Callan Luetkemeyer
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Title: Mechanics as a microscope: A vision for pathology-specific, deformation-based diagnostic imaging
Abstract: Abnormal tissue microarchitecture, or extracellular matrix (ECM), is a early hallmark of many health conditions. Yet, the role of the ECM in health and disease is still poorly understood, mainly due to a lack of tools to detect it in vivo. Standard microscopy methods require biopsies, which cannot provide a complete picture of ECM spatiotemporal heterogeneity. In contrast, non-invasive imaging techniques (e.g., MRI and ultrasound) lack the necessary spatial resolution (~mm). Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), however, uses MRI and mechanical vibrations to obtain sub-voxel deformation resolution (~100 nm), presenting a largely untapped opportunity to harness ECM-sensitive, microscale mechanical signatures deep within the body. My laboratory is developing micro-MRE, a new MRE analysis framework to go beyond the typical estimates of tissue stiffness and enable assessment of the specific microstructural origins of tissue elasticity. To illustrate how micro-MRE could be tuned for a specific tissue and pathology, its potential application to neurodegeneration will be discussed, as well as our early work on infertility related to endometrial dysfunction.
Bio: Callan Luetkemeyer received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2020 following a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Saint Louis University. From 2020 to 2022, she was a Schmidt Science Fellow, based at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2023, she joined the faculty at UIUC, where she teaches courses on solid mechanics and conducts research combining nonlinear solid mechanics, imaging, and ECM biology. In 2024, she was included in the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students.”