Deep Learning-Enabled 3D Fluorescence Imaging for Cancer Surgery

The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, part of the University Health Network (UHN), is Canada’s largest cancer hospital and one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world. This internship will take place in the Guided Therapeutics (GTx) lab, part of the cancer centre’s research institutes. The GTx lab is developing novel devices, algorithms, and nanoparticles to guide cancer surgery. The multi-disciplinary team consists of surgeons working alongside engineers, physicists, computer scientists, and chemists. Novel technology developed in the lab translates to first-in-human clinical studies, with a strong academic focus (e.g., peer-reviewed papers, conference presentations). Cancer surgeons face the challenge of determining how deep a tumour invades below the surface. Inaccurate resections leave tumour behind and negatively affect patient outcomes. Medical devices to image the patient during surgery may help guide more precise tumour removal. To this end, the GTx lab is developing an AI-powered optical imaging system to measure tumour depth. To date, this prototype system has undergone pre-clinical testing in simplified, 3D-printed models derived from real patient cases. This internship will help the team optimize this technology to work in more realistic preclinical experiments, in preparation for future clinical studies with cancer patients.

Faculty Supervisor:

Karthik Kuber;Arvind Gupta

Student:

Partner:

University Health Network

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: