Shekhar Receives NIH Grant for 3-D Medical Imaging

Raj Shekhar, Ph.D., an ECE affiliate and professor in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), received a grant from the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health for the development of a low-cost hardware accelerator for 3-D medical image registration.

Medical image registration and its acceleration have been major foci of Professor Shekhar’s research for many years. This latest small-business technology transfer grant was awarded to the consortium of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and IGI Technologies (a start-up business) led by Dr. Shekhar. The team includes William Plishker, Ph.D., of the ECE Department and Eliot Siegel, MD, Chief of Imaging for the VA Health System Maryland and a professor at UMSOM.

The team also won the 2007 University of Maryland Business Plan Competition with work completed as part of planning for this project.

This 1-year Phase I grant of $149,625 will fund initial work in converting academic research into a commercial product capable of performing registration of typical medical images of any type and of any part of the body in 1 min or less. This and similar technologies will be applied in the clinical setting to improve the accuracy and efficiency of interventional procedures and provide significant benefits in patient safety and positive outcomes.

Published September 14, 2008