Skip to main content

2025 Investiture Information

Petr Brůža

Assistant Professor of Engineering

Research Interests

Optics in medicine, biomedical imaging to guide cancer therapy; dose imaging in radiation therapy; Cherenkov light imaging

Education

  • Bc, Czech Technical University 2008
  • MSc, Czech Technical University 2010
  • PhD, Biomedical Physics, Czech Technical University 2014

Awards

  • Best in Physics‘ Imaging Award for "3D Cherenkov Sheet Molecular Imaging provides 100 micron whole body spatial resolution," American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Annual Meeting, 2017.

Research Projects

  • Exploring the role of oxygen in ultra high dose rate radiotherapy

    Exploring the role of oxygen in ultra high dose rate radiotherapy

    Ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) radiotherapy (RT) is an emerging cancer treatment that delivers high-energy beams (>40 Gy/s) to target tumors. Unlike conventional radiotherapy, which can damage healthy tissue, UHDR RT has been shown to spare normal tissue while maintaining tumor-killing effectiveness—a phenomenon known as the FLASH effect. The underlying mechanisms of this effect remain unclear. Our research focuses on investigating the role of oxygen in the FLASH effect using optical methods to measure tissue oxygen levels in real time during treatment.

Selected Publications

  • BW Pogue, J Feng, EP LaRochelle, P Brůža, H Lin, R Zhang, JR Shell, et al. Maps of in vivo oxygen pressure with submillimetre resolution and nanomolar sensitivity enabled by Cherenkov-excited luminescence scanned imaging. Nature Biomedical Engineering 2(4), 254, 2018.
  • T Gorkhover, A Ulmer, K Ferguson, M Bucher, F Maia, J Bielecki, T Ekeberg, MF Hantke, BJ Daurer, C Nettelblad, J Andreasson, A Barty, P Brůža, et al. Femtosecond X-ray Fourier holography imaging of free-flying nanoparticles. Nature Photonics 12(3), 150, 2018.
  • JD Koralek, JB Kim, P Brůža, CB Curry, Z Chen, HA Bechtel, AA Cordones, P Sperling, S Toleikis, JF Kern, SP Moeller, SH Glenzer, DP DePonte. Generation and characterization of ultrathin free-flowing liquid sheets. Nature Communications 9(1), 1353, 2018.
  • P Brůža, SL Gollub, JM Andreozzi, II Tendler, BB Williams, LA Jarvis et al. Time-gated scintillator imaging for real-time optical surface dosimetry in total skin electron therapy. Physics in Medicine and Biology 63(9):095009, 2018.
  • JM Andreozzi, KE Mooney, P Brůža, A Curcuru, DJ Gladstone, BW Pogue, O Green. Remote Cherenkov Imaging Based Quality Assurance of a Magnetic Resonance Image Guided Radiotherapy System. Medical Physics, 2018.
  • P Brůža, JM Andreozzi, DJ Gladstone, LA Jarvis, J Rottmann, BW Pogue. Online Combination of EPID & Cherenkov Imaging for 3-D Dosimetry in a Liquid Phantom. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 36(10), 2099-2103, 2017.
  • P Brůža, H Lin, SA Vinogradov, LA Jarvis, DJ Gladstone, BW Pogue. Light sheet luminescence imaging with Cherenkov excitation in thick scattering media. Optics Letters 41(13), 2986-2989, 2016.
  • P Brůža, D Pánek, M Vrbová, V Fidler, C Rose-Petruck. Spatial frequency heterodyne imaging in the soft x-ray water window. Applied Physics Letters 104(25), 254101, 2014.
  • P Brůža, V Fidler, M Nikl. Table-top instrumentation for time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy of solids excited by nanosecond pulse of soft X-ray source and/or UV laser. Journal of Instrumentation 6(09), P09007, 2011.

Patents

  • Dosimetry systems for radiation treatment using radiation-detector-triggered cameras to image cherenkov emissions or thin-sheet scintillators | 11633627

Courses

  • ENGG 168: Biomedical Radiation Transport

Videos

Transforming the Future of Cancer Care with Optical Imaging (Seminar)

Research Quick Takes

Megan Clark

Jun 06, 2024

Best in Physics

PhD student Megan Clark Th'21 is first author on a submission named "Best in Physics" for the National American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Annual Meeting & Exhibition to be held in Los Angeles in July. The submission is titled "Anesthetic Concentration, Type, and Duration in Murine Model to Play an Essential Role in Tissue Oxygenation and Reproducibility of the Flash Effect." Coauthors include Arthur Pétusseau Th'23 and professors David Gladstone, Brian Pogue, Petr Brůža, and Jack Hoopes.

Professor Petr Brůža in his lab

Sep 21, 2023

Prouty Pilot Research Projects

Dartmouth's Center for Imaging Medicine received two $60,000 grants for Prouty Pilot Research Projects: (1) Professors Petr Brůža and David Gladstone, along with PhD student Roman Vasyltsiv and co-PI Lesley Jarvis from the Dept of Radiation Oncology, will analyze Cherenkov light emissions to identify response variations between normal and abnormal tissue; and (2) researcher Arthur Petusseau Th'23 will work with Brůža and co-PI Shane Chapman from the Dept of Dermatology on an advanced imaging system for the early detection of malignant skin lesions, and for guided surgical resection of non-melanoma skin cancer.