The Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research honors Colorado scientists and engineers from the state’s federally funded research laboratories for outstanding achievements. Each year a special committee appointed by the CO-LABS Board of Directors reviews nominations from Colorado’s labs and selects projects that have had a significant global, national or state impact resulting from a scientific breakthrough, change in public policy or development of a new technology. To learn more, visit www.CO-LABS.org.
Michael Boss, Katy Keenan, Stephen Russek and Karl Stupic are recognized for advancing the forefront of biomedical imaging by developing a broad suite of calibration “phantoms” to enable quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the unambiguous measurement of disease progression and treatment efficacy. Each phantom in the team’s toolbox is targeted to ensure quantitative MRI images for the different medical needs, including traumatic brain injury, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, breast cancer, and general imaging. These standards are in use in multi-site clinical trials around the world. Through quick action, the NIST team has transferred phantom development to Colorado-based High Precision Devices, Inc. to enable more widespread adoption of the MRI phantom protocols.