Speaker invited by Dr. med. Moritz Herzog
Associate Professor Parag Chitnis | George Mason University, USA
Ultrasound-based assessment of wounds and musculoskeletal injuries
Traumatic wounds and musculoskeletal injuries can significantly impact patient’s quality of life, particularly when treatments are ineffective or take a long time. Noninvasive diagnostic imaging can be used to monitor treatment and facilitate personalized medicine. This seminar reports on ongoing research effort to develop ultrasound-based techniques to 1) monitor local changes in tissue micro-architecture and vascularization in the wound; and 2) monitor muscle function during dynamic physical activity and exercise to provide real-time feedback during rehabilitation after musculoskeletal injury. The seminar will also discuss novel graphene-based 3d-printed ultrasound transducer patches that enable hands-free and wearable sensing and conclude with a brief discussion on new research directions that will be enabled by these methods and technologies.
Speaker Bio:
Parag V. Chitnis received a B.S. degree in engineering physics and mathematics from the West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, WV, in 2000. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Boston University in 2002 and 2006, respectively. His dissertation focused on experimental studies of acoustic shock waves for therapeutic applications. After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University involving a study of bubble dynamics, Dr. Chitnis joined Riverside Research as a Staff Scientist in 2008, where he pursued research in high-frequency ultrasound imaging, targeted drug delivery, and photoacoustic imaging. Dr. Chitnis joined the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason University as 2014 and was promoted to the rank of Associated Professor with tenure in 2020, and to the rank of full Professor in 2025. He was nominated for and selected as the State Finalist for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award (Rising Star Category). With funding support from DARPA, DoD, NSF, NIH, and CIT-CRCF, Dr. Chitnis leads a multidisciplinary team that pursues research in wearable sensors, therapeutic ultrasound and localized drug delivery, photoacoustic neuro-imaging, and deep-learning strategies for photoacoustic tomography. He also serves as an Associate Editor for Ultrasonic Imaging, MPA lead and member of the Technical Program Committee for IEEE IUS, and reviewer on NIH and NSF grant panels. He was awarded the Faculty Excellence in Research Award by College of Engineering and Computing, George Mason University, in 2024.
