and a cash prize.

    Maryland Science Center Press Release

    ECE Department Announcement

    Whiting School of Engineering Announcement

    Malone Center Announcement

    JHU Hub Announcement

    YouTube Video

    • Prof. Bell during feature video reveal ceremony

    Alycen Wins Whiting School of Engineering Research Trainee Award

    Congratulations to Alycen Wiacek! She won the Whiting School of Engineering Trainee Award at the DOM/WSE Hopkins Research Retreat, a joint retreat with the Department of Medicine (DOM) and Whiting School of Engineering (WSE), which took place on Friday, March 1, 2019 at the School of Medicine’s East Baltimore Campus. This award highlights one graduate student or postdoc within the WSE who submits a written statement clearly explaining the broad significance of his or her research to engineering, the major research hypothesis or question, the research approach and findings, and the relationship between this research and the applicant’s early career goals. Alycen presented her work on Coherence-Based Beamforming to Improve the Diagnostic Power of Breast Ultrasound Imaging. She was one of five finalists from multiple engineering departments across WSE.

    Prof. Efie Kokkoli from the JHU Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering announced and presented Alycen with the award, which includes a $500 prize.

    Also at the retreat, the PULSE Lab was recognized as one of three finalists for the WSE Lab Excellence Award. The lab was well represented with excellent poster presentations by Alycen, Eduardo, and Derek:

    • Alycen Wiacek
    • Derek Allman
    • Eduardo González

    ECE Department Announcement

    JHU ECE Facebook Post

    Medicine Matters Blog Post

    Prof. Bell Named 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow

    Congratulations to Prof. Muyinatu Bell who was selected by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as a 2019 Sloan Research Fellow in Physics. The Sloan Research Fellowships are provided to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These two-year fellowships are awarded in recognition of distinguished performance and the unique potential of recipients to make substantial contributions to their field. A total of 126 Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually with only 23 awarded in Physics this year.

    “Sloan Research Fellows are the best young scientists working today,” says Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “Sloan Fellows stand out for their creativity, for their hard work, for the importance of the issues they tackle, and the energy and innovation with which they tackle them. To be a Sloan Fellow is to be in the vanguard of twenty-first century science.”

    The 2019 Sloan Research Fellows each receive a two-year fellowship in the amount of $70,000 to further their research.

    Sloan Foundation Press Release

    JHU Hub Announcement

    ECE Department Announcement

    Malone Center Announcement

    Whiting School of Engineering Announcement

    HEMI Announcement

    IEEE IUS 2018 Recap

    The PULSE Lab just returned from Kobe, Japan, the location of the 2018 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS).

    Arun Nair presented his paper entitled “A fully convolutional neural network for beamforming ultrasound images“

     

    Prof. Bell served on the 2018 IUS Organizing Committee as the Communications Chair. She received a certificate  from the UFFC Society President, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb. Prof. Bell is also the newly appointed Women in Engineering (WIE) Ultrasonics Representative, and she organized the first IEEE WIE Elevator Pitch Event at IUS.

    Derek Allman (photo unavailable) presented his poster entitled, “Using deep neural networks to remove photoacoustic reflection artifacts in ex vivo and in vivo tissue”

    Alycen Wiacek (photo unavailable) presented her paper entitled, “Clinical feasibility of coherence-based beamforming to distinguish solid from fluid hypoechoic breast masses”

    Eduardo González (photo unavailable) presented his paper entitled, “Segmenting bone structures in ultrasound images with Locally Weighted SLSC (LW-SLSC) beamforming”

    Arun Nair additionally collaborated to contribute to the paper entitled “The Ultrasound File Format (UFF)“

    IEEE UFFC-S Newsletter

    ECE Department Announcement

    Kelley Kempski Wins Best Presentation Award

    Congratulations to PULSE Lab summer undergraduate student Kelley Kempski who won the best presentation award at the closing ceremonies for the NSF-funded REU program in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics. Her presentation was entitled In Vivo Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Abdominal Surgery. Prof. Jerry Prince announced the award and congratulated Kelley on this great achievement.

    Kelley’s award continues the 4-year winning streak of previous PULSE Lab winners and mentees of Prof. Bell in the NSF CSMR REU Program:

    • Kelley Kempski (2018)
    • Margaret Allard (2017)
    • Blackberrie Eddins (2016)
    • Alicia Dagle (2015)

    Special thanks to Kelley’s graduate student mentor, Alycen Wiacek.

    LCSR Announcement

    ECE Department Announcement

    Mechanical Engineering Department Announcement

    Prof. Bell Receives NIH Trailblazer Award

    Prof. Bell received the NIH Trailblazer Award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to support our project entitled, A Machine Learning Alternative to Beamforming to Improve Ultrasound Image Quality for Interventional Access to the Kidney. This project is motivated by the clinical challenges surrounding artifacts in ultrasound images, specifically artifacts caused by multipath scattering and acoustic reverberations (which occur when imaging through the abdominal tissue of overweight and obese patients or visualizing metallic surgical tools). There are no existing solutions to eliminate these artifacts based on today’s signal processing techniques. The goal of this project is to step away from conventional signal processing models and instead learn from raw ultrasound channel data examples with state-of-the-art deep learning techniques that differentiate artifacts from true signals to deliver a new class of clearer, easier-to-interpret ultrasound images that we call CNN-Based images. This work will be completed in collaboration with Austin Reiter, PhD and Kelvin Hong, MD.

    Two of our pioneering publications in this area include:

    • D Allman, A Reiter, MAL Bell, Photoacoustic source detection and reflection artifact removal enabled by deep learning, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 37(6):1464-1477, 2018 [pdf | datasets | code]
    • AA Nair, T Tran, A Reiter, MAL Bell, A deep learning based alternative to beamforming ultrasound images, IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April 15-20, 2018 [pdf]
    • Additional related publications are featured here

    This work has also been featured in the following articles and press releases:

    We additionally have a pending patent for these ideas.

    ECE Department Announcement

    Whiting School of Engineering Announcement

    LCSR Announcement

    Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare Announcement

    HEMI Announcement

    JHU Hub Announcement

    JHU Engineering Magazine

    Johns Hopkins Magazine

    Prof. Bell Receives JHU Discovery Award

    Dr. Muyinatu Bell and gynecologic surgeon collaborator Dr. Karen Wang were among the 30 interdisciplinary faculty teams at Johns Hopkins selected to receive one of the 2018 JHU Discovery Awards. This award is designed to support cross-divisional research teams who are poised to arrive at important discoveries or creative works. The expectation is that these awards will spark new, synergistic interactions between investigators across the institution and lead to work of the highest quality and impact. This award will support their research topic of “Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Gynecological Surgeries.”

    JHU Hub Celebration Coverage

    JHU Office of Research Announcement

    JHU Hub Announcement

    Malone Center Announcement

    HEMI Announcement

    Whiting School of Engineering Announcement

    ECE Department Announcement

    Prof. Bell featured in SPIE Women in Optics Planner

    Prof. Bell is featured in the 2018 Women in Optics Planner produced by SPIE. This planner includes photos and interesting facts about highlighted women to introduce girls and young women to the possibilities of STEM careers. Five thousand copies of the planner are printed and distributed, free of charge, in more than 25 countries worldwide annually. SPIE Members, career counselors, science teachers, and community clubs can request free copies of this planner.

    SPIE Newsroom Announcement

    Prof. Bell’s Profile

    Request a Copy

     

    Prof. Bell Receives NSF CAREER Award

    Congratulations to Prof. Bell for being selected to receive the NSF CAREER Award. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.  The objective of Prof. Bell’s proposal entitled CAREER: Technical & Theoretical Foundations for Photoacoustic-Guided Surgery is to apply optical analyses, spatial coherence theory, and independent resolution models to describe fundamental performance limits of photoacoustic-based navigation during robotic and nonrobotic surgery.

    ECE Department Announcement

    Malone Center Announcement

    WSE Announcement

    JHU Hub Announcement

    LCSR Announcement

    SLSC Beamforming Code Now Available on UltraSound Toolbox

    The UltraSound Toolbox (USTB) is a free MATLAB toolbox for processing ultrasonic signals. The primary purpose of the USTB is to facilitate the comparison of imaging techniques and the dissemination of research results. The PULSE Lab is proud to collaborate on this effort to deliver SLSC beamforming to the broader ultrasound community. An example using the SLSC algorithm on a CIRS phantom and on human heart data was added today, as described here: http://www.ustb.no/examples/advanced-beamforming/short-lag-spatial-coherence-slsc/. The heart and phantom datasets and the SLSC code are now freely available to use. Additional datasets and beamforming code can be found by perusing the USTB website.

    Congrats to Ole Marius Hoel Rindal (our visiting student from the University of Oslo) for putting in the work required to pull this together!

    USTB Announcement

    Margaret Allard Receives Best Presentation Award

    Congratulations to PULSE Lab undergraduate student Margaret Allard who received the best presentation award from the NSF REU program in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics. Her presentation was entitled Identifying Optimal da Vinci Tool Orientations for Photoacoustic Guided Hysterectomies. Prof. Jerry Prince presented Margaret with this award.

    This award was shared by Margaret Allard and Mindy Wagenmaker.

    JHU ECE Department Announcement

    JBO Paper Accepted

    Our paper entitled Photoacoustic-based approach to surgical guidance performed with and without a da Vinci robot was accepted for publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO) Special Section on Translational Biophotonics.

    Congrats to undergraduates Neeraj Gandhi and Margaret Allard!

    This work was completed in partnership with the NSF REU in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics along with collaborators Sungmin Kim and Peter Kazanzides, and it is the first to integrate photoacoustic imaging with the da Vinci surgical robot. It was also featured on the journal homepage.

    ECE Department Announcement

    BioOptics World Article

    NIH R00 Grant Awarded

    The PULSE Lab received the 2nd phase of Dr. Bell’s NIH K99/R00 award to support our project entitled “Coherence-Based Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Transsphenoidal Surgeries”. This work is motivated by the clinical challenges surrounding the removal of pituitary tumors using the minimally invasive endonasal transsphenoidal approach, which incurs the deadly risk of causing injury to the internal carotid arteries. We propose to eliminate this risk by developing a sophisticated photoacoustic imaging system that visualizes blood vessels located behind bone during the surgical operation. This photoacoustic imaging system will be equipped with our novel coherence-based beamformers and our specialized light delivery systems.

    JHU ECE Announcement

    Prof. Bell featured in JHU Magazine


    Prof. Bell is featured in the Impact section of the winter issue of the JHU Engineering magazine. The article, entitled Clearer Vision for Surgeons, focuses on our lab’s latest venture to integrate photoacoustic imaging with a daVinci surgical robot in collaboration with researchers in the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.

    Prof. Bell Serves on GRACE Panel

    Prof. Bell is the faculty advisor to the newly formed Graduate Association [of women] in CS & ECE (GRACE) group on campus. She served on a panel of technical and academic experts who fielded questions from the audience during the kick-off mentoring dinner

    JHU ECE Announcement

    Three Abstracts Accepted to SPIE Photonics West

    Three abstracts from the PULSE Lab were accepted to SPIE Photonics West, which will take place January 28 – February 2, 2017 in San Francisco, California:

    • Paper 10064-18: A machine learning approach to identifying point source locations in photoacoustic data (29 January 2017 • 5:30 – 7:30 PM)
    • Paper 10064-101: Optimizing light delivery for a photoacoustic surgical system (29 January 2017 • 3:00 – 3:15 PM)
    • Paper 10064-125: Accuracy of a novel photoacoustic-based approach to surgical guidance performed with and without a da Vinci robot (29 January 2017 • 5:30 – 7:30 PM)

    SPIE Newsroom Announcement

    SPIE Press

    Full Conference Program

    NIH K99 Pathway to Independence Award

    Dr. Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell received the NIH Pathway to Independence Award for her project entitled Coherence-Based Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Transsphenoidal Surgeries. This award promises support for 1-2 more years of postdoctoral training and the first 3 years of Dr. Bell’s independent faculty position.

    JHU Whiting School of Engineering Announcement

    JHU Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) Announcement