Carnegie Mellon University

Jana Kainerstorfer

Jana Kainerstorfer

Courtesy Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Address 5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

Non-invasive, diffuse optical imaging with near-infrared light gives contrast to the light absorbing and/or scattering structures in tissue. The dominant source of absorption contrast is hemoglobin in the microvasculature, which can be used to measure functional brain activation when placing a sensor on the head, as well as hemoglobin saturation in vascular tumors. Due to its non-invasiveness, imaging can be performed directly on patients. Using diffuse optical imaging methods, the group of Professor Kainerstorfer is focused on clinical applications with the emphasis spanning two primary areas: 1) Instrument and protocol development of non-invasive optical imaging which can yield biomarkers for disease diagnostics and monitoring, and 2) Translation of such imaging tools to answer clinical questions where microvascular imaging can be of use for understanding a pathophysiology or monitoring of disease.