Two Texas universities team for $3.1M medical imaging project

The University of Texas (UT) at Arlington and the UT Southwestern Medical School at Dallas have partnered on a project that will provide five UT-Arlington engineering professors with UT-Southwestern laboratory space to further their medical imaging research.

Four laboratories in the Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building at UT-Southwestern will be dedicated to UT-Arlington engineering professors who will team with medical doctors to further test medical imaging projects that are in various stages of development, according to UT-Arlington.

The joint effort marks the first time the medical school has dedicated space to an engineering school, said Khosrow Behbehani, PhD, professor and chairman of the UT-Arlington bioengineering department, reported the Dallas Business Journal.

The lab facility, to be called the UT Arlington Optical Medical Imaging Center at UT Southwestern, will “bring together some of the best and brightest minds from two leading institutions who are working together to advance medical imaging and bioengineering,” said UT Arlington President James D. Spaniolo.

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, D-Texas, secured $3.1 million in federal funding for the project.

“The new optical medical imaging system creates a physical environment where the engineering expertise from UT-Arlington and the medical expertise from UT-Southwestern are combined to create and transfer medical technology from the research labs to real-life patients,” Barton said.

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