My research is primarily in the area of advanced instrumentation for diagnosis and treatment of electrophysiological problems. This research covers two primary organ systems: the heart and the brain.

One thrust of the cardiac-based work is centered on atrial fibrillation and in particular on very low energy atrial defibrillation strategies. The goal is to produce a device that can defibrillate the atria with a painless series of electrical impulses. A second area of interest is the study of the biophysics of radio frequency ablation of the heart. A third avenue of research in the cardiac area is the development of new instruments and techniques for tracking interventional devices within the body without the use of ionizing radiation. These devices primarily rely on ultrasound technology. There is a strong collaborative effort in this area with the Duke Ultrasound group in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The long term goal of this work is to develop technology to deliver image-guided therapy to target tissues in the heart and other organs.

In neuroengineering, we are currently developing a "brainchip" that would telemeter information recorded directly from neurons in the brain to a remote device. This IC based technology is being developed for application in neuro-prosthetic or brain controlled devices. There is a close collaboration on this project between our lab and the laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis the Department of Neurobiology. We are also developing advanced neural recoding systems to use on unrestrained, untethered animals as they learn to perform certain tasks.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	Rm. 1149, Ciemas
Office Phone:	+1 919 660 5114, +1 919 660 5131
Email Address:
Web Page:

Teaching (Fall 2008):  (typical courses)

• BME 264L.001, MEDICAL INSTRUMENT DSGN

  Hudson 115, MW 08:30 AM-09:45 AM

• BME 264L.01L, MEDICAL INSTRUMENT DSGN

  Teer P012, W 01:15 PM-04:15 PM

• BME 264L.02L, MEDICAL INSTRUMENT DSGN

  Teer P012, W 04:25 PM-07:25 PM

Education:

PhD, Duke University, 1992

MS, Pennsylvania State University, 1986

BS, Pennsylvania State University, 1978

Specialties:

Medical Instrumentation
Heart, Electrophysiology
Neural Prosthesis
Neuroengineering

Research Interests:

Current projects: Image Guided Ablation Therapy, Fully Implanted Brain-Machine Interface

Wolf's research is primarily in the area of advanced instrumentation for diagnosis and treatment of electrophysiological problems. This research covers two primary organ systems: the heart and the brain. In the heart, Dr. Wolf is developing an image guided ablation system for treatment of arrhythmias. In the brain, he is developing a fully implantable Brain-Machine interface.

Areas of Interest:

Cardiac Arrhythmias
Pacing
Defibrillation
Brian-Machine Interface
Neural Coding

Duties:

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Pua, E.C. and Fronheiser, M.P. and Noble, J.R. and Light, E.D. and Wolf, P.D. and von Allmen, D. and Smith, S.W., 3-D ultrasound guidance of surgical robotics: a feasibility study, IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control (USA), vol. 53 no. 11 (2006), pp. 1999 - 2008  [abs].
2. Fahey, B.J. and Hsu, S.J. and Wolf, P.D. and Nelson, R.C. and Trahey, G.E., Liver ablation guidance with acoustic radiation force impulse imaging: challenges and opportunities, Phys. Med. Biol. (UK), vol. 51 no. 15 (2006), pp. 3785 - 808 [013]  [abs].
3. Fronheiser, M.R. and Light, E.D. and Idriss, S.F. and Wolf, P.D. and Smith, S.W., Real-time, 3-D ultrasound with multiple transducer arrays, IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control (USA), vol. 53 no. 1 (2006), pp. 100 - 5  [abs].
4. Hsu, Stephen J. and Wolf, Patrick D. and Fahey, Brian J. and Pinton, Gianmarco F. and Dumont, Douglas M. and Trahey, Gregg E., In vivo acoustic radiation force impulse imaging of cardiac ablations, Proceedings - IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, vol. 2 (2005), pp. 1117 - 1121 [ULTSYM.2005.1603046]  [abs].
5. Light, Edward D. and Dixon-Tulloch, Ellen G. and Wolf, Patrick D. and Smith, Stephen W. and Idriss, Salim F., Real-time 3D ultrasound laparoscopy, Proceedings - IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, vol. 2 (2005), pp. 796 - 799 [ULTSYM.2005.1602971]  [abs].