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Dr. Martha Gray
Photo by Sam Ogden
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DR. MARTHA GRAY WILL PRESENT THREE SEMINARS DURING HER VISIT TO CASE
MARCH 14-16, 2005
The Department of Biomedical Engineering is excited to host Dr. Martha Gray, the Allen H Ford Distinguished Visiting Professor at Case Western Reserve University.
Dr. Gray is the Director of the
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, and the
Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.
Dr. Gray's visit to Case will be highlighted by three seminars.
The Ford Distinguished Lecture will
be held at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, May 15, when Dr. Gray will present "(R)evolutionary education?
Training the next generation to bring science and technology to advance human health".
Dr. Gray will highlight her recent research accomplishments during the BME/MAE Seminar at 2:30 pm
on Monday May 14, titled "Towards functional imaging of articular cartilage".
Dr. Gray's last seminar, "Molecular imaging of articular cartilage" to be presented
as the Orthopaedics Department Lecture at 7:00 am on Wednesday, May 16, will address the biomedical applicability
of these research accomplishments.
Professor Gray's research is geared towards understanding and, ultimately preventing or slowing the cartilage degeneration that affects at least 6 out of 10 people over age 45. Over the last decade, the efforts of Professor Gray and her colleagues have been primarily directed at establishing MRI tools that provide a picture of the biochemical and functional properties of the tissue. Specifically, they have developed and verified a method that indicates the amount of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in the tissue. Regions of tissue that are functionally inadequate can be distinguished from normal tissue even when the entire tissue is anatomically intact (and looks normal with the usual imaging methods). They have also demonstrated that this imaging method can be used clinically (in vivo in humans) and for basic science studies of cartilage development. She and her colleagues have also shown that differences in GAG correspond with differences in mechanical (functional) tissue properties. Though some important issues remain to be solved before this imaging method becomes, as routine as x-rays are now, there is sufficient evidence to support our optimism that this method could ultimately become a routine tool. To that end, HST researchers are engaged in using this enabling technology for a number of basic science and clinical research.
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