General Information

Here is a short overview of selected research topics and thematic fields for PhD theses presently covered by participating work groups:

Applied clinical physics

Classical topics in Medical Physics are related to various aspects of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic applications. Physics in Medicine is defined by a close cooperation with clinical departments and medical disciplines. Specific research fields include: diagnostic imaging (X-ray, ultrasound, photoacoustic, etc.) and visualization, radiology and nuclear medicine imaging systems, image-guided therapy, dual- and multi-modality medical imaging systems, non-invasive modelling of radioactive tracer and drug delivery and radiation safety and dosimetry calculations.

Biomedical Optics

Biomedical Optics uses optical radiation for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. A wide range of optical technologies are used to image organs, tissues, cells, and subcellular components, to analyze chemical compositions, to treat diseases based on the specific sensitivity of chromophores to certain wavelengths or based on intense light pulses created by short-pulse lasers, etc. Advantages of optical technologies are their safe use (no ionizing radiation) and rather low costs.
Research at the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (CMPBME) is focused on advanced imaging techniques like optical coherence tomography (OCT), photoacoustic tomography (PAT), etc., with applications to ophthalmic imaging, skin imaging, and imaging of various other tissues accessible by endoscopy. The CMPBME has been one of the pioneering laboratories developing OCT. OCT records cross sectional and 3D images of transparent and translucent tissues with a resolution of ~ 1-10 µm. Main research fields of the participating work groups comprise improvement of resolution ("optical biopsy"), imaging speed, sensitivity, advanced contrast techniques, spectroscopy, and functional imaging and measurements (blood flow, blood oxygenation in response to pharmaceutical intervention).

Medical Radiation Physics in Oncology

Medical radiation physics studies the effects of ionizing radiation in matter, especially in living tissues. Main applications are diagnosis and treatment of tumors. Treatments can be performed with different types of radiation qualities (e.g., photons, electrons, protons, ions) and dose delivery principles (external beam or brachytherapy). For treatment delivery accuracy physiological effects (e.g. organ movements, organ fillings) have lead to the development of image guided or 4D radiotherapy, where also time variable effects are taken into account. Modern imaging techniques such as CT, MRI and PET play an important role for treatment planning and optimization for all available treatment modalities using different types of radiation qualities. More recently functional imaging techniques are explored for sub-tumor tissue characterization and response assessment during and after radiotherapy.
Research projects in these fields comprise dosimetry including phantom developments, dose calculation based on computer simulation, treatment planning and treatment plan optimization, image guided and adaptive radiotherapy, and radiation biology. Finally, physics research in radiation oncology includes quality assurance and radiation protection. As research infrastructure state-of-the art linear accelerators with integrated systems for image guided radiotherapy, a multi-slice CT, MR, various treatment planning systems and dosimetry equipment for point- and multidimensional dosimetry are available. Moreover the cooperation with the department of biomedical imaging and image-guided therapy enables the use of hybrid PET/CT and MR/PET images for radiation oncology. Furthermore the Medical University of Vienna has free access to equipment (treatment planning systems, dosimetry equipment, etc.) and a non-clinical research room with scanning system at MedAustron for ion beam therapy.

Ultra-high field Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Spectroscopy, and Microscopy

Diagnostics of pathologic changes in various organs is based on imaging and identification of morphologic, functional, and metabolic changes. Magnetic resonance (MR) is a unique tool to perform these tasks in both, a qualitative and a quantitative way. Since only rather short measuring times (< 1h) are acceptable for patient imaging, the improvement of sensitivity and specificity is the primary goal of any in vivo application. High-end research in this field comprises development of hardware (e.g., radio-frequency coils), measuring and data processing techniques, modeling, robust statistical analysis, parameter selective MR imaging, MR micro imaging, functional MRI and MR spectroscopy for detection of various pathologies (tumors, cardio-vascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, etc.). This work is carried out in our rf-lab and at two MR-systems: a clinical high field research scanner (3 Tesla) and an ultra-high field (7 Tesla) MR-apparatus in cooperation with various clinical departments and external partners.