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Yuan-Chuan Tai, PhD
Assistant Professor of Radiology
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Education
PhD, Biomedical Physics, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 1998MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 1992
BS, Physics, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan 1988
BS, Physics, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan 1988
Research Involvement
Positron emission tomography(PET) provides 3-dimensional
tomographic images of the distribution of positron emitting radiotracers within
an object. Its ability to provide quantitative measurements of trace amount of
radiolabeled compounds in vivo makes PET an ideal candidate for molecular imaging.
The clinical values of PET in the diagnosis of neurological disorders and cardiac
diseases, as well as tumor detection and cancer staging have been well recognized.
With dedicated high resolution animal PET scanners and specially designed
biomoleculars, small laboratory animals can be studied to reveal pharmacokinetics
of new drugs, human disease models and effectiveness of treatments, and gene
expressions.
Dr. Tais research focus on the development of high resolution PET imaging techniques for both animal and human applications. The key requirements for a dedicated small animal PET scanner are high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. An animal PET system has to maintain an equal or better sensitivity than a clinical scanner, with at least an order of magnitude better volumetric resolution. Current state-of-the-art animal PET scanners are capable of a 1 to 2 mm image resolution with a 3 to 5 % of sensitivity. To take advantage of the recent advancement in molecular biology where transgenic mice are used to model human diseases, Dr. Tai is working on a new design that will improve the PET image resolution to sub-millimeter range for mouse imaging.
Based on the detector technologies developed for animal PET system, Dr. Tai is also developing a novel detector insert that will bring the high resolution PET imaging to human applications. Similar to a surface coil in MRI that provides improved resolution and/or sensitivity, this novel device will be used in an existing whole body PET scanner to provide improved image resolution for organs of interest. The potential applications include imaging of head and neck tumors, breast cancer, and functional brain imaging, ... etc.
Dr. Tais research focus on the development of high resolution PET imaging techniques for both animal and human applications. The key requirements for a dedicated small animal PET scanner are high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. An animal PET system has to maintain an equal or better sensitivity than a clinical scanner, with at least an order of magnitude better volumetric resolution. Current state-of-the-art animal PET scanners are capable of a 1 to 2 mm image resolution with a 3 to 5 % of sensitivity. To take advantage of the recent advancement in molecular biology where transgenic mice are used to model human diseases, Dr. Tai is working on a new design that will improve the PET image resolution to sub-millimeter range for mouse imaging.
Based on the detector technologies developed for animal PET system, Dr. Tai is also developing a novel detector insert that will bring the high resolution PET imaging to human applications. Similar to a surface coil in MRI that provides improved resolution and/or sensitivity, this novel device will be used in an existing whole body PET scanner to provide improved image resolution for organs of interest. The potential applications include imaging of head and neck tumors, breast cancer, and functional brain imaging, ... etc.
