PIPages
Labs

Kuang Gong

University of Florida, FL·Biomedical Engineering

PET (positron emission tomography) scans make images by detecting radioactive tracers that collect in diseased tissue. Their usefulness depends on how sharp and accurate the images are.

Fields

Biomedical Engineering

Computer Science

Medicine & Clinical Research

Topics

positron emission tomography

deep learning

image reconstruction

Grants
2 known grants, through Apr 2028

What they work on

  1. Develop a data-driven respiratory motion-correction framework with phase-matched attenuation correction to reduce breathing blur in Gallium-68 PET scans of tumors.
  2. Develop deep learning image reconstruction and kinetic-modeling methods to improve static and dynamic 68Ga-DOTATATE and 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET, and evaluate them clinically in neuroendocrine tumor and prostate cancer patients.
  3. Develop deep learning reconstruction for static and dynamic tau PET that improves resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, so faint early tau tangles in thin cortical regions can be resolved.
  4. Build frameworks that rapidly produce high-quality parametric images from simplified dynamic tau PET and apply them to 18F-MK-6240 datasets affected by meningeal off-target binding.

More about the research

When signals are weak or blurred, doctors can miss small tumors or early disease. The research uses deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to reconstruct clearer and more accurate PET images. It addresses two settings: cancer imaging with Gallium-68 tracers and brain imaging of tau protein in Alzheimer's disease.

Why it matters

Clearer Gallium-68 PET scans could help doctors find small or spreading neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancers and choose treatments. Sharper tau PET could help detect Alzheimer's disease before symptoms, when therapies are expected to work best, and track whether treatments slow tau buildup. Patients with these cancers and people at risk for Alzheimer's could benefit from more reliable scans.

Known grants

From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.

Deep Learning Methods for Improving Gallium 68-Based PET Imaging

NIH · Jul 2024 – Apr 2028

Optimization of Tau PET Imaging for Alzheimer's Disease through Deep Learning-Based Image Reconstruction

NIH · Aug 2022 – May 2027

Closest labs

Spencer L. Bowen

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Biomedical Engineering

Build a device that rapidly and safely moves an external PET source into and out of a PET/MR scanner, so that signal attenuation can be measured directly during patient heart imaging.

Esther Blessing

New York University, NY·Neuroscience

Verify that lower waking body temperature, measured with an ingestible telemetric thermometer, predicts tau tangles on [18F]-MK-6240 PET in 100 older adults who are cognitively normal or have mild cognitive impairment.

Michael King

University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Biomedical Engineering

Create Monte Carlo simulations of Ac-225 PSMA SPECT/CT imaging in targeted alpha therapy to jointly optimize collimator design and physics-based image reconstruction for tumor detection and quantification.

The school

University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.

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