Dear IEEE Member

You are invited to attend the following free invited talk organized by Auckland Bioengineering Institute (NZ) and the IEEE NZ North Section EMB Chapter.

Presenters: Associate Professor Jon Erickson and Jamie Hayes from Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA, USA)

Title: Recording and signal processing of gastrointestinal bioelectrical activities

Date: Monday 8 August 2016

Time: 12:10 pm (refreshment and networking start at 11:50 am)  to 1:00 pm

Venue: WS101, AUT University Wellesley Campus, 34 St Paul Street, Auckland CBD

Contact: Dr Peng Du (peng.du@auckland.ac.nz) or A/Professor Hamid GholamHosseini (hgholamh@aut.ac.nz) for more details

Abstract:

The motility of the gastrointestinal system is controlled by bioelectrical events, also known as slow waves. Disruptions in these slow waves have been linked to various digestive ailments. Most current research in slow wave propagation have been done by performing bioelectrical recordings directly from the surface of the stomach, i.e., the serosa, under general anesthesia and using expensive amplifiers.

 The principle of electrogastrography (EGG) is similar to that of the electrocardiography (ECG), in that cutaneous electrodes are used to record slow wave data rather than relying on invasive methods of recording. Utilizing an off-the-shelf amplifier chip, efforts are currently underway to develop EGG technology to allow for more practical means of GI slow wave data acquisition, which would eventually replace the need for invasive serosal recordings. The system under development would cost a fraction of the price of similar amplifiers making this technology readily available and feasible for use as a common diagnostic tool by physicians.

We will also highlight previously developed automated algorithm processing pipeline for analyzing slow wave propagation from high-resolution GI bioelectrical recordings: common artifact removal, optimal filtering, identification of slow wave events, and partitioning them into individual wavefronts.  These algorithms have made possible the efficient analysis of multi-electrode recordings, and have helped reveal new physiological insights into (ab)normal functions of the GI system.

Biography:

Jon Erickson is an Associate Professor of Physics-Engineering at Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA, USA).  He is currently on a research sabbatical at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute with gastrointestinal electrophysiology group, led by A/Prof Leo Cheng. Jon obtained his PhD in Bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral researcher in the Living State Physics group at Vanderbilt University.  He is interested in a wide range of interdisciplinary problems, and has developed a suite of computer-automated algorithms to visualize and analyze very large data sets resulting from high-resolution gastrointestinal bioelectrical recordings.

 Jamie Hayes is a rising senior from Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA, USA) perusing a BSc in Physics-Engineering and a BSc in Mathematics. Over the past two years he has undertaken undergraduate electrical and bioengineering research under the supervision of A/Prof Jon Erickson, in which he helped to develop a wirelessly transmitting system potentially capable of producing bioelectrical recordings of the stomach - a technology which he is currently working to further develop this summer at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (NZ). Additionally, he aided in the study analysis of intestinal ischemia induced in porcine model and will be presenting his work at the 2016 EMBC in Orlando, FL, USA.

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Dr Samad Kolahi, IEEE NZ North