Dr. Ramanujam's research interests include optical spectroscopy, optical sectioning microscopy and photon migration techniques. Her research group is developing and applying these optically based tools for the non-invasive characterization of the biochemical and structural properties of human tissues. These technologies are being specifically engineered for the early detection of breast and cervical cancers.

Technologies based on light have the potential to revolutionize early detection for cancer. Light is safe (non-ionizing radiation) and low cost compared to existing diagnostic modalities such as mammography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Light is unique in that it can unravel physiological, metabolic and structural properties of cancer by interacting with a large number of biological molecules that are already present in the tissue. Light can also be used to detect optically labeled probe molecules (antibodies, peptides, etc) that specifically bind to over expressed molecular targets in cancer cells within the tissue. Additionally, these intrinsic and extrinsic sources of optical contrast can be detected rapidly and non-destructively from human tissues in vivo using low power light sources, fiber optic delivery and collection systems and semiconductor detectors. Thus, compelling reasons exist to exploit light based technologies to aid in the clinical diagnosis of cancer.

Our group works on a broad range of research activities to develop optical systems for the clinical detection of cancer. We develop and use stochastic modeling techniques to describe the basic physics of light propagation in turbid media such as tissue. Understanding light propagation in tissue is essential for designing optical systems and algorithms for tissue spectroscopy and imaging. Our group also engineers optical systems including specialized fiber-optic probes for in vivo optical spectroscopy. Additionally, we actively pursue the development of mathematical algorithms for feature extraction and classification of the spectroscopic signals. We validate the effectiveness of our technologies through optical microscopy studies of cell and tissue culture models, small animal imaging and in actual clinical trials. The latter studies are done collaboratively with investigators in the biological and clinical sciences. Our research is currently funded by the NCI, NIBIB and DOD.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	2575 FCIEMAS
Office Phone:	+1 919 660 5307
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://nimmi.bme.duke.edu/

Teaching (Fall 2008):

• BME 227L.001, DESIGN IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

  Teer 114, TuTh 02:50 PM-04:05 PM

• BME 227L.01L, DESIGN IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

  CIEMAS 1398, W 01:15 PM-04:15 PM

Education:

PhD, University of Texas, Austin, 1995

MS, University of Texas, Austin, 1992

BS, University of Texas, Austin, 1989

Specialties:

Medical Imaging
Photonics
Cancer diagnostics and therapy
Medical Instrumentation
Medical Diagnostics

Research Interests:

Ramanujam's research interests include optical spectroscopy, optical sectioning microscopy and photon migration techniques. Her research group is developing and applying these optically based tools for the non-invasive characterization of the biochemical and structural properties of human tissues.

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

Era of Hope Scholar Award, DOD Breast Cancer Research Program, 2005
Global Indus Technovators Awards, Indian Business Club at MIT, 2005
Technology achievement award, MIT Alumni Association of Wisconsin, 2005
Vilas Associate award, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2005
Invited speaker, Gordon Conference on Lasers in Medicine and Biology, 2004
TR100 Young Innovator Award, Selected as one of the top 100 young innovators in technology in the world by MIT's Technology Review Magazine, 2003
Whitaker travel award to participate in the ASEE Conference, 2002
Whitaker Foundation investigator, 2001
Invited participant in NSF’s “Engineering Education Scholars Workshop”, 1996
National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health, 1996
One of three finalists in the American Association for Medical Instrumentation Young Investigator Competition, 1996
Scholarship, Association for Women in Science Educational Foundation, November, 1995
Award for Best Scientific Paper, American Association of Cancer Research, 1995
Summer Research Scholarship, American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery, 1995
Scholarship, International Society for Optical Engineering, November, 1994
Award for Best Scientific Paper, American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery, 1994-95
Professional Development Award, University of Texas, Austin, 1994-95
Competitive Academic Fellowship, University of Texas, Austin, 1991

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Yu B, Burnside Rollins E, Sisney GA, Harter JM, Zhu C, Dhalla AH, and Ramanujam N, Feasibility of Near-Infrared Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy on Patients Undergoing Image-Guided Core-Needle Biopsy, Optics Express, vol. 15 no. 12 (2007), pp. 7335-50 .
2. Skala MC, Riching KM, Bird DK, Gendron-Fitzpatrick A, Eickhoff J, Eliceiri KW, Keely PJ, Ramanujam N, In vivo Multiphoton Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging of Protein-bound and Free NADH in Normal and Pre-cancerous Epithelia, Journal of Biomedical Optics, vol. 12 no. 2 (2007), pp. 024014 .
3. Skala MC , Riching KM, Gendron-Fitzpatrick A, Eliceiri KW, and Ramanujam N, In vivo multiphoton microscopy of metabolic oxidation-reduction states and fluorescence lifetimes in normal and pre-cancerous epithelia, Proc Nat Acad Sci (Accepted, 2007) .
4. Skala MC, Palmer GM, Vrotsos KM, Gendron-Fitzpatrick A, Ramanujam N., Comparison of a Monte Carlo based physical model and principal component analysis for the diagnosis of normal and neoplastic epithelial tissues in vivo using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy., Optics Express, vol. 15 no. 12 (2007), pp. 7863-7875 .
5. Quan Liu and Ramanujam, N., Scaling method for fast Monte Carlo simulation of diffuse reflectance spectra from multilayered turbid media, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, Opt. Image Sci. Vis. (USA), vol. 24 no. 4 (2007), pp. 1011 - 25 [JOSAA.24.001011]  [abs].