Yunker receives a two year fellowship for research in Medical Imaging Phantoms at the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST)

Bryan Yunker, Ph.D., Research Instructor in the Department of Bioengineering, has received a two year research fellowship at the NIST Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado as sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) – Research Associateship Program (RAP) of the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine.  The award followed a proposal for hosting to the NIST group responsible for developing Medical Imaging Phantoms within the Physical Measurement Lab (PML) , and a successful competition for NRC/RAP funding.  The research seeks to develop imaging phantoms for simulating Traumatic Brain Injury, a difficult to detect and diagnose injury that is common among war fighters, accident victims, and players of professional and amateur sports.  The phantoms will enable the controlled simulation of varied vascular and neural tract damage as a training aide for clinical staff.  Dr. Yunker will start the NIST fellowship after completing an early career Jr. Co-Pilot award from the  Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) involving the estimation of hepatic blood flow from 3D ultrasound imagery, a continuation of his dissertation research.  Bryan recently completed a mid-career PhD in the first sitting class of the Department of Bioengineering at Anschutz and was funded as a doctoral candidate by two competitive fellowships, a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) from the National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI), and a Graduate Student fellowship from  the Colorado Translational Research Imaging Center (C-TRIC), as well as mentor funding from NSF and the SOM Department of Radiology under Dr. Gerald Dodd and Prof. Yusheng Feng at U. Texas, San Antonio.