PhD position for acoustic / ultrasonic imaging (m/f/x)

PhD position for acoustic / ultrasonic imaging (m/f/x)

Position : 3 years position at the TV- L E13 66% according to the German TV-L salary scale, depending on your professional qualification.

Particle therapy with protons and heavier ion beams is rapidly emerging as a promising radiation therapy modality due to the superior ability to concentrate energy deposition in the tumor, while better sparing normal tissue and critical organs compared to widely established photons. Despite considerable recent technological advances, full clinical exploitation of the favorable ballistic properties of ion beams is still hampered by the yet unsolved problem of range uncertainties in tissue. In this context, ionoacoustics has been identified over the last years as a promising modality to localize the maximum energy deposition (so-called Bragg peak). However, the strength and shape of the ionoacoustic signal crucially depend on the spatial distribution and temporal structure of the heating process, i.e., dose deposition. In clinical scenarios, this leads to weak pressures (up to some mPa) in the tenth of kHz frequency range, making the detection of the ionoacoustic waves a technological challenge. To overcome this challenge, our team proposed the use of contrast agents, aiming to enhance the ionoacoustic emissions and improve the co-registration with other imaging modalities (e.g., ultrasound or X-ray imaging). This will be the topic that the successful candidate will have the opportunity to investigate with our team in the framework of the recently granted DFG project “Contrast enHanced-IonoAcoustics in Proton and heavy Ion beam therapy” CHIAPI.

As a part of the team, you will be actively involved in the assessment of novel contrast agents and the development of dedicated imaging strategies, including:

• Simulation workflow for in-silico assessment of the expected contrast agent performances in vivo in realistic clinical scenarios.
• Reconstruction of the dose in patients from contrast-enhanced ionoacoustic signals.
• Co-registration of ionoacoustics with patient anatomy from ultrasound morphological imaging and additional pre-treatment images (e.g., X-ray CT).
• Experimental demonstration and validation of the combined ionoacoustic/ultrasound imaging in a realistic phantom at clinical proton beamline.

See PDF for full description and requirements.

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