Research Program: Cancer Measurement Technology and Data Science
Strategic Theme: Imaging
Michael Oelze’s research utilizes ultrasound technology for improving cancer diagnosis and monitoring of cancer therapy to detect early response and predict patient outcomes. The Oelze lab has been focusing on quantitative ultrasound techniques to improve diagnostic ultrasound – the technique represents a new paradigm of cancer diagnostics and therapy detection – that could be adopted to provide physicians with early feedback on the efficacy of a therapy regimen allowing early changing of therapy protocols if a particular therapy is not working. Oelze has led several studies to detect and classify breast tumors, thyroid cancers, and micrometastases in lymph nodes. He has helped develop new methods for analyzing backscattered ultrasound and relating these signals to tissue microstructure and disease. He has worked to develop quantitative ultrasound to monitor and assess thermal insult to tissues and developed techniques to apply ultrasound-based therapies to animal models of cancer.
Michael Oelze earned a BS in Physics and Mathematics from Harding University and PhD in Physics from the University of Mississippi. From 2000 to 2002 Dr. Oelze served as a post-doc in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) inside the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). From 2002 to 2004, Oelze was a NIH fellow conducting research in quantitative ultrasound techniques for biomedical ultrasound applications in cancer detection. He joined the faculty of ECE at the UIUC in 2005 and continues to serve as a professor. Currently, Dr. Oelze is a fellow of the AIUM, a senior member of the IEEE, and a member of ASA. He also serves as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonic, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, associate editor of Ultrasonic Imaging, and associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.