James S. Duncan, PhD

Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Electrical Engineering

Contact

Address:
Yale University, School of Medicine
Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology
BML-332, 333 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8042
United States

Email: james.duncan@yale.edu
Telephone: (203) 785-6322
Fax: (203) 737-4273

Education

PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, 1983.

Please click here for Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

My research efforts have been in the areas of computer vision, image processing, and medical imaging, with an emphasis on biomedical image analysis. These efforts have included the segmentation of deformable structure from 3D image data, the tracking of non-rigid motion/deformation from spatiotemporal images, and the development of strategies for image-guided intervention/surgery. Frequently, the analysis strategies employ models based on geometrical and physical/biomechanical information to help constrain the range of possible solutions in the presence of uncertainty. My laboratory has focused on several problem areas within the realms of neuroimaging-based structure/function analysis, cardiac function analysis, and radiotherapy-based cancer treatment, along with some newer work in cellular and molecular image analysis from microscopy images. We strive to find unifying mathematical and algorithmic principles to address this range of problems.

Below are 3 examples of research performed in Professor Duncan’s laboratory:

• A level set-based strategy is used to segment neuroanatomical structure.
• Biomechanical models and Bayesian estimation are used to predict local left ventricular deformation.
• Spatial activation constraints are used to estimate fMRI activations.

Selected Publications

1. Boundary finding with parametrically deformable models. Staib, L.H.; Duncan, J.S.; Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Volume 14, Issue 11, Nov. 1992 Page(s):1061 - 1075.
2. H.I. Bozma and J.S. Duncan, "A Game- Theoretic Approach to Integration of Modules," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 16, No. 11, November, 1994. Pp. 1074-1086.
3. Duncan, J.S., Shi, P., Constable, R.T., and Sinusas, A.: "Physical and Geometrical Modeling for Image-Based Recovery of Left Ventricular Deformation", Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Vol. 69, No.2-3, 1998. Pp. 333-351.
4. A. Chakraborty and J.S. Duncan, "Game- Theoretic Integration for Image Segmentation," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine intelligence, Vol.21, No. 1, January, 1999. Pp. 12-30.
5. X. Zeng, L. H. Staib, R. T. Schultz, and J. S. Duncan, "Segmentation and Measurement of the Cortex from 3D MR images using coupled surfaces propagation," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 18, No. 10, October, 1999. Pp.927-937.
6. X. Papademetris, A. J. Sinusas, D. P. Dione, R. T. Constable and J. S. Duncan, "Estimation of 3D Left Ventricular Deformation from Medical Images Using Biomechanical Models," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Volume 21, No.7, July, 2002. Pp. 786-800.
7. J. Yang, L.H. Staib and J.S. Duncan. "Neighbor-constrained segmentation with level set based 3D deformable models," IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 23, No. 8, 2004. Pp. 940-948.
8. S. Chelikani, K. Purushothaman, J. Knisely, Z. Chen, R. Nath, R. Bansal and J.S. Duncan, "A Gradient FeatureWeighted Minimax Algorithm For Registration Of Multiple Portal Images To 3DCT Volumes in Prostate Radiotherapy," International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, Vol. 65, No. 2, June, 2006. Pp. 535-547.
9. P.Yan, N.Lin, A.Sinusas, J.S.Duncan, Boundary Element Method-Based Regularization For Recovery of LV Deformation, Medical Image Analysis, Vol. 11, No. 6, 2007. Pp. 540-554.
10. S. Hadjidemetriou, D. Toomre and J.S. Duncan, "Motion tracking of the outer tips of microtubules," Medical Image Analysis, 2008. (electronic version online, in press).

For a further list of Duncan's publications, please see IEEE Explorer

Current and Former Trainees

Current Trainees

Postdoctoral:

• Ping Yan
• Alexander Karpikov

Predoctoral:

• Colin Compas, predoctoral student (BME), 2006 to present, BS BME, Vanderbilt; Cardiac deformation tracking/segmentation;
• Liang Liang, predoctoral student (Electrical Engineering), 2007 to present
• Chao Liu, predoctoral student (BME), 2006 to present.
• Deepti Bathula, predoctoral student (Biomedical Engineering), 2003-2009; BE Computer Systems Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Research project: Structure-constrained analysis of fMRI; Research Support: NIH R01.
• Yun Zhu, predoctoral student, (Biomedical Engineering), 2004-2009; BS Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, 2001; Research Project: integrated segmentation/motion analysis of Left Ventricular function; Support: NIH R01
• William Greene, predoctoral student (Biomedical Engineering), 2003-2008; BS Biomedical Engineering, University of California, San Diego; Research Project: automated cone beam CT registration for prostate radiotherapy; support: NIH R01
• Ping Yan, predoctoral student (Mechanical Engineering), 2001-2006; BS EE, China, Research Project: Boundary element models for constrained recovery of LV Deformation; support: NIH R01.
• Qian Yang, predoctoral student (Electrical Engineering), 2004-2009; BS Electronic Engineering, Chinese University of Science and Technology; Research project: segmentation/tracking of microtubules from confocal microscopy; research support: industrial funding.

Previous trainees

Predoctoral:

• Ping Yan, predoctoral student (BME), 2002-2008, Current position: postdoc, Yale in Diagnostic Radiology.
• Chrissy Delorenzo, predoctoral student (Biomedical Engineering), 2001-2006; BS Engineering, Dartmouth College, 2001; research project: brain shift compensation for image-guided neurosurgery, support is from NIH Biomedical Informatics Training Grant; Current position: postdoc, Columbia University, Depts of Neurology and BME.
• Jing Yang, PhD, 2005 (Electrical Engineering) ; research at Yale: Neighbor Constrained Segmentation of Neuroanatomcal Structure from MRI; current position: research scientist, Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, NJ.
• Ning Lin, PhD 2005 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: Integrated Segmentation and Deformation Analysis of the Left Ventricle; current position: mathematical modeling development, Wall Street.
• Reshma Munbodh, PhD, 2005 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: Image Registration for Prostate Radiotherapy; current position: Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dept of Radiotherapy.
• Oskar Skrinjar, PhD, 2000 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: Brain Shift deformation analysis for image-guided neurosurgery; current position: Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
• Xenios Papademetris, PhD, 2000 (Electrical Engineering); undergraduate: University of Cambridge, UK; research at Yale: Biomechanical Modeling for Cardiac Image Analysis; current position: Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Electrical Engineering, Yale University
• Xiaolan Zeng, PhD, 1999 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: Coupled Surface Segmentation of the Cortical Surface from MRI; current position: Vice President, Clinical Affairs, EDDA Technology, Princeton, NJ.
• Ravi Bansal, PhD, 1999 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: 3D-2D Image Registration for Prostate Radiotherapy Planning; current position: Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Imaging Research), Columbia University, NY, NY.
• Amit Chakraborty, PhD 1996, (Electrical Engineering), research at Yale: Game Theoretic Approach to Image Segmentation; current position: group manager, Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, NJ.
• John McEachen, PhD 1996 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: Multiframe Estimation of Nonrigid Motion from Image Sequences; current position: Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterrey, California.
• Pengcheng Shi, PhD, 1996 (Electrical Engineering); research at Yale: Image Analysis of 3D Cardiac Motion Using Physical and Geometrical Models. Current Position: Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
• Lawrence Staib, PhD, 1992 (Physics); research in deformable models. Current Position: Tenured Associate Professor in BME, Diag Radiol and EE, Yale.

Postdoctoral:

• Sudha Chelikani, PhD (Yale University) Yale: 2002-2004; research at Yale: nonrigid image registration; current position: Associate Research Scientist, Yale University (Diagnostic Radiology).
• Xenios Papademetris, PhD (Yale University): see above.
• Colin Studholme, PhD (University of London), 2001-2003; research at Yale: MRI distortion compenstation/nonrigid image registration based on mutual information. Current Position: Assistant Professor of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
• Stathis Hadjidemetriou, postdoctoral associate (Diagnostic Radiology), 2004-2006; PhD in Electrical Engineering, Columbia University; project: analysis of microtubules from TIRF and confocal microscopy. Current Position: Researcher, Germany.
• Francois Meyer, postdoc assoc (Diag Radiol and Mathematics, 1995-97, PhD, current position: Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering, Univ of Colorado
• Amir Amini, postdoc assoc (Diag Radiol); 1991-92, PhD, Univ of Michigan; current postion: Professor of Electrical Engineering, Univ of Kentucky.