furen@radiology.arizona.edu

520.626.4256

Radiology Medical Research Lab 128

Full details at profiles.arizona.edu

Lars Furenlid

Professor of Medical Imaging

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Professor of Optical Sciences

Dr. Furenlid is a tenured Professor with appointments in the Department of Radiology and the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, and also a member of the Arizona Cancer Center and the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Engineering. He trained as a physical chemist, but has since accumulated 25+ years of experience in molecular imaging, and the development and application of advanced instrumentation for x-ray and gamma-ray imaging, spectroscopy, optical imaging, and related methods for biomedical research. He is a founding member of the NIH-funded Center for Gamma-ray Imaging (CGRI), and is Co-Director and a project leader for the Center.

Dr. Furenlid has served as principal investigator, project leader, or co-investigator on federally- and industry-funded research projects including grants from the NCRR, NCI, and NIBIB institutes, and mentors graduate students working towards masters and PhD degrees. He has a broad physics, chemistry, and structural biology background, and teaches graduate courses in the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences on the physics and mathematics of imaging and spectroscopy. He also co-teaches a graduate course in the Biomedical Engineering/Cancer Biology programs on radiochemistry and molecular imaging methods in drug discovery. He currently serves as co-chair of the NIH SBMIT(10) study section which handles SBIR and STTR proposals in the biomedical imaging field.

Dr. Furenlid has special expertise in the techniques required to develop and apply advanced x-ray and gamma-ray detectors, and commissioned SPECT, PET, and CT imaging systems. This includes the physics of scintillation and solid-state detectors, methods of optics, pulse-processing electronics, digital data acquisition, and data inversion/assessment/reconstruction with a variety of computational methods. He works closely with and advises Masters and PhD students who carry out fundamental research and develop hardware technologies as part of their thesis/disseration projects.

As Co-PI and Co-Director of CGRI, Dr. Furenlid works closely with the CGRI project leaders and faculty members towards the successful completion of the specific aims in the core projects, collaborations, and service activities that constitute CGRI’s mission. He continues to lead the hardware-development program, working with students and staff to carry out experiments, acquire and analyze data, and prepare relevant manuscripts and presentations that describe study findings.

Dr. Furenlid has recently been awarded two research grants together with Drs. Mike King and George Zubal, of the University of Massachussetts and Z-Concepts, LLC, to develop specialized instrumentation to aid in the diagnosis and development of therapies for diseases of the human brain.

Degrees

Ph.D. Physical Chemistry
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, United States
B.S. Chemisty
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States

Work Experience

Brookhaven National Laboratory (1988 - 1998)

Interests

Teaching

broad physics, chemistry, and structural biology background, mathematics of imaging and spectroscopy, radiochemistry and molecular imaging methods in drug discovery.

Research

special expertise in the techniques required to develop and apply advanced x-ray and gamma-ray detectors, and commissioned SPECT, PET, and CT imaging systems. This includes the physics of scintillation and solid-state detectors, methods of optics, pulse-processing electronics, digital data acquisition, and data inversion/assessment/reconstruction with a variety of computational methods. I work closely with and advise Masters and PhD students who carry out fundamental research and develop hardware technologies as part of their thesis/disseration projects.

Courses

Optics of Photography

OPTI 205 (Spring 2021)
OPTI 205 (Spring 2020)
OPTI 205 (Spring 2019)
OPTI 205 (Spring 2018)
OPTI 205 (Spring 2017)

Honors Independent Study

OPTI 399H (Spring 2018)
OPTI 399H (Fall 2017)

Cnrtst Agnt Imaging+Kint

BME 522 (Spring 2021)
BME 522 (Spring 2020)
BME 522 (Spring 2019)
BME 524 (Spring 2018)
BME 524 (Spring 2017)
BME 524 (Spring 2016)
CBIO 522 (Spring 2020)
CBIO 524 (Spring 2017)
CBIO 524 (Spring 2016)
OPTI 522 (Spring 2021)
OPTI 522 (Spring 2020)

Intro to Image Science

OPTI 536 (Spring 2020)
OPTI 536 (Spring 2019)
OPTI 536 (Spring 2018)
OPTI 536 (Spring 2016)

Imaging Physics+Devices

OPTI 537 (Fall 2020)
OPTI 537 (Fall 2019)
OPTI 537 (Fall 2018)
OPTI 537 (Fall 2017)
OPTI 537 (Fall 2016)

Rsrch Meth Biomed Engr

BME 597G (Fall 2017)

Independent Study

BME 599 (Spring 2019)

Advanced Medical Imaging

BME 638 (Spring 2016)
OPTI 638 (Spring 2016)

Directed Graduate Research

OPTI 792 (Spring 2021)
OPTI 792 (Fall 2020)
OPTI 792 (Fall 2017)
OPTI 792 (Fall 2016)

Master's Report

OPTI 909 (Summer I 2018)
OPTI 909 (Spring 2018)

Thesis

OPTI 910 (Fall 2020)
OPTI 910 (Spring 2020)
OPTI 910 (Fall 2019)
OPTI 910 (Spring 2018)

Dissertation

BME 920 (Spring 2021)
BME 920 (Fall 2020)
BME 920 (Spring 2020)
OPTI 920 (Spring 2021)
OPTI 920 (Fall 2020)
OPTI 920 (Spring 2020)
OPTI 920 (Fall 2019)
OPTI 920 (Spring 2019)
OPTI 920 (Fall 2018)
OPTI 920 (Summer I 2018)
OPTI 920 (Spring 2018)
OPTI 920 (Fall 2017)
OPTI 920 (Spring 2017)
OPTI 920 (Fall 2016)
OPTI 920 (Spring 2016)

Selected Publications

Journals/Publications

Caucci, L., Liu, Z., Jha, A. K., Han, H., Furenlid, L. R., & Barrett, H. H. (2019). Towards Continuous-to-Continuous 3D Imaging in the Real World. Physics in Medicine and Biology.
Hutton, B. F., Yamaya, T., & Furenlid, L. R. (2019). Dedicated Molecular Imaging Systems for Human Neurological Studies. IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences.
Könik, A., Auer, B., De Beenhouwer, J., Kalluri, K., Zeraatkar, N., Furenlid, L. R., & King, M. A. (2019). Primary, scatter, and penetration characterizations of parallel-hole and pinhole collimators for I-123 SPECT. Physics in medicine and biology, 64(24), 245001.
Li, X., Tao, L., Levin, C. S., & Furenlid, L. R. (2019). Fast gamma-ray interaction-position estimation using k-d tree search. Physics in medicine and biology, 64(15), 155018.
Liu, Z., Barber, C., Gupta, A., Wan, L., Won, Y. W., Furenlid, L. R., Chen, Q., Desai, A. A., Zhao, M., Bull, D. A., Unger, E. C., & Martin, D. R. (2019). Imaging assessment of cardioprotection mediated by a dodecafluoropentane oxygen-carrier administered during myocardial infarction. Nuclear medicine and biology, 70, 67-77.
Li, X., Ruiz-Gonzalez, M., & Furenlid, L. R. (2018). An edge-readout, multilayer detector for positron emission tomography. Medical physics, 45(6), 2425-2438.
Papachristou, M., Kastis, G. A., Stavrou, P. Z., Xanthopoulos, S., Furenlid, L. R., Datseris, I. E., & Bouziotis, P. (2018). Radiolabeled methotrexate as a diagnostic agent of inflammatory target sites: A proof-of-concept study. Molecular medicine reports, 17(2), 2442-2448.
Ruiz-Gonzalez, M., Bora, V., & Furenlid, L. R. (2018). Maximum-Likelihood Estimation of Scintillation Pulse Timing. IEEE transactions on radiation and plasma medical sciences, 2(1), 1-6.
Tsoukalas, C., Psimadas, D., Kastis, G. A., Koutoulidis, V., Harris, A. L., Paravatou-Petsotas, M., Karageorgou, M., Furenlid, L. R., Moulopoulos, L. A., Stamopoulos, D., & Bouziotis, P. (2018). A Novel Metal-Based Imaging Probe for Targeted Dual-Modality SPECT/MR Imaging of Angiogenesis. Frontiers in chemistry, 6, 224.
Takeda, S., Katsuragawa, M., Orita, T., Moriyama, F., Arai, Y., Sugawara, H., Oshita, S., Yabu, G., Watanabe, S., Takahashi, T., & Furenlid, L. R. (2017). A high-resolution CdTe imaging detector with multi-pinhole optics for in-vivo molecular imaging. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment.
Bora, V., Barrett, H. H., Fastje, D., Clarkson, E., Furenlid, L., Bousselham, A., Shah, K. S., & Glodo, J. (2016). Estimation of Fano factor in inorganic scintillators. Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 805, 72-86.
Brand, J. F., Furenlid, L. R., Altbach, M. I., Galons, J. P., Bhattacharyya, A., Sharma, P., Bhattacharyya, T., Bilgin, A., & Martin, D. R. (2016). Task-based optimization of flip angle for fibrosis detection in T1-weighted MRI of liver. Journal of medical imaging (Bellingham, Wash.), 3(3), 035502.
Caucci, L., Jha, A. K., Furenlid, L. R., Clarkson, E. W., Kupinski, M. A., & Barrett, H. H. (2016). Image Science with Photon-Processing Detectors. IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium conference record. Nuclear Science Symposium, 2013.
Li, X., & Furenlid, L. (2016). An analysis of side readouts of monolithic scintillation crystals. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 57(supplement 2), 1950--1950.
Liu, Z., Gray, B. D., Barber, C., Bernas, M., Cai, M., Furenlid, L. R., Rouse, A., Patel, C., Banerjee, B., Liang, R., Gmitro, A. F., Witte, M. H., Pak, K. Y., & Woolfenden, J. M. (2016). Characterization of TCP-1 probes for molecular imaging of colon cancer. Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society, 239, 223-30.

Proceedings Publications

Kalluri, K. S., Zeraatkar, N., Auer, B., H., P., Furenlid, L. R., & King, M. A. (2019, 2019/5/28 DOI - 10.1117/12.2534885). Preliminary investigation of AdaptiSPECT-C designs with square or square and hexagonal detectors employing direct and oblique apertures. In Preliminary investigation of AdaptiSPECT-C designs with square or square and hexagonal detectors employing direct and oblique apertures, 11072.
Zeraatkar, N., Auer, B., Kalluri, K., Furenlid, L. R., Kuo, P. H., & King, M. A. (2019, 2019/5/28 DOI - 10.1117/12.2534523). GPU-accelerated generic analytic simulation and image reconstruction platform for multi-pinhole SPECT systems. In GPU-accelerated generic analytic simulation and image reconstruction platform for multi-pinhole SPECT systems, 11072.
, N., , G., & Furenlid, L. R. (2018, 2018/9/18 DOI - 10.1117/12.2326512). System integration for a SPECT system featuring digital waveform acquisition. In System integration for a SPECT system featuring digital waveform acquisition, 10763.
Ruiz-Gonzalez, M., & Furenlid, L. R. (2018, 2018/9/11 DOI - 10.1117/12.2326393). Scintillator-specific optimization of 2-bit sigma-delta modulation A/D for gamma-ray pulse waveform capture. In Scintillator-specific optimization of 2-bit sigma-delta modulation A/D for gamma-ray pulse waveform capture, 10763.
Han, L., Miller, B. W., Barrett, H. H., Barber, H. B., & Furenlid, L. R. (2017, 2017/9/15 DOI - 10.1117/12.2279302). Applications of iQID cameras. In Applications of iQID cameras, 10393.
Ruiz-Gonzalez, M., & Furenlid, L. R. (2017, 2017). Pulse timing in edge-readout PET detectors. In Proc. SPIE, 10393, 103930Q-10393-8.
, S., , T., , Y., , H., , R., , M., , G., , S., , H., , T., Furenlid, L. R., & Bradford, H. (2016, 2016). High-resolution CdTe detectors with application to various fields (Conference Presentation). In High-resolution CdTe detectors with application to various fields (Conference Presentation), 9969, 99690K-9969-1.
Ruiz-Gonzalez, M., Caucci, L., & Furenlid, L. R. (2016, 2016). Joint amplitude and timing estimation for scintillation pulses in GPU. In 2016 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference and Room-Temperature Semiconductor Detector Workshop (NSS/MIC/RTSD), 1-3.
, N., , G., & Furenlid, L. R. (2018, 2018/9/18 DOI - 10.1117/12.2326512). System integration for a SPECT system featuring digital waveform acquisition. In System integration for a SPECT system featuring digital waveform acquisition, 10763.
, S., , T., , Y., , H., , R., , M., , G., , S., , H., , T., Furenlid, L. R., & Bradford, H. (2016, 2016). High-resolution CdTe detectors with application to various fields (Conference Presentation). In High-resolution CdTe detectors with application to various fields (Conference Presentation), 9969, 99690K-9969-1.
Barrett, H. H., Barrett, H. H., Barrett, H. H., Alberts, D. S., Alberts, D. S., Alberts, D. S., Woolfenden, J. M., Woolfenden, J. M., Woolfenden, J. M., Liu, Z., Liu, Z., Liu, Z., Clarkson, E. W., Clarkson, E. W., Clarkson, E. W., Kupinski, M. A., Kupinski, M. A., Kupinski, M. A., Furenlid, L. R., , Furenlid, L. R., et al. (2015, august). Quantifying and Reducing Uncertainties in Cancer Therapy. In Proceedings of SPIE, 9412, 9412N-4.
Caucci, L., & Furenlid, L. R. (2015, August). Graphics Processing units for biomedical imaging. In SPIE, 9594, 95940G.
Caucci, L., Barrett, H. H., Liu, Z., Han, H., & Furenlid, L. R. (2015, September). Towards Continuous-To-Continuous 3D Data Reconstruction. In 13th International Meeting on Fully Three-Dimensional Image Reconstruction in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.
Ghanbari, N., Kupinski, M. A., & Furenlid, L. R. (2015, August). Optimization of an adaptive SPECT system with the scanning linear estimator. In SPIE, 9594, 95940A.
Ruiz-Gonzalez, M., & Furenlid, L. R. (2015, 2015). Fisher information analysis of digital pulse timing. In 2015 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 1-3.

Poster Presentations

Furenlid, L. R., Zhao, M., Wan, L., Barber, C., & Liu, Z. (2018, September). Characterization of Tc-99m-duramycin bound to circulating extracellular vesicles as a predictor of atherosclerotic plaque destabilization. 2018 World Molecular Imaging Congress. Seattle, WA: The World Molecular Imaging Society.
Liu, Z., Lerman, L., Woolfenden, J. M., Furenlid, L. R., Wan, L., Tang, H., & Barber, C. (2018, September). Detection of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury in mouse models by Tc-99m-duramycin SPECT imaging. 2018 World Molecular Imaging Congress. Seattle, WA: The World Molecular Imaging Society.
Liu, Z., Woolfenden, J. M., Furenlid, L. R., Han, L., Barber, C., & Wan, L. (2018, September). Radioiodination and biodistribution of hyaluronan in mouse models. 2018 World Molecular Imaging Congress. Seattle, WA: The World Molecular Imaging Society.
Furenlid, L. R., Zhao, M., Wan, L., Barber, C., & Liu, Z. (2018, September). Characterization of Tc-99m-duramycin bound to circulating extracellular vesicles as a predictor of atherosclerotic plaque destabilization. 2018 World Molecular Imaging Congress. Seattle, WA: The World Molecular Imaging Society.
Liu, Z., Lerman, L., Woolfenden, J. M., Furenlid, L. R., Wan, L., Tang, H., & Barber, C. (2018, September). Detection of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury in mouse models by Tc-99m-duramycin SPECT imaging. 2018 World Molecular Imaging Congress. Seattle, WA: The World Molecular Imaging Society.
Liu, Z., Woolfenden, J. M., Furenlid, L. R., Han, L., Barber, C., & Wan, L. (2018, September). Radioiodination and biodistribution of hyaluronan in mouse models. 2018 World Molecular Imaging Congress. Seattle, WA: The World Molecular Imaging Society.