Hi! I’m Andy LaBella, a former Ph.D. student and current postdoc in Amir’s lab. I discovered my passion for medical physics and imaging after taking a Bioimaging course during my sophomore year of my undergrad. I have a passion for all aspects of medical physics, including research on imaging devices and clinical applications of new imaging technologies. My goal is to develop novel, clinically viable imaging techniques geared towards highly prevalent diseases and clinical questions. My research is focused on developing new detector technologies for medical imaging with a focus on nuclear medicine, as well as machine learning methods to improve imaging capabilities on the hardware level.
I received my bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and Physics from Stony Brook University in 2016 before pursuing my M.S. (2018) and Ph.D. (2020) in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in medical physics at Stony Brook. My thesis work was related to the development of Prism-PET, a high-resolution depth-encoding PET detector module for cost-effective high sensitivity and high-resolution PET. In addition to developing Prism-PET itself, I have formulated several machine learning methods to improve data readout with Prism-PET, including using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to improve its depth of interaction (DOI) resolution and to achieve 36-to-1 signal multiplexing for data-efficient readout. In my free time, I enjoy reading, performing/listening to music, playing sports, and exercising.