National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

tumors, leading to unnecessary thyroid biopsies and causing significant financial and physical burden to patients. The new method—named high-definition microvasculature imaging, or HDMI— noninvasively captures images of the tiny vessels within tumors and, based on the vessel features, automatically classifies the masses as cancerous or not. Researchers imaged tumors with HDMI and measured a dozen features related to the size and shape of the microvasculature in the images, including their density and number of branching points. The researchers used the HDMI data and biopsy data from the tumors to develop an AI algorithm that was accurate 89 percent of the time when compared to clinical assessments of biopsies. The findings indicate that HDMI could be a stronger diagnostic approach than conventional ultrasound imaging and could save patients from unneeded biopsy surgery in the future. Researchers will continue to develop AI methods to improve accuracy.


Director's Overview
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) has unique capabilities for developing groundbreaking technologies to improve health and better understand complex biological systems.NIBIB is committed to supporting and disseminating solutions that will achieve our mission to transform, through technology development, our understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment.Innovations in technology depend on building strong partnerships and supporting a diverse biomedical workforce.NIBIB is investing in programs to increase its impact while establishing itself as an essential technology development partner for current and future health challenges.

Cultivating Collaborations to Create Innovations in Technology
The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted swift innovations in biomedicine.Enabled by congressional COVID-19 supplemental funding, NIBIB responded by developing and expanding urgently needed COVID-19 tests, building digital health platforms, and advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning methods for pulmonary imaging.To develop tests, NIBIB introduced the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx ® ) Tech innovation funnel, where projects were quickly reviewed by a team of experts and awards were made in a milestone-driven funding structure.Success of the program was dependent on the collaboration of over 900 stakeholders from government, academia, and private industry, who partnered to produce 7.8 billion tests and test products and secure 55 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorizations (EUAs).Test production through NIBIB's RADx Tech helped shift testing from primarily central laboratories to at-home and point-of-care (POC) settings.
The successes achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic have led NIBIB to leverage lessons learned and rethink its approach to technology development to address critical, unmet national and global health care needs, bolstering the capacity to mitigate current and emerging health threats, including identifying and eliminating infectious disease outbreaks.The RADx Tech infrastructure and operational processes are being employed to build new programs that accelerate technology development, validation, and deployment -a "RADx-ification" of NIBIB approaches and collaborations.Through funding partnerships, NIBIB is applying the RADx approach to solve a range of health problems, including developing technologies to address the maternal health crisis in the United States, technologies to reduce the spread of HIV, emergency diagnostics for mpox, diagnostics to support the elimination of hepatitis C in the United States, multiplex at-home and POC tests for respiratory viruses, technologies to treat nervous system disorders, and monitoring technologies to reduce the risk of fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality.
A specific example of "RADx-ification" is NIBIB's launch of the Blueprint MedTech program and partnership with the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience consortium of 12 institutes, centers, NIBIB-3 and offices.The Blueprint MedTech program is designed to overcome barriers to the development and commercialization of highly impactful devices to treat disorders of the nervous system.The program funds projects using a milestone-driven incubator/accelerator model to derisk technologies and bring them to the stage where they can attract further investment from industry.
One Blueprint MedTech project is a non-addictive treatment for neuropathic pain using lowintensity focused ultrasound.As envisioned, it would provide a non-invasive outpatient treatment in which the clinician uses a combined imaging and therapeutic ultrasound device to target and immediately treat the specific portions of the nervous system that generate pain signals.The project aims to provide patients with pain relief for up to a month after only three minutes of treatment.
Another project is developing a non-invasive imaging device to modernize the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries.The handheld photoacoustic device provides high-resolution images of peripheral nerve structures, enabling the quantitative assessment of nerve damage that has occurred due to trauma or other causes.The non-invasive technology combines light (photo) and sound (acoustic) waves to create detailed images.This would add precision to clinical decision making, allow more targeted surgery approaches, and enable postoperative monitoring of nerve regeneration, ultimately improving outcomes.If successful, the device would greatly improve the treatment of and recovery from debilitating peripheral nerve injuries.
Prototype of handheld device to improve treatment of peripheral nerve injuries.Credit: Muyinatu "Bisi" Bell and Sami Tuffaha, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Further, NIBIB has expanded the long-standing Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN) which formed the basis for the rapid success of RADx Tech in delivering COVID-19 tests during the pandemic.NIBIB, in partnership with seven other NIH institutes and centers, is expected to invest nearly $11 million (in FY 2024) in six technology research and development centers around the country and a coordinating center that will harness the momentum of the network to advance home-based and POC heath technologies for a range of health care applications.Each center in the network identifies unmet clinical needs and collaborates with innovators to develop technology-based solutions and ready them to receive follow-on funding and/or regulatory clearance.One new center will focus on technologies for equitable cancer care by improving early cancer detection in low-resource settings, while a second will address global primary care needs for vulnerable populations through the development of technologies to address nutrition, infectious diseases, and cancer.POCTRN will continue to utilize the RADx Tech infrastructure to build new programs and partnerships to compress the technology development pipeline, minimizing risk and maximizing gain.

Investing in equitable technologies and a diverse research workforce
Supporting applied research, experimental development, pre-commercialization, and standardsrelated efforts that will facilitate the adoption of a broad range of new technologies, as well as NIBIB-4 improving equity and accessibility of health care technologies, are priorities for NIBIB.Despite the paradigm shift to selftesting that most people experienced during the pandemic, the COVID-19 diagnostics rollout insufficiently addressed the needs of important populations, including people with low or no vision, reduced dexterity or motor skills, and older adults.In partnership with a wide range of advocacy organizations and agencies, RADx Tech established the COVID-19 Test Accessibility program to address the design of at-home tests.Key successes for the program include a published document for test developers that defines best practices for universal design along with support for an EUA for the first at-home test that conforms to accessible design principles: the Azure pen.This extremely simple test has only two parts, its use requires far fewer steps than other marketed tests, and there is no need to transfer liquids, manipulate small parts, or understand complex instructions.NIBIB continues to support the development of high-performance COVID-19/flu multiplex tests designed to be used independently by people with disabilities to ultimately provide a universally improved testing experience.

FDA authorized the Fastep COVID-19 Antigen Pen Home Test from Azure Biotech, Inc. NIBIB photo by Chia-Chi (Charlie) Chang
Recognizing the unmet need for high-quality imaging databases to support the development of reliable AI algorithms, NIBIB supported the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC), a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive national COVID-19 medical image repository with broadly representative data, unbiased AI algorithm development and validation capabilities, and a dedicated bias awareness tool.The multi-institutional network received $30 million in COVID-19 supplemental funds that it has efficiently allocated to amass a curated public database that includes high-quality medical images and associated clinical data.This collaborative platform is enabling the user community to develop new valuable analytical tools and processes to increase the diagnostic power of medical imaging, thereby developing trustworthy, powerful advanced AI systems that help achieve the Nation's great aspirations.The initial NIBIB investment has been leveraged to secure additional funding from other federal agencies and nongovernment partners with the goal of expanding this important resource to other disease areas.
A key effort of MIDRC is to facilitate the development of trustworthy algorithms -from creation to testing and validation -which depend on reliable data.The MIDRC database allows researchers to pull the specific data that they need to build an algorithm for their specific clinical use.As a showcase of its success, MIDRC released 29 AI algorithms and more than 13 terabytes of data to the public, engaging over 600 registered users worldwide.Approximately 80 percent of the data ingested into MIDRC is freely accessible to the public for research use, and the remaining 20 percent of the data is in a separate, sequestered dataset for validating algorithms.One MIDRC-supported publication has identified nearly 30 unique factors that can introduce NIBIB-5 bias into an AI model. 1 The MIDRC sequestered dataset is a uniquely valuable validation tool, allowing developers to use different data to evaluate and test their model.Research achievements like those described above are dependent on a diverse and strong biomedical workforce.Technology development is an inherently inclusive and interdisciplinary field that requires diverse approaches, perspectives, and ideas to be successful.NIBIB's approach to improve and achieve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) goals is intrinsic to its vision to shape the future of health.NIBIB's DEIA activities are inspired by its organizational values of collaboration, innovation, and technical excellence.NIBIB will continue to support and optimize programs that overcome barriers to sustain the many talented individuals and organizations contributing to better health for all.
To promote a diverse and strong biomedical workforce, NIBIB established an undergraduate research education program called Enhancing Science, Technology, EnginEering, and Math Educational Diversity (ESTEEMED) in 2018.In five years, the effort has supported 15 programs at academic institutions and engaged 259 students.A unique feature of the program is that participants are exposed to hands-on biomedical engineering research in their freshmen and sophomore years.The program also provides mentoring, community-building, and educational and career development activities to prepare participants for academic success in college and facilitates participation in their institutions' honors programs by preparing students to excel in their junior and senior years.The goal of the program is to increase the number of students that go on to pursue a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. degree and subsequent research career in biomedical engineering.Students in the program have recounted their experiences and described how support from program mentors and other peer participants has led them to overcome challenges while successfully completing their undergraduate studies.
NIBIB has also increased its ongoing investment in developing equitable technologies and promoting diversity in the research workforce through newly launched centers and programs.In January 2023, NIBIB launched the intramural Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology Acceleration (BETA Center), a multi-institute NIH resource that accelerates the development, validation, and dissemination of high-impact biomedical technologies to address urgent national and global health needs.During its short tenure, the Center has engaged 74 affiliate investigators from 15 NIH institutes.The BETA Center is also creating and supporting new education and training opportunities at NIH for biomedical imaging and bioengineering students and fellows at all levels.The BETA Center Director, who is also the NIBIB Associate Director for DEIA, is helping to recruit diverse biomedical engineering talent to NIH using evidence-driven approaches to expand DEIA across the NIH intramural research programs.The Center will emphasize technologies for health disparities research and workforce training.
To strengthen the biomedical engineering workforce, NIBIB launched the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) Biomedical Engineering, Imaging, and Technology Acceleration (BEITA) initiative.The HBCU BEITA initiative will establish and strengthen programs in technology development at HBCUs.In addition to enhancing the U.S.
bioengineering and imaging research capacity, this program will enrich the technology workforce by preparing students at HBCUs for careers in biomedical engineering and imaging.

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NIBIB-8 IC Fact Sheet NIBIB is committed to supporting and disseminating solutions that will a chieve our mission to transform, through technology development, our understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment.

NIBIB Partnerships
The successes achieved during the pandemic have led NIBIB to leverage lessons learned and rethink its approach to technology development to address critical, unmet health care needs.The RADx Tech infrastructure is being utilized to build new programs that accelerate technology development, validation, and deployment -a "RADx-ification" process to engage partners in urgently needed areas such as neurological disorders and maternal health.NIBIB is committed to supporting and disseminating solutions that will achieve our mission to transform, through technology development, our understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment.

DEIA at NIBIB
Technology development is an inherently inclusive and interdisciplinary field that requires diverse approaches, perspectives, and ideas to be successful.NIBIB is strongly committed to increasing and supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) at NIBIB and throughout the biomedical research community by supporting and optimizing its programs.
Since 2019, NIBIB's summer intern research experience program has hosted about 14 interns.This year in a planned expansion there were 22 interns, about a 57 percent increase over previous years.Multi-coil array that makes up a head-only scanner for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).The new design will make MRI more compact and portable.

Early Career Researchers
The first wireless, cable-free wearable device with printed electronic circuits that monitor cardiovascular signals and multiple biochemical levels at the same time.
Authorizing Ultra-fast imaging to study brain function While advancements have been made, there is much to learn about how the human brain functions in health and disease.Brain imaging systems have been limited as research tools by their inability to produce high-resolution images that can measure real-time changes in the brain.NIBIB-supported researchers are developing a new photoacoustic imaging system that can NIBIB-19 visualize functional and molecular changes in the brain that result from major brain disorders (such as stroke) while the changes are happening.
The researchers developed ultrafast functional photoacoustic microscopy (UFF-PAM) to image blood vessel function in real time across an entire mouse brain.In a mouse model of stroke, UFF-PAM detected an unexpected narrowing of blood vessels originating from the area of the stroke and spreading across the brain. 2Researchers observed that this caused a clear reduction in oxygen to the brain beyond where the stroke initiated.In a clinical setting, this imaging technique could be further developed to indicate the extent of potential damage from a stroke to better inform treatment.In a separate study, UFF-PAM showed a surge in oxygen around the placenta in the presence of alcohol.This is a significant finding because the placenta normally works to keep the oxygen concentration low as a fetus develops.This result suggests that fetal abnormalities could be due to a toxic increase in oxygen in response to alcohol.

UFF-PAM image of whole brain blood oxygenation in mice under normal conditions (normoxia) on the top and dramatically reduced oxygen (hypoxia) on the bottom. Credit: Zhu, X., et al. Light Sci Appl 11, 138 (2022).
Ultrasound delivers oxygen to tumors to make treatment more effective Unlike most tissues and cells in our bodies, tumors can grow under low-oxygen (hypoxic) conditions and become more resistant to cancer treatments like radiation.One type of cancer that is especially hypoxic and resistant to radiation therapy is head and neck cancer.NIBIBfunded researchers led a study that used ultrasound plus tiny bubbles to deliver oxygen and a cancer drug that inhibits cancer growth (lonidamine) specifically at the tumor site.Researchers cast ultrasound waves directly at the tumor, causing the bubbles to burst and release oxygen and the cancer drug.Mice given oxygen, radiation, lonidamine, and metformin (which enhances radiation treatment) had a higher probability of survival compared with mice that received less than the full treatment regimen. 3Ongoing efforts are focused on optimizing radiation and drug doses to achieve the best results.

REMARKABLE ADVANCES IN DIAGNOSTIC ULTRASOUND TECHNOLOGIES
NIBIB-funded researchers have been making great strides in advancing ultrasound technologies.Diagnostic ultrasound is a non-invasive technique that can produce images of internal organs or structures by using sound waves and their resulting echoes to image tissues inside the body.One common and well-known use of diagnostic ultrasound is during pregnancy to monitor the development of a fetus.
In the past two years, NIBIB has made significant advances in a new use of ultrasound: a wearable, non-invasive ultrasound patch that can monitor chronic illness or detect early warning signals of disease.Most patches in development have a major limitation -they require cables to power the device and transmit the ultrasound data, physically tethering the wearer to a control system.A team of NIBIB-funded researchers has developed a fully wireless ultrasound patch that can continuously track critical vital signals such as heart rate and blood pressure.The ultrasound system is composed of a probe, a circuit, and a battery.As the current system was designed with a focus on cardiovascular health, the ultrasound probe was typically placed on the carotid artery in this study.In combination with AI methods, the patch could track the pulsations of the carotid artery with high accuracy, allowing measurements of blood pressure and cardiac output.This ultrasound advance, which could allow the remote monitoring of critical physiological functions in the comfort of a patient's home, has the potential to revolutionize health care.
Another group is pairing cutting-edge ultrasound techniques with AI to diagnose thyroid cancer.Traditional ultrasound does not always differentiate between cancerous and benign thyroid tumors, leading to unnecessary thyroid biopsies and causing significant financial and physical burden to patients.The new method-named high-definition microvasculature imaging, or HDMI-noninvasively captures images of the tiny vessels within tumors and, based on the vessel features, automatically classifies the masses as cancerous or not.Researchers imaged tumors with HDMI and measured a dozen features related to the size and shape of the microvasculature in the images, including their density and number of branching points.The researchers used the HDMI data and biopsy data from the tumors to develop an AI algorithm that was accurate 89 percent of the time when compared to clinical assessments of biopsies.The findings indicate that HDMI could be a stronger diagnostic approach than conventional ultrasound imaging and could save patients from unneeded biopsy surgery in the future.
Researchers will continue to develop AI methods to improve accuracy.
NIBIB-funded researchers are also developing new MRI contrast agents that are activated in hypoxic environments.The new imaging agent uses europium, a rare-earth metal, which generates a bright MRI signal in these lowoxygen areas.However, europium is inactivated when exposed to oxygen as it travels through the bloodstream to reach the hypoxic tissue or tumor, thereby preventing an MRI signal from being detected.To keep the contrast agent in its active state, the researchers engineered a chemical cage to protect the europium as it travels throughout the body.In a mouse study, the contrast agent survived after several minutes in an oxygen-rich environment and provided a persistent MRI signal. 5Future studies will involve more extensive testing in mouse disease models before translation to clinical use in humans.

Division of Discovery Science and Technology (DDST)
Building on decades of basic research, devices and biological processes can now be engineered to directly regulate human physiology and monitor biological functions.DDST develops broadly applicable biomedical technologies to enable new paradigms of human health.The division also works to help researchers break down translational barriers between the bench and bedside so that technologies are well-positioned for dissemination when ready.Key investment areas for NIBIB include bionics, medical devices, robotics, synthetic biology, and biomaterials.Highlights of research supported in this area include: Engineering live DNA sensors for pathogen detection NIBIB supports synthetic biology engineers that are designing bacteria that detect fragments of DNA from infectious pathogens.Pathogen DNA is likely to be present before symptom onset, and early detection could lead to higher rates of treatment success, especially in fast-moving, deadly diseases like sepsis.The team of engineers harnessed the natural ability of Bacillus subtilis to capture DNA from its surroundings.In this study, a series of genes was integrated into the bacterium's genome that included the target pathogen DNA that researchers wanted to detect.The engineered DNA sensor was able to detect many human bacterial pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. 6The researchers will continue to develop this low-cost, flexible approach to detect the presence of harmful bacteria and viruses in clinical samples and in the gut.
Bacterial DNA sensors contain genetic programs that direct them to detect specific organisms such as human pathogens in biological or environmental samples.Credit: Venturelli laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

New skin cell function could improve healing from burns
For wounds to heal, the body needs to remove damaged tissue and replace it with new, healthy tissue.Imbalances in the removal and rebuilding process result in poor healing.Previously, it was thought that immune cells removed damaged tissue while fibroblast cells rebuilt tissue.Using a miniature skin tissue model that did not contain any immune cells, NIBIB-funded researchers simulated common skin injuries, including a burn and a cut. 7Because damageremoving immune cells were excluded from their model, they expected that both types of injury would start closing immediately.However, the burn was seen to widen over the course of many hours, while the cut began to close within minutes.Further studies showed that the fibroblast cells were clearing damaged burn tissues through a process known as phagocytosis.This surprising discovery suggests new approaches to developing targeted therapies that can speed healing from burns.

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Tumor-specific drug delivery with nanozymes While some NIBIB-funded research centers on identifying new targets for future treatments, other studies focus on improving current therapies.Chemotherapy can be an effective cancer treatment, but it kills normal cells along with tumor cells, so doses must be limited to avoid severe side effects.One strategy is to deliver inactive forms of chemotherapeutic drugs throughout the body that can be activated at the target tumor site.This method could substantially reduce side effects while exposing the tumor to higher, more effective drug doses.Nanozymes are artificial enzymes, nanometers in size, that carry out a pre-determined chemical reaction.NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a nanozyme that can turn a prodrug form of a common chemotherapeutic drug, fluorouracil, into its active form.By injecting the nanozyme into breast tumors in mice, they activated the drug specifically within the tumors, shrinking them just as effectively as standard fluorouracil chemotherapy treatments but with less damage to the liver. 8Further work will focus on translating this approach to the clinic in hopes of increasing the effectiveness and tolerability of chemotherapy treatment.
Air pressure within the two channels of the robotic catheter tip determines whether it deflects left or right.Credit: Noah Barnes, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Minimally invasive surgery with a novel soft robotic system Many minimally invasive surgeries, like the insertion of a catheter, require surgeons to maneuver tools throughout the complex anatomy of the body.It is often difficult for a surgeon to control the position of a tool inside the body.The design of an effective soft robotic system could give surgeons more control and lead to better patient outcomes.A group of bioengineers designed and evaluated a preliminary robotic system that controlled a steerable catheter tip.In simulated tests, the robotic system allowed both a novice and skilled surgeon to place the catheter tip at the desired location with sub-millimeter accuracy within 10 seconds. 9The system will continue to be adapted to improve the ease and accuracy of other minimally invasive surgeries.
Budget policy: The FY 2025 President's Budget request for the DDST is $123.1 million, a decrease of $3.3 million or 2.6 percent compared with the FY 2023 Final level.

Division of Health Informatics Technologies (DHIT)
Advancements in health informatics, sensor technologies, and POC technologies -from medical image processing to at-home telehealth programs -are transforming health care delivery and management.DHIT invests in the development of technologies that process and evaluate complex biomedical information for health care solutions that are practical and patient-centered.Applications include clinical decision-making support systems, in-home treatment monitoring, medical image improvement, next-generation intelligent image and data analysis tools, and

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help monitor patients after surgery
Following the millions of in-patient surgeries that are performed in U.S. hospitals each year, health care workers must determine whether patients need to be in the intensive care unit (ICU) or can recover in a non-ICU room.In the ICU, trained staff continuously monitor patients, consuming an immense number of resources that results in costs that are two to five times more expensive than non-ICU stays. 10Prior research has shown that some patients do not have a better outcome in the ICU and that a non-ICU room would have been sufficient during their recovery.Unfortunately, there is no objective standard to identify the patients who would benefit from recovery in the ICU.Using AI, NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a decision-support platform to help monitor patients after surgery and to help determine whether they would benefit from monitoring in the ICU.The study found that of the 4,669 post-surgery ICU admissions, about 237 (5.1 percent) ICU admissions were unnecessary, overall care was not improved by admittance to the ICU, and their hospital stay was significantly more expensive.Among the 8,594 non-ICU admissions, 1,029 (12.0 percent) would have had less expensive hospital stays overall if their recovery had been managed in the ICU. 11Further testing of this AI decision-support system has the potential to identify the most appropriate care for each patient after surgery, reduce health care costs, and make the best use of hospital resources.

Enabling patients to produce high-quality medical images at home
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals were faced with dangerous overcrowding.This led NIBIB-funded researchers to determine if some patients could potentially be monitored at home by obtaining their own diagnostic ultrasound scans.In the study, images acquired by ultrasound experts were compared with those taken by unexperienced adult volunteers.Thirty volunteers with no previous experience operating an ultrasound were provided with a portable device and a visual tutorial.In their homes, participants scanned eight different zones across their chest and sides to obtain images of their lungs.Experts then produced the same eight images from the participants in a hospital.Independent experts scored the diagnostic quality of all images without knowing who took the scans.Assessing the scores of both novice-and expert-acquired images, the researchers found NIBIB-24 no significant differences. 12These findings suggest that portable ultrasound devices, developed for use in emergency settings, could potentially be used by patients in their homes to allow remote monitoring of their condition, avoid unnecessary hospital visits, and reduce health care costs.

Home
FY 2025 President's Budget is $441,944,000.Note: In addition to the base budget, NIBIB received supplemental and intradepartmental delegation of authority funds of $658 million in FY 2020, $651 million in FY 2021, $640 million in FY 2022, and $0 million in FY 2023.
NIBIB's unique Trailblazer R21 program awards are geared toward early-career investigators that are pursuing a broad range of biomedical research.Underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply to the program.The program exemplifies NIBIB's commitment to fostering the growth and diversity of the bioengineering workforce.A signature element of the grant application is the lack of a requirement to include preliminary data that demonstrates project feasibility, which is often needed for other NIH grant mechanisms.Successes include: ~41 grants funded on average FY 2019-2023 ~ 87 percent funded grants (FY 2018-2020) resulted in peer-review publication ~ 64 percent funded trailblazer PIs (FY 2018-2020) received subsequent NIH funding Enhancing Science, Technology, EngineEring, and Math Educational Diversity (ESTEEMED) NIBIB undergraduate research education program that provides mentoring, community-building, educational, and career development activities and hands-on research experience to students.• 259 students engaged total • 95 active students enrolled in undergraduate programs • 15 institutions • 2 Historically black colleges and universities • 3 Hispanic-serving institutions NIBIB-Supported Technologies Biomedical Engineering and Technology Acceleration (BETA) Center A multi-institute NIH resource that accelerates the development, validation, and dissemination of highimpact biomedical technologies to address urgent national and global health needs • Established January 2023 • 74 affiliate investigators from 15 NIH institutes • Recruited and funded 16 students in NIH training programs (undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, and graduate levels) • Experts and resources that span the spectrum of bioimaging and bioengineering fields RADx® Tech continues to speed commercialization of innovative point-ofcare and more accessible home-based tests for nationwide COVID-19 testing.
Study participants scanned themselves with ultrasound at home as part of a study aimed at uncovering whether patients could produce high-quality diagnostic images outside of the clinic.Credit: Duggan et al.Brigham and Women's Hospital10 Loftus, Tyler J MD et al.Overtriage, Undertriage, and Value of Care after Major Surgery: An Automated, Explainable Deep Learning-Enabled Classification System.Journal of the American College of Surgeons 236(2):p 279-291, February 2023.| DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000000471 11Loftus, Tyler J MD et al.Overtriage, Undertriage, and Value of Care after Major Surgery: An Automated, Explainable Deep Learning-Enabled Classification System.Journal of the American College of Surgeons 236(2):p 279-291, February 2023.| DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000000471

Division of Applied Science and Technology (DAST)
Legislation: Section 301 and Title IV of the Public Health Service Act, as amended.Biomedical imaging technologies are powerful tools that reveal fine details of anatomy to help clinicians and scientists understand human biology and disease.Advancements in these technologies can range from guiding surgery or delivery of a treatment to a portable, personalized medical imaging device for use in emergency or resource-limited settings.DAST supports a broad range of focus areas that span the basic and clinical research spectrum with the common goal of developing technologies that are more accessible, cost effective, and improve human health.Examples of advancements from investments by DAST include: Overall Budget Policy: The FY 2025 President's Budget request for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is $441.9 million, an increase of $1.3 million or 0.3 percent compared with the FY 2023 Final level.Program Descriptions and AccomplishmentsTo fulfill its mission, NIBIB spreads its investment in research and training across its extramural and intramural research programs.Key research areas drive the design, development, and dissemination of innovative technologies to improve human health.Core investment areas for NIBIB include biomedical imaging technologies, engineered biological systems, sensors and point-of-care (POC) devices, therapeutic systems and technologies, data science, modeling, and computation, and training a diverse biomedical workforce.
NIBIB supports the development of non-invasive imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to enable earlier disease detection and more successful subsequent treatments.Current MRI technologies are partially limited by contrast agents, which are compounds that are given to the patient prior to imaging that enhance the visibility of target tissues.NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a new MRI contrast agent that specifically detects collagen accumulation in fibrotic liver tissue, a signature feature of liver fibrosis.Liver 2 Zhu X, et al.Real-time whole-brain imaging of hemodynamics and oxygenation at micro-vessel resolution with ultrafast wide-field photoacoustic microscopy.Light Sci Appl.2022 May 17;11(1):138.doi: 10.1038/s41377-022-00836-2.PMID: 35577780 3 Quezia Lacerda et al.Improved Tumor Control Following Radiosensitization with Ultrasound-Sensitive Oxygen Microbubbles and Tumor Mitochondrial Respiration Inhibitors in a Preclinical Model of Head and Neck Cancer.Pharmaceutics (2023).DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15041302.
Support in this area has led to exciting advancements that bring imaging, diagnosis, and treatment to a patient's home and to low-resource settings.These include:

Test to Treat -a pilot telehealth program brings COVID-19 tests and treatments to patients' homes
NIBIB, in collaboration with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), launched a unique, entirely virtual community health intervention program.The nationwide Home Test to Treat program provides at-home rapid COVID-19 and flu tests, telehealth sessions, and lifesaving treatments to underserved populations.Participants receive free tests and treatments without ever leaving home.The program promotes equitable health care approaches and helps to identify best practices that may save lives in future pandemics.The research team will identify and implement improvements that leave public health authorities in a much better position to respond to future emergencies at the local, state, and federal levels.Findings from this program will also inform the broader implementation of telemedicine as a lower-cost approach to routine health care in the future.

driven approach aims to improve health research in Africa
NIBIB plays a leadership role in the NIH Common Fund's Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) program that is building a technology research consortium across the continent.The program aims to develop and use data-driven medical technologies to lessen the disproportionate global disease burden that Africa carries.NIBIB manages the Data Coordinating Center in Cape Town, South Africa, which supports all seven research centers and seven training hubs.The Data Coordinating Center facilitates collaboration among research centers and provides access to health care data and analytical tools.The training hubs focus on instructing students how to apply data science concepts to medicine and public health and the related legal, ethical, and social issues associated with data science approaches.NIBIB will continue expanding this program through new partnerships and pilot projects.Budget policy: The FY 2025 President's Budget request for the DHIT is $41.1 million, a decrease of $1.1 million or 2.6 percent compared with the FY 2023 Final level.Division of Interdisciplinary Training (DIDT)Challenging health care problems continuously increases the demand for advancement in biomedical technologies, which will require a skilled and diverse workforce.DIDT supports research training to develop the next generation of interdisciplinary bioimagers and bioengineers.NIBIB supports training programs from undergraduate education to early career investigators with advanced degrees.Through its signature programs, DIDT works to bring specialized experiences and mentorship to college students to build enthusiasm for bioengineering and bioimaging careers.Several undergraduate-level programs that underscore NIBIB's commitment to workforce diversity and development are highlighted below: