Evan D Morris Contact
Radiology
Indianapolis, IN 46202
office: 317 274 1802
emorris@iupui.edu
http://tracerkinetics.engr.iupui.edu/
Education
PhD (BME) Case Western Reserve University, 1991
MS (BME) Case Western Rserve University, 1988
BS (ChmE), BS(Biol) Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1983
Postdoctoral Training
Radiological Sciences, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (1992-1995), Brain Imaging, National Institute on Drug Abuse (1995-1998)
Dr Morris also holds academic appointments in
Radiology, Medical Neurobiology, Psychiatry (adj)
Indiana University School of Medicine
Biomedical Engineering (courtesy), Purdue U, W. Lafayette,
Positron Emission Tomography measures radioactivity per volume of tissue noninvasively (good) but indiscriminately (bad). That is, a PET scanner is unable to identify the source of the radioactivity in a given macroscopic location - be it from a radioactive molecule in the microcirculation, floating freely in the extracellular tissue space or from a ligand locked into a binding site. Microscopic attribution of the detected tracer radioactivity to one or another 'state' is the province of the mathematical model. In PET imaging, compartmental models are generally adequate to describe the dynamics of radio-tracer uptake and retention in tissue. These models, which ignore local concentration gradients, can be encoded entirely with Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) and are the stock and trade of PET modelers. Dr. Morris' primary interest is in developing, PET models to explain the dynamic behavior of receptor and transmitter molecules in brain. With the proper model he and colleagues can ask such questions as: How many receptors of a given type are there? How do these receptors change with age or disease? What is the response of a neurotransmitter to drug or cognitive stimulation? Does the temporal response of a neurotransmitter encode the likelihood of future alcohol drug abuse?
Dr. Morris is currently engaged in collaborations with Dr. C Bouman of Purdue University in W. Lafayette and Dr. B Christian of University of Wisconsin-Madison to incorporate kinetic models of PET tracers directly into tomographic image reconstruction algorithms – sort of a one-stop shopping approach to emission tomography and kinetic analysis. He is also actively collaborating with Drs. D Kareken, K Yoder and J Froehlich of Indiana University School of Medicine to study the dopaminergic responses (the brain’s way of feeling reward) of humans and animals to alcohol.
His work is currently supported by grants from the Whitaker Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
