Francesco Conversano

I am a research scientist at the National Research Council, Institute of Clinical Physiology, in Lecce (Italy), where I am currently Leader of the Research Unit for Experimental Characterizations within the Nanoimaging Ultrasound Lab. My main research interests include: development of new methods for non-invasive tissue characterization, innovative strategies for nanoparticle-aided non-ionizing molecular imaging, implementation of novel algorithms for biomedical signal processing. Scientific results of my experimental studies on the development of novel methodologies for biomedical image and signal processing contributed to significant advancements of the research field, especially concerning the development of new tissue-mimicking materials, the characterization of the diagnostic behaviour of innovative micro- and nano-scaled contrast agents for multimodal molecular imaging purposes, the introduction of novel automatic segmentation algorithms, as can be easily verified thanks to the acceptance of publications in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and to the successes in international investigator competitions. I gained also significant experience in industrial research related to the development of new ultrasound-based systems for applications such as quantitative monitoring of childbirth labor, ultrasound-based osteoporosis diagnosis and non-ionizing guidance of endovascular devices in cardiac surgery. My major early scientific contributions to my specific research fields are herein summarized. My studies on the employment of innovative tissue-mimicking phantoms for experimental characterization of ultrasound contrast agent behavior introduced the use of “ad hoc” realized cellulose-based hydrogels for this kind of purposes. In this way the accuracy of “in vitro” studies and experimental laboratory simulations was significantly improved, with consequent substantial reduction of required animal sacrifices. This work won the First Prize Poster Context during the “20th Advances in Contrast Ultrasound Conference” (2005, Chicago, USA). I put also significant research efforts in the development of new methodologies to optimize contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging techniques, with special focus on the implementation of quantitative and objective methods aimed to minimize the operator-dependence of echographic investigations. For what specifically concerns microbubble contrast agents, my studies lead to an innovative approach for clinical exploitation of spontaneous microbubble dissolution, providing also the experimental basis for the development of new theoretical models of microbubble dissolution behaviour. The introduced experimental methodology, based on the scheduled repetition of automatic size distribution measurements on contrast solution samples, is easy to apply, objective, fast, cheap and can be used with the same level of accuracy on all kinds of microbubble contrast agents. A work summarizing these findings received a Poster Presentation Award during the “4th International Conference on Sensing Technology” (June 2010, Lecce, Italy). Referring to the newer nanoparticle-based ultrasound contrast agents, my group proposed the first experimental evidence of the employability of solid nanoparticles at common diagnostic frequencies and contributed to the development of novel software algorithms for their simultaneous automatic detection. In this context, I was in particular a pioneer in the application of harmonic ultrasound imaging to nanosized contrast agents. I presented two papers illustrating the first results of this ongoing work at two different editions of the “European Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging”, being in both cases selected as finalist in the prestigious Young Investigator Competition (January 2010 – January 2011, Rotterdam, The Netherlands). Extended results of these studies have been recently published as full-length original papers in specialized scientific journals, receiving high citation rates. All these early scientific results were object of significant recognition and diffusion: - more than 60 scientific articles have been accepted in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences in the field of biomedical imaging, receiving more than 350 citations on the whole (h-index=11, hc-index=12; source: Harzing’s Publish or Perish, April 12, 2014) ; - 6 book chapters were published in international collective volumes; - 2 international and 1 national investigator awards have been granted; - 4 times I was finalist in the prestigious Young Investigator Competition of the “European Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging”; - the “Italian National Prize for Innovation 2010” and the “Prize of the Prizes 2011 for Innovation in Public Research” have been awarded to me and my colleagues for significant innovations and technology transfer in the field of labor monitoring. - 6 patents have been granted.