Maria Helguera Appointed Wedd Visiting Professor

Maria Helguera, Ph.D. was appointed the Wedd Visiting Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology for the 2013-2014 academic year. Dr. Helguera is an Associate Professor in the Chester Carlson Center for Imaging Sciences at RIT, and a long-standing member of the RCBU. Dr. Helguera's research is dedicated to biomedical and materials multimodal imaging.

Dr. Helguera's research is focused primarily on developing novel ultrasound materials characterization techniques for both biological and non-biological materials. Recently, Dr. Helguera, Dr. Denise Hocking (UR Pharmacology and Physiology), and Dr. Diane Dalecki (UR BME) have established a productive collaboration focused on developing quantitative ultrasound tissue characterization techniques for applications in tissue engineering. Current efforts of the team are focused on developing spectral backscatter techniques to quantify cellular and acellular engineered hydrogels, and utilizing novel image processing techniques to quantitatively characterize vascular morphology in three-dimensional tissue engineered constructs.

Dr. Helguera has also begun to develop a new collaboration with Dr. Angela Glading in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. Dr. Glading and Dr. Helguera aim to develop new imaging techniques that can characterize normal and abnormal vasculature in vivo. The Wedd Visiting Professorship will provide a wonderful opportunity for Dr. Helguera to further these multidisciplinary collaborative efforts, and expose other researchers in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology to her expertise in imaging science.