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.

Congratulations to Vidisha Goyal for being awarded the American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship for her proposal entitled “Assessment of Cerebral Edema in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage patients using Broadband Absorption Spectroscopy”! After brain injury, the water content in the brain can increase, leading to devastating consequences as the brain compresses within the confines of the skull. This 2yr fellowship will help fund foundational experiments that develop a new non-invasive optical monitor of brain water content that can be used at the bedside to one day help guide patient care.