We are proud to share that Dr. Tara Urner has been selected as a postdoctoral fellow in the ATLANTIS Program (Atlanta Network for Training in Kidney, Urology, and Hematology Scientific Research), funded by the NIH and hosted by Emory University. Her research project will investigate the use of diffuse optical spectroscopies for early detection of vascular complications in pediatric sickle cell patients on chronic transfusion, aiming to advance noninvasive diagnostics in this vulnerable population. The ATLANTIS Fellowship will support Dr. Urner’s research and career development, providing access to an expanded mentorship network, leadership training, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

On January 15th, graduate student Tara Urner successfully defended her PhD thesis. Tara’s research introduced an innovative method for extracting pulsatile hemodynamics in the cerebral microvasculature using the blood flow index derived from diffuse correlation spectroscopy. Her work lays a strong foundation for translating these measurements into the clinic. This defense culminated an illustrious PhD journey – Tara was the recipient of a NSF graduate research fellowship and a Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance TL-1 training grant. Along the way she earned her Tech to Teaching certificate along with a Certificate in Translational Science.  We’re incredibly proud of Dr. Urner. After graduation in May, we are excited to announce that she will continue her impactful research as a postdoctoral fellow in our lab. Congratulations, Dr. Urner! 🎉

In the Buckley Lab’s latest publication in Biomedical Optics Express, Vidisha Goyal et al. demonstrate the reliability of Broadband Absorption Spectroscopy (BAS) to measure water content in the adult human head in a variety of different environments. To date, BAS estimates of water have primarily been focused on in vitro validation studies and in vivo breast cancer applications. Recent work has demonstrated that BAS may be sensitive to brain water content in a pig model. While initial studies are promising, BAS has yet to be used to quantify brain water content in the adult human head. In this work, we take the first steps towards demonstrating the feasibility of BAS to reliably measure water content in the adult human head. Demonstrating that BAS can deliver reproducible measurements is crucial for its adoption in both research and clinical settings. Our results suggest the approach is feasible and repeatable, and lay the groundwork for future studies that establish the sensitivity of BAS to cerebral edema.