Advanced Radiological Imaging and Instrumentation Lab

Dr. Elena M. Zannoni is an assistant professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, as core faculty of the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program and with courtesy appointment in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at the Dell Medical School.

Dr. Zannoni’s research focuses on the development of nuclear medicine imaging instrumentation and data analysis techniques for advanced applications in radiological science and molecular imaging. Since the beginning of her doctoral career, she has been involved in several NIH-funded multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaborations for the development of state-of-art imaging systems for clinical and preclinical applications. At the University of Texas at Austin, she directs the Advanced Radiological Imaging and Instrumentation Lab (ARIIL).

Dr. Zannoni received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021, and her M.Sc. degree (2015) with honors in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pisa (Italy). Dr. Zannoni’s contribution has been recognized by several awards to young investigators, including the first place in the IEEE NPSS Christopher J. Thompson Student Paper Award at the 2017 IEEE Medical Imaging Conference, the first place in the Physics, Instrumentation and Data Science Council (PIDSC) Young Investigation Award at the 2021 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Annual Meeting, the 2022 IEEE NPSS Edward J. Hoffman Early Career Development Grant, and the 2022 Rising Stars in EECS.  Recently, Dr. Zannoni has been recognized with the prestigious 2024 SNMMI Tracy Lynn Faber Memorial Award “for her contributions in advancing SPECT technology based on semiconductor detectors and new collimator designs”. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the SNMMI PIDSC, and of the Council of Early Career Investigators in Imaging (CECI²) of the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research.

Recent Publications

• Y. Jin, E.M. Zannoni, L.-J. (2024) Meng. Experimental Evaluation of Maximum-Likelihood-Based Data Preconditioning for DE-SPECT: A Clinical SPECT System Constructed with CZT Imaging Detectors.  Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, doi https://doi.org/10.1109/TRPMS.2024.3520668
• E.M. Zannoni, S. Poopalasingam, Y. Jin, C. Liu, A.J. Sinusas, S.D. Metzler, L.J. Meng. (2024) Design and Development of the DE-SPECT System: A Clinical SPECT System for Broadband Multi-Isotope Imaging of Peripheral Vascular Diseases. Physics in Medicine & Biology, doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ad5266
• S. Mandot, E. M. Zannoni, L. Cai, X. Nie, P. La Riviere, L.J. Meng. (2024) A High-Sensitivity Benchtop X-Ray Fluorescence Emission Tomography (XFET) System with a Full Ring of X-ray Imaging-Spectrometers and a Compound-Eye Collimation Aperture. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 1782-1791, Jan 2024, doi: 10.1109/TMI.2023.3348791.
• C. Yang, E. M. Zannoni, and L.-J. Meng. (2023) Joint estimation of interaction position and energy deposition in semiconductor SPECT imaging sensors using fully connected neural network, Physics in Medicine & Biology. vol. 68, no. 9, p. 095009, 2023/04/19, doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/aca740
• E. M. Zannoni, C. Yang and L. -J. Meng. (2021) Design Study of an Ultrahigh Resolution Brain SPECT System Using a Synthetic Compound-Eye Camera Design with Micro-Slit and Micro-Ring Apertures, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. vol. 40, no. 12, pp. 3711-3727, Dec 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TMI.2021.3096920 .
• E.M. Zannoni, M.D. Wilson, K. Bolz, M. Goede, F. Lauba, D. Schöne, J. Zhang, M. Verhoeven & L.-J. Meng. (2020). Development of a multi-detector readout circuitry for ultrahigh energy resolution single-photon imaging applications. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 981, p. 164531, 2020/11/21, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164531 .
• X. Lai, E.M. Zannoni, J. George, & L.-J. Meng (2020). System modeling and evaluation of a prototype inverted-compound eye gamma camera for the second-generation MR compatible SPECT. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. vol. 954, p. 162046, 2020/02/21, doi:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2019.04.001