Dr. Michael Miller of the Institute for Computational Medicine was recently highlighted in the summer issue of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering’s magazine. The article by David Glenn showcases Dr. Miller for his research in the new field of computational anatomy.

“For the last two decades, the problem that has obsessed Miller is how to mathematically analyze the three-dimensional space of human anatomy. Much as Noam Chomsky and his colleagues at MIT sketched a universal framework for human grammar, Miller would like to create the simplest possible equations and statistical models that can describe human anatomy in all its variety and multitude. That quest has led him into collaborations with a huge range of scholars, including theoretical mathematicians, imaging engineers, radiologists, cardiologists, and neuroscientists.

At this early stage of his center’s development, Miller’s computers generally can’t tell doctors anything that they don’t already know. Enlargement of the left ventricle is associated with heart failure? Old news. A thinning of the brain’s white-matter tracts is a sign of dementia? Been there, done that. But after his team has digested many thousands of images, Miller hopes that the computers will begin to discover subtle anatomical markers and patterns that had previously gone unnoticed by scientists. And that, in turn, could lead to much earlier diagnostic tests for certain diseases-and even point the way toward new treatments.”