Dr. John Eley, UMB School of Medicine
Location
Mathematics/Psychology : 104
Date & Time
December 5, 2014, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Description
Title:
High-performance Computing for Experimental Radiation Therapies
Abstract: Radiation treatment for
cancer has changed rapidly in the past decades, with some of the greatest
breakthroughs occurring in digital imaging, robotic beam-delivery systems, and
high-energy particle accelerators, all of which rely heavily on parallel computing
to plan radiation beams for millimeter-precision cancer treatment. Furthermore, the design and development of
entirely new cancer treatment strategies often begins with virtual computer
simulations to screen and test promising ideas.
Virtual studies are an effective way to study ideas that could not be
tested directly in patients and to minimize the use of animals in early stage
research. However, accurate
radiation-transport simulations that realistically consider the anatomy of small
animals or patients can be computationally expensive and, thus, benefit from
large-scale, parallel computing architectures.
The newly constructed Maryland Proton Treatment Center in Baltimore will
be one of the first centers in the US to offer scanned-beam proton beam therapy,
using magnetic fields to sweep particle beams precisely across cancer targets
and to deliver cancer-sterilizing doses of radiation. In this light, there will likely be many opportunities
for computational research efforts that aim to grow this new technology. We especially see a possible opportunity for
collaborations between the University of Maryland School of Medicine and
high-performance computing departments in the University System of Maryland.
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