Some media coverage (3-31-08) for judging a local science fair:
 Interview, 6:00, 2.8MB

(I'm at the end and Billy Huang is at the beginning)

Current Students:

Andrew Fasano, Moses Brown School Andrew is developing algorithms (written in the Matlab computer coding language) to efficiently process medical images. Confocal mosaics are large field-of-view images with ultra-high resolution. Such images provide clinicians with the necessary diagnostic to evaluate the presence of tumors but are computationally challenging to produce. Along with Jack Ryan and Amory Kisch (pictured below), Andrew is increasing the speed with which these crucial images can be produced and thereby making the surgical procedure easier on patients.




Adrienne Ring, Moses Brown School Adrienne is investigating the clinical impact of novel cancer detection microscopy techniques. Using a database of confocal images, she is training as a pathologist to detect tumor as well as normal tissue. With a sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 100% respectively, Adrienne does about as well as trained Mohs surgeons who act as pathologists for border screening of tumor in their excisions.
Adreinne will help usher in a new era of pathologist/clinicians who will be able to render diagnosis and treatmentment faster and less painfully to future cancer patients. Adrienne has created a web page to teach what she is learning to other new confocal microscopy pathologists:
This is Adrienne and the first tumor she detected.
Adrienne's Confocal Tutorial




Past Students:

Billy Huang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Do not let Billys charming good looks fool you, he is an intellectual Hercules. Billy and I worked together at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 2005-2008. Billy won 4th place at the Intel international science and engineering fair in 2008 in the highly competitive Medicine catagory.

Billy hit the ground running, developed some serious scientific skills and did massive amounts of work in the lab, scoring him two publications:

Gareau D.S., Li Y., Huang B., Eastman Z., Nehal K.S., Rajadhyaksha M., Confocal mosaicing microscopy in Mohs skin excisions: feasibility of rapid surgical pathology Journal of Biomedical Optics, 13(5):054001, 2008. PDF
Huang B., Gareau D.S., Toward automated detection of malignant melanoma, Proceedings of the SPIE, 2009. PDF


Phil Munoz, California Institute of Technology Phil was the first student I ever worked with. I like to think it was me who turned him on to optics but who knows. When I met Phil, he had some great ideas and some terrible equipment. I hooked him up with gear at our lab (Jacques lab, OHSU, shown below) and now, Caltech is hooking him up with more of the same.

Future Students:

Eliza Decroce-Movson, Moses Brown School

Eliza is just getting started with her project, which is rapidly taking shape. The theory and semantics of neuronal communications are of great interest to humanity. Eliza will work on experimental design aimed at elucidating neuronal circuit funcsions. This work has potential to impact medical fields such Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, stroke and epilepsy.

'Wonderful as are the laws and phenomena of electricity when made evident to us in inorganic or dead matter, their interest can bear scarcely any comparison with that which attaches to the same force when connected with the nervous system and with life' (Michael Faraday, 1839).

In this preliminary phase, her work consists mostly of reading and learning neuroscience, a formidable task for someone of her age. In the near future, we will take the project from the thinking phase to the doing phase which is inherently connected to thinking. Look for good things to come from her soon!