How do you see inside the human body?

February 22, 2014
An interactive session led by Dr. Bradley Smith
Emil T. Hofman Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility

Almost everyone undergoes a medical imaging procedure during their lifetime. Indeed, many of us were subjected to an Ultrasound scan before we were born.  These imaging techniques have names like X-ray, CT, MRI,  or PET scan, but what do these terms mean and how do they work? In some cases the images are just like photographs of your bones or soft tissue, but scientists can also create tiny spy molecules that can report their location inside the body like a GPS tracker. The lecture will describe how these spy molecules are prepared and how they help physicians locate and treat sites of disease in the body.

Dr Smith grew up in rural Australia but he has lived most of his adult life in the US. He is currently the Emil T. Hofman Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility. He and his coworkers develop molecular imaging technologies for detecting cancer and microbial infections in living subjects. Dr Smith has also invented a series of dye molecules and converted them into imaging probes for a wide range of applications in biomedical science, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.

After the interactive session the students will be escorted by their parents to have lunch and then to the hands-on portion of the event. There the students will enjoy the experience of interacting with various exhibits from the Virginia Tech community.