Page 18 - RFCUNY Annual Report 2016

Yingli Tian Lesley Emtage

Professor, Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor, Biology
The City College York College
Arctic ice is shrinking rapidly, causing large ice floes As the US population ages, mid- to late-onset neu-
to break up into smaller fragments that pose a rodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and
danger to ocean navigation and impact climate and Parkinson’s disease are becoming critical health
biology systems in the region. Monitoring this frag- issues. These disorders are characterized by the
ment movement is critical for both human safety and accumulation of unfolded, or faulty, protein deposits
scientific research, but the low-resolution of current in the brain, but the fundamental cause of the dis-
satellite data limits the ability to track and predict order is still unknown. Professor Emtage investigates
patterns in the ice flow. As an engineer specializing the cellular phenomena involved in this protein
in computer vision (using computer algorithms to accumulation to gain further knowledge of these
analyze images), Professor Tian realized there was diseases overall. Her three-year, $457K NIH award,
potential to improve the resolution of these images. Cellular Mechanism Underlying Detoxification of
Through her four-year, $415K Office of Naval Mutant Huntingtin, enables Emtage to study mutant
Research award, Tracking and Predicting Fine Scale huntingtin, a similar neurodegenerative disease
Sea Ice Motion by Constructing Super-resolution to Alzheimer’s, in yeast. Using a visual approach to
Images and Fusing Multiple Satellite Sensors, Tian analyze the huntingtin protein’s movement within
developed “Super-resolution” algorithms that dra- the cell, Emtage can dissect the process of protein
matically increased image resolution and allowed for accumulation in living cells. “As we discover more
predictive modelling. “Computer vision is generally about the process that causes these protein deposits,
used for industry-driven applications, but this project we increase our understanding of the underlying
demonstrated how it can generate a big impact causes of neurodegenerative disorders that share this
when applied to remote sensing research.” feature, enabling the development of therapies to
treat them.”

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