Junichi Tokuda is a research scientist at the Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. As a computer scientist by training, he has been contributing to the biomedical research field by developing novel computational, robotic, and imaging technologies that assist in diagnosis and treatment and testing them clinically.
He is particularly interested in technologies to support image-guided “closed-loop” interventions, where images are used for planning a procedure, guiding tools, and monitoring and confirming treatment effects to provide safe and effective diagnosis and treatment. Those technologies include software platforms for image-guided and robot-assisted interventions, MRI-compatible manipulators that enable accurate needle placement in internal organs for biopsies and minimally-invasive ablation treatments, and new intraprocedural MR imaging technique to monitor ablations.
Throughout his career in the field, he has been working closely with clinicians, technologists, and nurses in hospitals. The regular conversations with his clinical collaborators and the proximity to patient care allowed him to discover unmet needs and adopt new technologies to the clinical practice. He has been playing major roles in many clinical trials and published in scientific journals.
He is currently an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. As a Principal Investigator, he is leading several research projects which are funded by the National Institutes of Health and other sources. Before he joined the BWH/HMS community in 2007, he received undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and obtained a B.S. in Engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. in Information and Science and Technology.
Affiliation
- Surgical Planning Laboratory
- Ferenc Jolesz National Center for Image Guided Therapy
- Surgical Navigation and Robotics Laboratory