Electrical and Computer Engineering assistant professor Muyinatu Bell received an NIH R00 grant for her project entitled “Coherence-Based Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Transsphenoidal Surgeries”. This work is motivated by the clinical challenges surrounding the removal of pituitary tumors using the minimally invasive endonasal transsphenoidal approach, which incurs the deadly risk of causing injury to the internal carotid arteries. The project proposes to eliminate this risk by developing a sophisticated photoacoustic imaging system that visualizes blood vessels located behind bone in real-time during the surgical procedure. This photoacoustic imaging system will be equipped with novel coherence-based beamformers and specialized light delivery systems developed in the PULSE Lab.