*CANCELLED* Engineering in Surgery and Intervention: Biophysical Modeling for Guiding Therapy

Michael I. Miga, Ph.D.

Wegmans Hall 1400

Abstract:

While modern medical imaging coupled to contemporary image processing and informatics has allowed for the dramatic expansion of diagnostic information, the advancement of procedural medicine has lagged due to systematic barriers associated with conventional procedural practice and translational research. The work in this presentation paints a very different picture where surgery and intervention advancements no longer represent fragmented injections of technology to advance focal capabilities. Rather, the assertion in this talk is that technology treatment platforms of the future will be intentionally designed for the dual purpose of treatment and discovery. As an exemplar, a platform technology is presented that translates complex biophysical models represented by large systems of equations from predictive roles to ones that are integrated to guide therapeutic applications such as tissue resection and locoregional intervention. The work then goes on to suggest the use of quantitative, biomarker image-data driven forecasting of a therapeutic to link the etiology of disease and the outcome of therapy. Throughout the work, the common thread that ties approaches together is the concept of biophysical models serving as a constraining scaffold for sparse therapeutic & surgical/interventional data which when of sufficient strength enables a functional purpose greater than the sum of contributing data. This blend of model, mechanism, data, and therapeutic control as described typifies one realization of these intraprocedural technology platforms designed for treatment and discovery. Finally, the talk will conclude by looking at the impact on the field of biomedical engineering as well as paradigms being investigated to codify training. 

Biography:

Michael I. Miga, Ph.D. received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Rhode Island in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, respectively. He received his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College specializing in biomedical engineering. He then joined the faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University and is currently the Harvie Branscomb Professor at Vanderbilt. He is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Neurological Surgery, and Otolaryngology. He is director of the Biomedical Modeling Laboratory, and co-founder of the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE). He has been PI on several NIH grants concerned with image- guided brain, liver, kidney, and breast surgery. He is also PI and Director of a novel NIH T32 training program entitled, ‘Training Program for Innovative Engineering Research in Surgery and Intervention’ that is focused on the creation of translational technologies for treatment and discovery in surgery and intervention. In 2014, Dr.  Miga  was inducted  into  the  American  Institute  for  Medical  and  Biological Engineering College of Fellows which represents the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. He served as a charter member of the Biomedical Imaging Technology (BMIT-B) Study Section of the Center for Scientific Review at NIH from 2010-2014, and in 2017 began serving on the Bioengineering, Technology, and Surgical Sciences (BTSS) Study Section as a charter member. His research interests are in image-guided surgery and intervention, computational modeling for therapeutic applications, soft-tissue mechanics, biotransport, and inverse problems in therapeutics and imaging.

Refreshments will be provided.