Yali Jia
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Biomedical Engineering
Diabetes and aging can both damage the tiny blood vessels at the back of the eye, and these vessel changes often come before vision loss. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are leading causes of blindness.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Engineering
- Topics
optical coherence tomography angiography
swept-source OCT
retinal imaging
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Build a 1-MHz, 120° wide-field, high-resolution OCTA system with GPU real-time processing that captures reliable retinal blood-flow images in a single scan, without stitching images together.
- Develop deep-learning algorithms that detect and measure precursors of neovascularization and active microaneurysms on OCTA images and present them to clinicians in real time.
- Test in a two-year study of 100 patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy whether OCTA precursors predict proliferative disease or center-involved macular edema, and compare their detection with fluorescein angiography and photographs.
- Improve swept-source OCTA imaging of the choriocapillaris and deep capillary plexus by optimizing scan density, flow computation and a new projection-artifact removal algorithm.
- Develop measures of capillary flow loss that reconstruct faint vessels and combine structural OCT and OCTA signals to find non-perfused capillary segments.
- Test in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies whether choriocapillaris and deep capillary plexus flow defects track AMD stage and predict progression to advanced AMD or geographic atrophy.
More about the research
Much of this vision loss could be prevented if doctors knew which eyes were about to get worse. Both projects use optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), a safe, dye-free imaging method that maps blood flow in the retina using light. The lab builds better OCTA hardware and image-analysis software and tests whether the resulting measurements, or biomarkers, can flag eyes at risk before vision is lost.
Why it matters
People with diabetes and older adults at risk of macular degeneration could benefit if these imaging biomarkers prove able to flag eyes on the verge of vision-threatening disease. More precise risk identification may reduce unnecessary specialist referrals, help clinicians time treatment before sight is lost, and support future therapies given before vision loss. OCTA is safe and non-invasive and needs no injected dye.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jennifer Kang-Mieler
Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ·Biomedical Engineering
Optimize and test an animal-to-human (A2H) model that converts animal retinal images into human-like images, using an existing retinal image dataset, to enlarge training data for ROP diagnosis.
Yannis Paulus
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Upgrade a combined photoacoustic microscopy, optical coherence tomography and fluorescence microscopy system to image rabbit eyes in real time, without harming the eye.
Jordan Green
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Design and synthesize nanoparticles and biomaterials with tuned chemistry, physical properties and biologic surface coatings that deliver nucleic acids into specific immune cells, inside and outside the body.
The school
Oregon Health & Science University: 24 labs on PI Pages, $545M a year on research, 54 research doctorates a year.
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