Biomedical Sciences & Engineering

Biomedical Sciences & Engineering Research at UH

The University of Houston has created a biomedical sciences and engineering research cluster, whose mission is to conduct research, service, and scholarly activities related to human health. Representative efforts are in the fields of visual system development and treatment of eye diseases, chronic and infectious diseases, cancer, bioimaging, biomaterials, biomolecular design, genetics, and neurocognitive networks, development, and injury.

The programs and centers in the Biomedical Sciences and Engineer-ing cluster seeks to improve human health through efforts in a wide range of fields, most involved in some way with biomolecular sci-ence and engineering. For example, bioimaging, biomaterials, and biomolecular design and its simulation can all be linked with the biomolecular vein, as can chronic and infectious diseases and cancer research. Neurocognitive networks, genetics, visual system development, and treatment of eye diseases are also included in the cluster.

The role of TLC2 in UH biomedical sciences & engineering research

The Texas Learning & Computation Center (TLC2) is an interdisciplinary center at the University of Houston whose mission is to foster and support collaborative interdisciplinary research, education, and service. TLC2 provides support for the operations of several centers, labs, and projects throughout the University, providing seed funding and such infrastructure as shared computational and visualization facilities, high-performance networking, technical project management, research administration, and events and outreach support.

TLC2 affiliated centers, labs, and projects conducting research in the area of biomedical sciences and engineering are the Behavioral Neuroscience Lab, the Biomedical Imaging Lab, the Center for Biomedical and Environmental Genomics, the Computational Biomedicine Lab, the Computational Physiology Lab, the Institute for Molecular Design, the Ophthalmic Research and Nanotechnology Group, the Personalized Medicine Program, and the Quantitative Imaging Lab.

TLC2 affiliated faculty members conducting research in biomedical

sciences and engineering

Eric R BittnerJohn & Rebecca Moores Professor

of Chemistry

Margaret CheungAssistant Professor of Physics

Drug Design, Biomaterial, Biomolecular

Yuriy FofanovAssociate Professor of Computer Science

and Biology and Biochemistry

William Foster Research Professor of Physics

George E. FoxProfessor of Biology and Biochemistry

Amalia M IssaAssociate Professor of Pharmacy

Ioannis A. KakadiarisEckhard Pfeiffer Professor of Computer

Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering

Donald KouriHugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen

Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering,

and Physics

BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE LABDr. J. Leigh Leasure

www.psychology.uh.edu/GraduatePrograms/Developmental/research/behavioral_neuroscience_leasureThe research focus of the Behavioral Neuroscience Lab is neuroplasticity, the capacity of the adult brain to change its structure in order to adapt to shifting behavioral and environmental demands. In particular, the lab’s researchers are interested in the aged brain, which, while less capable of change than the young brain, nonetheless retains a remarkable capacity for neuroplasticity. The Behavioral Neuroscience Lab seeks ways in which to enhance this neuroplastic capacity, especially in the damaged, aged brain. With funding from the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, the team has been examining how post-stroke exercise changes the way the brain responds to the stroke injury on both the behavioral and cellular levels.

BIOMEDICAL IMAGING LABDr. George Zouridakis biomed.uh.eduThe Biomedical Imaging Lab fosters research in the areas of computational biomedicine and bioimaging, with specific emphasis on functional brain mapping and the interplay between neuro-physiological signals and information processing in the brain. Research projects aim at developing new computational tools for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, as well as the characterization, quantification, and visualization of cancerous tumors. True to the interdisciplinary nature of its research, the Biomedical Imaging Lab actively collaborates with clinicians, bioengineers, computational scientists, and other researchers located within the University of Houston and the Texas Medical Center.

CENTER FOR BIOMEDICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL GENOMICSDr. Yuriy Fofanov bioinfo.uh.eduAs the University of Houston blazes new trails in the research fields of energy and biomedicine, a new research center has emerged to pursue advanced research utilizing an interdisciplinary approach where those fields intersect.

Hands-on (and heads-on) research in the Biomedical Imaging Lab.

Ramanan KrishnamoortiDow Chair Professor and Chair,Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

J. Leigh Leasure Assistant Professor, Psychology

Emmanouil PapadakisAssociate Professor of Mathematics

Ioannis PavlidisEckhard Pfeiffer Professor of Computer Science

B. Montgomery PettittHugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics, and Biology and Biochemistry

Shishir ShahAssistant Professor of Computer Science

Richard WillsonProfessor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Biochemical &Biophysical Sciences

David C. ZimmermanProfessor of Mechanical Engineering

George ZouridakisProfessor of Engineering Technology, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Center for Biomedical and Environmental Genomics, with its roots in TLC2 innovation funding, brings together the newest environmental research with the university’s top professors and most cutting-edge computing technology to address the biggest questions of health, sustainability, and environmental change. The work is proceeding, and its importance has already gained national and international recognition through funding and awards like the Itanium Solutions Humanitarian Award for 2008.

COMPUTATIONAL BIOMEDICINE LABDr. Ioannis Kakadiaris cbl.uh.eduResearch in the Computational Biomedicine Laboratory is motivated by fundamental open problems in the broad area of image analysis with an emphasis on applications that address some of society’s greatest challenges. The Lab has received international accolades in the areas of face recognition and cardiovascular informatics. CBL won the 2007 Face Recognition Grand Challenge (shape experiment) organized by NIST, and pioneered a medical discovery involving the detection of inflammation in arteries by quantifying in vivo neovascularization.

CBL has broken down the barriers of individual specialties and established solid interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teamwork on the basis of “grand challenge problems.” Its partners include Baylor College of Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Foundation, UCLA, the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, and University of Athens Medical School. Dr. Kakadiaris is a co-founder of the Pumps and Pipes initiative that brings together energy, medicine, and higher education in a unique shared effort, exploring ideas and research common to these important fields and stimulating discussion and sharing technologies that can further the reach and goals of each individual area.

COMPUTATIONAL PHYSIOLOGY LABDr. Ioannis Pavlidis www.cpl.uh.eduThe Computational Physiology Lab’s research focuses on unobtrusive and sustained monitoring of physiological variables. This novel methodological work has spurred psychological and medical discoveries and formed the basis of new applications. The lab was founded in 2002 by Dr. Ioannis Pavlidis and has since then gained worldwide recognition, including a Wired magazine award as a technology of the future. The CPL’s focus is on unobtrusive and sustained monitoring of physiological variables. This monitoring is embedded imaginatively in psycho-physiological, biomedical, and behavioral paradigms. Sensing is effected either through thermal imaging or wearable transducers. Substantial technical sophistication is involved in performing physiological measurements of this kind. Elements from mathematics, computing, statistics, medicine, and physiology need to come together.

CPL is an interdisciplinary lab and draws additional expertise from partner labs in Mayo Clinic, University of Texas Medical School, Methodist Hospital, and SUNY Buffalo. CPL is known for its work in stress quantification, lie detection, sleep studies, and behavioral gaming. All of them found civilian or military applications. The research of its members has been published in some of the most prestigious science journals and venues, including Nature, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and CHI.

INSTITUTE FOR MOLECULAR DESIGNDr. B. Montgomery Pettitt www.chem.uh.edu/imd/The Institute for Molecular Design (IMD) is a research and educational center dedicated to bridging the theoretical and experimental approaches to biomolecular structure and function. Through the implementation of cutting-edge computational

technology for pharmaceutical, medicinal, and industrial purposes, the institute develops genetic medication targeted against cancer, developmental diseases, and viral and bacterial infections.

Results from experimental studies of enzymes, nucleic acids, and biomolecular assemblies are used to target such illnesses as cancer, heart disease, polio, AIDS, diabetes, and leukemia. Results may also be used to decrease the rejection rate for body implants, as well as to develop biosensors for oil spill identification and to design new materials for use in micro-electronic devices.

OPHTHALMIC RESEARCH AND NANOTECHNOLOGY GROUPDr. William Foster www.uh.edu/biophysicsThe mission of the Ophthalmic Research and Nanotechnology Group (ORANGe) is to utilize the techniques of modern biological physics and nanoscience to revolutionize the understanding and treatment of eye diseases. The laboratory is made up of individuals trained in the physical sciences, including physics, physical chemistry, and engineering, who will go on to develop productive, independent biomedical research careers.

PERSONALIZED MEDICINE PROGRAMDr. Amalia Issa pharmacy.uh.edu/facstaff/fprofiles/amalia_issa.phpThis program promotes informed health care decision-making by advancing knowledge of the effectiveness of pharmaceutical products, services, and policies, with a particular focus on personalized medicine technologies. The goal of the rapidly evolving field of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine is to tailor treatments to patients based on their unique genetic make-up, preferences, and responses to treatment.

The concept of tailoring a patient’s treatment is not new. Doctors and patients often engage in a process of trial and error to find the right medicine to alleviate a particular patient’s condition while minimizing undesirable side effects. Numerous factors—genetic differences, environmental influences, diet, competing co-morbidities—affect which drug works best in a specific patient.

Sequencing of the human genome now allows more detailed investigation into the genetic differences among patients and populations, and the effects of those differences on a person’s response to a drug. However, for most genomic researchers, “personalized medicine” means that patients will still be assessed and treated based on information gleaned from studies of groups or populations—just with more precisely defined groupings of patients, from which it is hoped that clinical predictability will be improved for individuals in those groups.

QUANTITATIVE IMAGING LABDr. Shishir Shah www.cs.uh.edu/~shah/Current research efforts directed through the Quantitative Imaging Laboratory are in basic and applied research in image processing, computer vision, imaging instrumentation, and pattern recognition. The laboratory is housed with an auto-mated microscope for brightfield, fluorescence, and multispectral imaging. An automated slide scanning system has also been prototyped and is being refined further.

With the established facilities, research projects in the areas of multispectral imaging for chemical profiling, object track-ing and recognition in distributed camera environments, and learning paradigms for performance prediction, have been initiated. Active collaborations with UTMB and Methodist Hospital have been established that have benefited from the established facilities and resulted in new research efforts in areas of cancer and hematology.

www.tlc2.uh.edu