Luke Diamond
Physics and AP Physics
Pope John Paul II High School

Dr. Michael Miga – Biomedical Modeling Lab

The main focus of my research was elastography.  This is the idea that different every material has a unique stiffness.  This difference in elasticity can be used to differentiate the different types of materials present.  One project of the BML Lab is to use elastography techniques to see if tumors can be detected in breasts.  Tumor tissue is generally much stiffer than the surrounding fatty tissue in the breast.  My specific role in this experiment was to attempt to characterize a material that is used to create breast phantoms.  The material I worked with (polyvinyl alcohol) is a viscoelastic material that is not easy to quantify.  I worked on measuring its elasticity when the concentration of solution, the number of freeze thaw cycles, and the strain imposed is varied.  Throughout this process I was patiently guided by Mr. Jao Ou a joint MD / Ph.D. student who is working on this project.

Module Developed

The module I am developing focuses on the idea of elastography and its applications to breast cancer detection. We will work on the defining the ideas of stress, strain, Hooke’s Law, and elasticity against the framework of detecting tumors in fatty tissue.  The final proof of learning will be the students’ ability to generate a one-dimensional strain plot using Microsoft XL or LoggerPro that shows the location of the tumor within that column of fatty tissue.