Dr. Kao is Associate Professor of Radiology and Medical Physics. His research centers on developing novel detector technologies and employing them to build practical, high performant PET systems by integrating them with advanced data processing and image reconstruction.
Dr. Kao's lab pioneered the use of waveform sampling for PET detectors. His lab invents a voltage-based sampling method for PET data acquisition called MVT (multi-voltage threshold) that provides a practical solution to digitizing fast signals generated by modern time-of-flight (TOF) PET detectors. It is used in conjunction with a novel multiplexing readout method for silicon photomultipliers employing tranmission lines to produce highly compact and functionally modularized PET and TOF-PET detectors. Dr. Kao is interested in using the detectors to develop organ-specific PET imagers for humans, including both dedicated systems and inserts for simultaneous PET/MRI. He is also developing flat-panel TOF PET detectors, and the supporting software platform, to allow rapid configuration and development of human PET systems.
Dr. Kao is the faculty co-director of the PET/CT/SPECT facility of the BSD Integrated Small Animal Imaging Research Resource, and actively collaborates with Dr. Chin-Tu Chen and other investigators in using PET for conducting basic and translational biomedical research, including the development of new drugs/treatments for cancer and neurological and cardiological diseases. Therefore, he is also interested in developing artificial-intelligence based methods for registering multi-modality and longitudinal studies, for analyzing static and dynamic data with compartmental modeling, and for making discoveries from population studies.
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
PhD - Medical Physics
1997
National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan
BSEE - Electrical Engineering
1984
Modularized compact positron emission tomography detector for rapid system development.
Modularized compact positron emission tomography detector for rapid system development. J Med Imaging (Bellingham). 2017 Jan; 4(1):011006.
PMID: 28018941
Investigation of optimization-based reconstruction with an image-total-variation constraint in PET.
Investigation of optimization-based reconstruction with an image-total-variation constraint in PET. Phys Med Biol. 2016 08 21; 61(16):6055-84.
PMID: 27452653
Performance evaluation of the Trans-PET® BioCaliburn® LH system: a large FOV small-animal PET system.
Performance evaluation of the Trans-PET® BioCaliburn® LH system: a large FOV small-animal PET system. Phys Med Biol. 2015 Jan 07; 60(1):137-50.
PMID: 25479202
A PET system design by using mixed detectors: resolution properties.
A PET system design by using mixed detectors: resolution properties. Phys Med Biol. 2014 Jul 07; 59(13):3517-32.
PMID: 24910321
Activating the expression of human K-rasG12D stimulates oncogenic transformation in transgenic goat fetal fibroblast cells.
Activating the expression of human K-rasG12D stimulates oncogenic transformation in transgenic goat fetal fibroblast cells. PLoS One. 2014; 9(3):e90059.
PMID: 24594684
Accelerating image reconstruction in dual-head PET system by GPU and symmetry properties.
Accelerating image reconstruction in dual-head PET system by GPU and symmetry properties. PLoS One. 2012; 7(12):e50540.
PMID: 23300527
A design of a PET detector using micro-channel plate PMT with transmission-line readout
A design of a PET detector using micro-channel plate PMT with transmission-line readout. Nuclear Instrument and Methods in Physics Research A. 2010; 622:628-636.
PMID: 0
Potentials of Digitally Sampling Scintillation Pulses in Timing Determination in PET.
Potentials of Digitally Sampling Scintillation Pulses in Timing Determination in PET. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 2009 Oct 06; 56(5):2607-2613.
PMID: 20376278
A high-sensitivity small-animal PET scanner: Development and initial performance measurements
A high-sensitivity small-animal PET scanner: Development and initial performance measurements. IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science. 2009; 56:2678-2688.
PMID: 0
Windowed image reconstruction for time-of-flight positron emission tomography.
Windowed image reconstruction for time-of-flight positron emission tomography. Phys Med Biol. 2008 Jul 07; 53(13):3431-45.
PMID: 18547913