Invited Lecture: Andreas Wartak
October 25, 2019, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Seminar Announcement
Friday, October 25, 2019, 11am, MacLeod Building, Room 418
Title: Towards clinical optical coherence tomography – Early translation examples in ophthalmology and gastroenterology
Speaker: Dr. Andreas Wartak, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University
Abstract
The importance and complexity of clinical translation is still widely underestimated in today’s biomedical research landscape. Technology aimed towards the clinics is currently predominantly developed by people of solely technical/engineering background. However, bringing in expertise from the other critical stakeholders, such as clinicians, regulatory agencies, business specialists, is essential to facilitate translation towards a clinical end-product/technology. In this talk, the example of a rather successful optical imaging modality – optical coherence tomography (OCT) – will be used to highlight the challenges and opportunities along the translational pipeline by taking a look at two very diverse fields of clinical application (ophthalmology and gastroenterology). The technological and clinical background of both areas will be discussed, and current state-of-the-art research results presented. Furthermore, I will also try myself to draw a comparison with respect to current obstacles for clinical technological progress as well as potential future advancements in both fields.
About the speaker
Andreas Wartak is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. Currently, he is member of Guillermo J. Tearney's laboratory. He obtained his undergraduate degrees in Technical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology and his PhD in Medical Physics under the supervision of Christoph K. Hitzenberger at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna. His research interests are in biomedical optical imaging, in particular, using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Previously, working in the field of ophthalmology and targeting early diagnosis and treatment monitoring of major ocular pathologies such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy, he recently shifted his focus to endoscopic OCT. In Guillermo J. Tearney’s laboratory, he is investigating gastrointestinal diseases such as eosinophilic esophagitis, Barrett’s esophagus or Crohn’s disease. He was recently awarded the SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship in Problem-Driven Biophotonics and Biomedical Optics by the International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE).