In 1991, Ge Wang produced the first paper on spiral cone-beam computed tomography (CT), now an imaging technique used in the mainstream of the medical CT field. Today, Wang, known as a pioneer in this field, and his colleagues have been awarded more than $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop the next-generation nano-CT imaging system, which promises to greatly reduce the required dose of radiation. Virginia Tech and Xradia, a leading nano-CT company, are also collaborating on the project with a cost-sharing investment of close to $800,000.
CT is an imaging method that shows objects by sections or sectioning, through the use of x-ray waves and computer processing.
"X-ray nano-CT is a cutting edge imaging tool," Wang said, "but a long-standing barrier to realizing its full potential is its inability to precisely reconstruct an interior region of interest within a larger object from purely local projections."
Wang, the Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has a scholarly record of achievements in the imaging world. More than 1000 scientific citations are attributed to his group's pioneering efforts. In 2002, for example, he and his research group pioneered another highly sensitive imaging procedure called bioluminescence tomography (BLT). One application of the in vivo molecular imaging technology became the identification of tumors in live animals.
As an additional example, in 2007 he and his collaborators, Yangbo Ye of the University of Iowa and Hengyong Yu, who is the associate director of Wang's CT lab, patented a novel x-ray imaging method called "interior tomography".
Interior tomography, Wang said, was "a first step" towards overcoming the long-standing barrier to realizing the full potential of x-ray nano-CT. Despite the ability of this cutting-edge imaging tool as a non-destructive, non-invasive recorder of information, it cannot "precisely reconstruct an interior region of interest within a large object from purely local projections," Wang said. And, when used in medicine, a patient is subjected to "a radiation dose that must be increased dramatically to obtain improved resolutions."