Professor Alejandro F. Frangi

Professor of Biomedical Image Computing

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
UK

Telephone: +44(0)114 2220153

Email : a.frangi@sheffield.ac.uk

Personal home page: http://www.cistib.org/afrangi/

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Profile

Alejandro (Alex) Frangi was born in La Plata, Argentina. In 1991 he moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona) in 1996. He subsequently carried out research on electrical impedance tomography for image reconstruction and noise characterization at the same institution under a CIRIT grant.

In 1997 he obtained a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to pursue his PhD at the Image Sciences Institute of the University Medical Center Utrecht on model-based cardiovascular image analysis. During this period he was visiting researcher at the Imperial College London, UK, and Philips Medical Systems BV, The Netherlands.

Prof. Frangi is Professor of Biomedical Image Computing at the University of Sheffield (USFD), UK. As of September 2012, he is on unpaid license as Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and ICREA-Academia Researcher. He currently leads the Center for Computational Imaging & Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine, a joint lab between USFD and UPF in collaboration with Professor Vicent Caselles (UPF). CISTIB is part of INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, a joint initiative between USFD and the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust to realise the scientific ambition behind the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH), producing a transformational impact on healthcare. His main research interests are in medical image computing, medical imaging and image-based computational physiology.

Prof. Frangi has been principal investigator or scientific coordinator for over 20 national and European projects, both funded by public and private bodies. During 1/2006-3/2010 he was coordinator of the @neurIST, a 12.6M€ European Integrated Project and during 1/2006-12/2009 he was scientific co-PI for the Spanish CENIT Technology Platform CDTEAM funded with €15.7m by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through CDTI.

He was involved in the euHeart and the VPH-Share Integrated Projects, the MySpine Small & Targeted Research Project, and the Virtual Physiological Human Network of Excellence and was Scientific Coordinator of the CENIT Technology Platform cvREMOD funded with €13.6m by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through CDTI. His lab is also a member of the Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Center for Networked Biomedical Research funded by the Spanish Ministry of Health (Instituto de Salud Carlos III). He is currently Coordinator of the VPH-DARE@IT (2013-2017) Integrated Project, aiming at multiscale and multiparadigm personalised modelling of the brain with applications in developing early and accurate differential diagnosis of dementias.

Prof. Frangi has edited a book, published 5 editorial articles and over 90 journal papers in key international journals of his research field, as well as more than 120 book chapters and international conference papers. He has twice been Guest Editor of special issues of IEEE Trans on Medical Imaging, one on IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, and one of Medical Image Analysis journal.

He was chair of the 3rd International Conference on Functional Imaging and Modelling of the Heart (FIMH05) held in Barcelona in June 2005, Publications Chair of the IEEE International Symposium in Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2006), Programme Committee Member of various editions of the Intl. Conf. on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Interventions (MICCAI) (Brisbane, AU, 2007; Beijing CN, 2010; Toronto CA 2011; Nice FR 2012), International Liaison of ISBI 2009, Tutorials Co-Chair of MICCAI 2010, and Program Co-chair of MICCAI 2015. He was also General Chair for ISBI 2012 held in Barcelona.

He is Senior Member of IEEE and Associate Editor of IEEE Trans on Medical Imaging, Medical Image Analysis, the Intl Journal for Computational Vision and Biomechanics and Recent Patents in Biomedical Engineering journals. Prof. Frangi was foreign member of the Review College of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, 2006-10) in the UK, is a recipient of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Early Career Award in 2006, the Prizes for Knowledge Transfer (2008) in the Information and Communication Technologies domain and of Teaching Excellence (2008, 2010) by the Social Council of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. In 2009, he was awarded one of the 40 ICREA-Academia Prizes across all disciplines of science by the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) in 2009.

Research Interests

• Biomedical image analysis, image segmentation and non-rigid registration
• Image-based bone biomechanics
• Image-based computational vascular hemodynamics
• Image-based computational cardiac electro mechanics and electrophysiology
• Minimally invasive image-based interventional planning and guidance

Grants Over £100,000

Discipulus (FP7-ICT-5.2-288143): Digitally Integrated Scientific Data for Patients and Populations in User-Specific Simulations. European Commission, CSA, October 2011 to March 2012. Participants: University College London (UK), Empirica Gesellschaft Fuer Kommunikations - Und Technologieforschun gmbh (DE), Instituto Ortopedico Rizzoli (IT), The University of Sheffield (UK), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES), Funding UPF: 1.6 M€, Principal Investigator: Alejandro Frangi.

VPH-Share (FP7-ICT-2010-6-269978): Virtual Physiological Human - Structured Human Physiological Research Environment. European Commission, Integrated Project, March 2011 to February 2015. Participants: University of Sheffield (UK) Akademia Gorniczo-Hutnicza (PL), Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UK), ATOS ORIGIN (ES), The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford (UK), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UK), Empirica Gesellschaft fuer Kommunikations und Technologieforschung (DE), SCS (IT), NHS Information Centre (UK), Institut National De Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (FR), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli (IT), The Open University (UK), Philips Electronics Nederland (NL), Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (NL), University of Auckland (NZ), Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL), University College London (UK), Universitaet Wien (AU), Agencia D'Avaluacio de Tecnologia i Recerca Mediques (ES), IBM Israel – Science and Technology Ltd (IL) and Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica (ES) Funding UPF: 1.066k€, Principal Investigator: Alejandro Frangi.

MySpine (FP7‐ICT‐2009‐6-269909): Functional prognosis simulation of patient-specific spinal treatment for clinical use, European Commission, STREP, March 2011 to February 2014. Participants: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (ES), Eindhoven University of Technology (NL), Vienna University of Technology (AU), University of Technology of Compiegne (FR), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES), CETIR Grup Mèdic (ES) and the National Center for Spinal Disorders (Buda Health Center) (HU), Funding UPF: 512k€, Principal Investigator: Alejandro Frangi.

RICORDO (ICT-2009-248502): Researching Interoperability using Core Reference Datasets and Ontologies for the Virtual Physiological Human, European Commission, STREP, Feb 2009 to Jan 2013. Participants: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EU), The University of Auckland (NZ), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES), University of Washington, Medicar Research Coucil, Danish Technical University (DK), The University of Cambridge (UK) and Herriot-Watt University, Funding UPF: 154.8k€, Principal Investigator.

MSV (ICT-2009-248032): Multiscale Spatiotemporal Visualisation: development of an open-source software library for the interactive visualisation of multiscale biomedical data, European Commission, STREP, Feb 2009 to Jan 2013, Participants: B3C Srl. (IT), University of Bedforshire (UK), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES), The University of Auckland (NZ), Kitware Inc (USA). Funding UPF 200k€, Principal investigator.

euHeart (IST-2007-224495): Personalised & Integrated Cardiac Care: Patient-specific Cardiovascular Modelling and Simulation for In Silico Disease Understanding & Management and for Medical Device Evaluation & Optimization, European Commission, Integrated Project, June 2008 to June 2012. 17 European organizations led by Philips Research. Funding: 13.9M€. UPF budget 1.64M€. UPF Principal Investigator. www.euheart.eu

VPH-NOE (IST-2007-223920): Virtual Physiological Human, European Commission, Network of Excellence, June 2008 to December 2012. 12 European organizations led by University College London. Funding: 8M€. UPF budget 0.9M€. UPF Principal Investigator. www.vph-noe.eu

Selected Publications

Full list of publications indexed on PubMed

• Relationship between endocardial activation sequences defined by high density mapping to early septal contraction (septal flash) in patients with left bundle branch block undergoing cardiac resynchronisation therapy,
  Duckett, S. G., Camara, O., Ginks, M., Bostock, Chinchapatnam, P., Sermesant, M., Pashaei, A., Carr-White, G., Frangi, A. F., Razavi, R., Bijnens, B. H. & Rinaldi, C. A. (2012),
  EP Europace, 14(1), pp. 99-106.


• Cardiac motion estimation by joint alignment of tagged MRI sequences,
  Oubel, E., De Craene, M., Hero, A. O., Pourmorteza, A., Huguet, M., Avegliano, G., Bijnens, B. H. & Frangi, A. F. (2012),
  Medical Image Analysis, 16(1), pp. 339-350


• Reconstructing the 3D shape and bone mineral density distribution of the proximal femur from dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry,
  Whitmarsh, T., Humbert, L., De Craene, M., Del-Rio-Barquero, L. M. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 30(12), pp. 2101-14.


• How do coil configuration and packing density influence intra-aneurysmal hemodynamics?
  Morales, H., Kim, M., Vivas, E., Villa-Uriol, M-C., Larrabide, I., Sola, T., Guimaraens, L. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  American Journal of Neuroradiology, 32(10), pp. 1935-41.


• Construction of a computational anatomical model of the peripheral cardiac conduction system, 
  Sebastian, R., Zimmerman, V., Romero, D. & Frangi. A. F. (2011),
  IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 58(12) pp. 3479-82.


• Biomechanical wall properties of human intracranial aneurysms resected following surgical clipping (IRRAs Project),
  Costalat, V., Sanchez, M., Ambard, D., Thines, L., Lonjon, N., Nicoud, F., Brunel, H., Lejeune, J. P., Dufour, H., Bouillot, P., Lhaldky, J. P., Kouri, K., Segnarbieux, F., Maurage, C. A., Lobotesis, K., Villa-Uriol, M. C., Zhang, C., Frangi. A. F., Mercier, G., Bonafe, A., Sarry, L. & Jourdan, F. (2011),
  Journal of Biomechanics, 44(15), pp. 2685-91.


• Inter-model consistency and complementarity: Learning from ex-vivo imaging and electrophysiological data towards an integrated understanding of cardiac physiology,
  Camara, O., Sermesant, M., Lamata, P., Wang, L., Pop, M., Relan, J., De Craene, M., Delingette, H., Liu, H., Niederer, S., Pashaei, A., Plank, G., Romero, D., Sebastian, R., Wong, K. C. L., Zhang, H., Ayache, N., Frangi, A. F., Shi, P., Smith, N. & Wright, G. A. (2011),
  Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 107(1), pp. 122-33.


• OpenCMISS: A multi-physics and multi-scale computational infrastructure for the VPH/Physiome project,
  Bradley, C., Bowery, A., Britten, R., Budelmann, V., Camara, O., Christie, R., Cookson, A., Frangi, A. F., Babaremda Gamage, T., Heidlauf, T., Krittian, S., Ladd, D., Little, C., Mithraratne, K. Nash, M., Nickerson, D., Nielsen, P., Nordbø, Ø., Omholt, S., Pashaei, A., Paterson, D., Rajagopal, V., Reeve, A., Röhrle, O., Safaei, S., Sebastian, R., Steghöfer, M., Wu, T., Yu, T., Zhang, H. & Hunter, P. J. (2011),
  Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 107(1), pp. 32-47.


• Automatic aneurysm neck detection using surface voronoi diagrams,
  Cardenes, R., Pozo, J. M., Bogunovic, H., Larrabide, I. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 30(10), pp. 1863-76.


• Fast multi-scale modelling of the heart electrophysiology by coupling the Purkinje system and myocardial tissue,
  Pashaei, A., Romero, D., Sebastian, R., Camara, O. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 58(10), pp. 2956-60.


• Automated regional wall motion abnormality detection by combining rest and stress cardiac MRI: Correlation with contrast-enhanced MRI,
  Suinesiaputra, A., Frangi, A. F., Kaandorp, T. A. M., Lamb, H. J., Bax., J. J., Reiber, J. H. C. & Lelieveldt, (2011),
  Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 34(2), pp. 270-8.


• Three-dimensional morphological analysis of intracranial aneurysms:  A fully automated method for aneurysm sac isolation and quantification,
  Larrabide, I., Villa-Uriol, M-C., Cardenes, R., Pozo, J. M., Macho, J. M., San Roman, L., Blasco, J., Vivas, E., Marzo, A., Hose, D. R. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  Journal of Medical Physics, 38(5), pp. 2439-2449.


• Patient specific computational hemodynamics of intracranial aneurysms from 3DRA and CTA: An in vivo reproducibility study,
  Geers, A. J., Villa, M. C., Kim, M. S., Larrabide, I. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  American Journal of Neuroradiology, 32(3), pp. 581-6.


• A spatiotemporal statistical atlas of motion for the quantification of abnormalities in myocardial tissue velocities,
  Duchateau, N., Decraene, M., Piella, G., Silva, E., Doltra, A., Sitges, M., Bijnens, B. H. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  Medical Image Analysis, 15(3), pp. 316-328.


• Automated segmentation of cerebral vasculature with aneurysms in 3DRA and TOF-MRA using geodesic active regions: an evaluation survey, 
  Bogunovic, H., Pozo, J. M., Villa-Uriol, M-C., Majoie, C. B. L. M., van den Berg, R., Gratama van Andel, H. A. F., Macho, J. M., Blasco, J., San Roman, L. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  Journal of Medical Physics, 38(1), pp. 210-22.


• Dynamic estimation of three-dimensional cerebrovascular deformation from rotational angiography,
  Zhang, C., Villa-Uriol, M-C., De Craene, M., Pozo, J. M., Macho, J. M. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  Journal of Medical Physics, 38(3), pp. 1294-1306.


• Computational haemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms: The effects of modelled versus measured boundary conditions,
  Marzo, A., Singh, P., Larrabide, I., Radaelli, A. G., Coley, S., Gwilliam, M., Wilkinson, I. D., Lawford, P., Reymond, P., Patel, U., Frangi, A. F. & Hose, D. R. (2011),
  Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 39(2), pp. 884-96.


• Efficient 3D geometric and zernicke moments computation from unstructured surface meshes,
  Pozo, J. M., Villa-Uriol, M-C. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 33(3), pp. 3471-484.


• Realistic simulation on cardiac magnetic resonance studies modelling anatomical variability, trabeculae and papillary muscle,
  Tobon-Gomez, C., Sukno, F. M., Bijnens, B. J., Huguet, M. & Frangi, A. F. (2011),
  Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 65(1), pp. 280-8.


• Wall motion estimation in intracranial aneurysms,
  Oubel, E., Cebral, J. R., De Craene, M., Blanc, R., Blasco, J., Macho, J. M., Putnam, C. M. & Frangi, A. F (2010),
  Journal of Physiological Measurement, 65(1), pp. 280-8.


• Estimation of viscoelastic properties of vessel walls using a computational model and doppler ultrasound,
  Balocco, S., Basset, O., Courbebaisse, G., Boni, E., Frangi, A. F., Tortoli, P. & Cachard, C. (2010),
  Physics in Medicine and Biology, 55(12), pp. 3557-75.


• Sharing and reusing cardiovascular anatomical models over the web: A step towards the implementation of the virtual physiological human project,
  Gianni, D., McKeever, S., Yu., T., Britten, R., Delingette, H., Frangi, A. F., Hunter, P. J. & Smith, N. (2010),
  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, 368, pp. 3039-3056.


• Toward integrated management of cerebral aneurysms,
  Villa-Uriol, M. C., Larrabide, I., Pozo, J. M., Kim, M., Camara, O., De Craene, M., Zhang, C., Geers, A. J., Morales, H., Bogunovic, H., Cardenes, R. & Frangi, A. F. (2010)
  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, 368, pp. 2961-2982.


• A vision and strategy for the virtual physiological human in 2010 and beyond,
  Hunter, P. J., Coveney, P. V., de Bono, B., Diaz, V., Fenner, J., Frangi, A. F., Harris, P., Hose, R. D., Kohl, P., Lawford, P., McCormack, K., Mendes, M., Omholt, S., Quarteroni, A., Skår, J., Tegner, J., Thomas, S. R., Tollis, I., Tsamardinos, I., van Beek, J. H. G. M. & Viceconti, M. (2010),
  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, 368, pp. 2961-2982.


• Feasibility of estimating regional mechanical properties of cerebral aneurysms in vivo,
  Balocco, S., Camara, O., Vivas, E., Sola, T., Guimaraens, L., Gratama van Adel, H., Majoie, C. B., Pozo, J. M., Bijnens, B. H. & Frangi, A. F. (2010),
  Journal of Medical Physics, 37(4), pp. 306-313.


• Effects of smoking and hypertension on wall shear stress and oscillatory shear index at the site of intracranial cerebral aneurysm formation,
  Singh, P. K., Marzo, A., Howard, B., Rufenacht, D. A., Bijlenga, P., Frangi, A. F., Lawford. P. V., Coley, S.C., Hose, D. R. & Patel, U. J. (2010),
  Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, 112(4), pp. 306-313.


• Effects of the Purkinje system and cardiac geometry on biventricular pacing: A model study,
  Romero, D. A., Sebastian, R., Bijnens, B. H., Zimmerman, V. B., Boyle, P. M., Vigmond, E. J. & Frangi, A. F. (2010),
  Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 38(4), pp. 1388-98.


• Active shape modles for pose-variant image analysis of quasi-planar objects: Application to facial analysis,
  Sukno, F. M., Guerrero, J. & Frangi, A. F. (2010),
  Pattern Recognition, 43(3), pp. 835-849.