Amir H. Goldan, Ph.D., develops photon-counting x-ray imaging and PET medical imaging detectors and systems. The research of Dr. Goldan, who received his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada, has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Recently, the NIH awarded Dr. Goldan a $6.25M U01 grant to develop Prism-PET, a high-performance, compact, portable, upright brain PET scanner featuring motion compensation and CT-less attenuation correction. For clinical translation, Dr. Goldan and the XEIL Lab will use [18F]MK6240 radiotracer, which has subnanomolar affinity for tau neurofibrillary tangles. They will leverage Prism-PET imaging's ultra-high resolution topographical capabilities — such as uptake in small regions like the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus — to perform early-stage Braak staging in asymptomatic individuals with mild cognitive impairment.
