Pete Santago, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Chairman
Department of Biomedical Engineering

Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Medical Center Blvd. 
Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1022

Phone: 336-716-6890
psantago@wfubmc.edu


EDUCATION:

B.S., Computer Science, Virginia Tech

M.S., Computer Science, Virginia Tech

Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, North Carolina State University

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Ultrasound

We have been investigating ways to analyze the ultrasound RF signal to better characterize tissue for various image analysis needs. Currently we are studying flow-mediated dilation in the brachial artery to assess vascular health. We have used several methods including adaptive template matching and tissue characterization based on scatterer properties such as randomness. Most of our results are from clinical data, in vitro animal arteries, and simulations using clinical ultrasound machines. We are developing an ultrasound laboratory so that we can experiment with higher frequency machines, our own pulse control sequences, and directly access the RF signal. Research in this area involves understanding of signal processing, image analysis, hardware interfacing, acoustics, and tissue properties.

Pattern Classification

This is a broad field, which continues to receive a great deal of attention. Much of this work in image analysis is based only on the acquired image and a mathematical model, such as a Markov field. Examples include dealing only with the B-mode ultrasound image or MR magnitude image. My goal is to develop a paradigm that takes into account the full model of the subject under investigation. For example, the ultrasound work described above requires an understanding of the physical mechanisms of the tissue interaction with the ultrasound pulse. This then feeds a signal acquisition and processing component that eventually needs input from a system with knowledge of the subject, e.g.., the anatomy and physiology. Research in this area requires knowledge in statistical methods, expert systems or AI, and the physical, anatomical, and physiological basis for the medical imaging modality under investigation.

All of this research requires fluency with sophisticated computer-based tools and languages such as C, C++, Matlab, IDL, and GUI development.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

	Gillespie S (Department of Anesthesiology), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering): An introduction to clinical medicine for biomedical engineering students through simulation [abstract] [online].  Abstr Soc Technol Anesth 2005 Int Meet Med Simul 2005;7:. http://www.anestech.org/Publications/ IMMS_2005/Gillespie2.pdf
	Li H (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Radiology), Pineau B (Department of Internal Medicine--Section on Gastroenterology), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering): Efficient computerized polyp detection for CT colonography. J Digit Imaging 2005;18(1):55-65.
	Li H (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Radiology), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering): Automatic colon segmentation with dual scan CT colonography. J Digit Imaging 2005;18(1):42-54.
	Shah SA (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Rubin BK (Department of Pediatrics): Quantification of biopolymer filament structure. Ultramicroscopy 2005;104(3-4):244-254.
	Bayram E (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Harris R, Xiao YD, Clauset AJ, Schmitt JD (Department of Biochemistry): Genetic algorithms and self-organizing maps: a powerful combination for modeling complex QSAR and QSPR problems [abstract]. Abstr Pap Am Chem Soc 2004;227(Pt 1):U1019.
	Bayram E (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Santago P II (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Harris R, Xiao Y-D, Clauset AJ, Schmitt JD (Department of Biochemistry): Genetic algorithms and self-organizing maps: a powerful combination for modeling complex QSAR and QSPR problems. J Comput Aided Mol Des 2004;18(7):483-493.
	Schmitt JD (Department of Biochemistry), Harris R, Bayram E (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering), Xiao YD, Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Biomedical Engineering): Coupling feature reduction with self-organizing maps for drug discovery [abstract]. Abstr Pap Am Chem Soc 2004;227(Pt 1):U1022-U1023.
	Herrington DM (Department of Internal Medicine--Section on Cardiology), Fan L (Department of Internal Medicine--Section on Cardiology), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Medical Engineering): Ultrasound apparatus and method for tissue characterization [patent]. Wake Forest University Health Sciences, assignee; US patent 6,264,609; 2001 July 24.
	Fan L (Department of Internal Medicine--Section on Cardiology), Santago P (Division of Radiologic Sciences--Department of Medical Engineering), Riley W (Department of Neurology), Herrington DM (Department of Internal Medicine--Section on Cardiology): An adaptive template-matching method and its application to the boundary detection of brachial artery ultrasound scans. Ultrasound Med Biol 2001;27(3):399-408.