Pioneering minimally invasive precision diagnosis and therapy with clinical applications

Prof. Hongen Liao is a Chair Professor and Dean of the School of Biomedical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, recognized as a National Distinguished Professor in China. He received his B.S. degree in mechanics and engineering sciences from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 1996, and the M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical precision engineering from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 2000 and 2003, respectively. He was a Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). From 2004, he became a faculty member at the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007. During the summer of 2006, he was a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Medical School. He has been selected as a National Distinguished Professor in China since 2010. Since 2011, he has been a Full Professor at the School of Medicine and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, China. He served as a member of the Tsinghua University Tenure Committee, Vice Dean of the School of Medicine, Academic Leader and Deputy Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. In 2023, he became a Chair Professor and Dean of the School of Biomedical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

As a pioneer in minimally invasive precision diagnosis and therapy, he has revolutionized 3D medical imaging and surgical navigation by resolving the persistent "hand-eye discoordination problem" in clinical practice. His groundbreaking innovations include the world’s first autostereoscopic display device with an image depth of over five meters and the spatial see-through surgical navigation. He authored or co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed articles and proceedings papers, including publication in IEEE Transactions, Nature Photonics, Theranostics, Soft Robotics, Medical Image Analysis, as well as 90 international invited lectures, over 80 patents and 360 conference abstracts. He has been awarded more than 30 major scientific research grants abroad as the Principal Investigator, as well as more than 10 collaborative projects (Co PI, Investigator). His research is well funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and National Key Research and Development Program of China.

Dr. Liao was distinguished by receiving the Government Award [The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan]. He has also been honored with more than ten awards, including the ERICSSON Young Scientist Award, the IFMBE Young Investigators Awards presented by the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and the 6th Asian-Pacific Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering, the FUNAI Information Science Award and several Best Paper Awards from various academic societies. In 2017, he was awarded the "Huang Jiasi Biomedical Engineering Award", the highest science and technology award in the field of Biomedical Engineering in China. In 2019, he was appointed as a Chief Science Communication Expert by the Chinese Association for Science and Technology. In 2021, he received the “SID Beijing Chapter Outstanding Contribution Award”.

He is Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering, Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, and Editorial Board Member of several international journals. He has served as Associate Editor of International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (Since 2008), the Organization Chair of Medical Imaging and Augmented Reality Conference (MIAR) 2008, the Program Chair of the Asian Conference on Computer-Aided Surgery (ACCAS) 2008 and 2009, the Tutorial co-chair of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention Conference (MICCAI) 2009, the Publicity Chair of MICCAI 2010, the General Chair of MIAR 2010 and ACCAS 2012, the Workshop Chair of MICCAI 2013, and the General Co-chair of MIAR 2016, ACCAS 2018. Program Chair of International Conference on Display Technology (ICDT) 2019 and IWH 2023. He has served as a President of Asian Society for Computer Aided Surgery and Co-chair of Asian-Pacific Activities Working Group, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE).

Innovative techniques and applications of precision minimally invasive theranostics

Prof. Hongen Liao focuses on the interdisciplinary field of real three-dimensional (3D) image processing and medical visualization with domestic and international research career of more than twenty years, pioneered a frontier research area of intuitive spatial 3D image-guide precision minimally invasive diagnosis and therapy. He has achieved scientifically significant and applied results in the field of scientific exploration, key technologies and "academia-research-industry" transformation in the field of minimally invasive treatment, 3D autostereoscopic display, and integrated diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for intelligent medicine. The research integrates the interdisciplinary fields of informatics, optics and medicine, and provides original ideas on how to improve the cognitive ability, judgment and execution of doctors in complex and precision operations by optimizing the effectiveness of 3D vision, and achieves breakthroughs in many fundamental principles and major scientific problems, and actively explores future real 3D imaging and display technologies, which is at the forefront of scientific research in this field.

1. Real 3D medical imaging and the new theory of long-distance 3D display

Prof. Liao's team is one of the first teams in the world to realize naked-eye 3D display with full true color, no visual fatigue, and real-time interaction. Dr. Liao focused on the field of autostereoscopic 3D imaging and medical autostereoscopic display for more than twenty years, pioneered a frontier research area of intuitive spatial 3D image-guide precision minimally invasive diagnosis and therapy. He has developed the first super-long viewing distance display system with an image depth of more than six meters visible to the naked eye, achieving the longest autostereoscopic display in the world.

2. Minimally invasive surgical navigation using 3D image overlay and artificial intelligence

Prof. Liao has achieved a high-precision, dynamic, interactive, precise and intuitive 3D image overlay navigation system for minimally invasive surgery. This innovative technology obtains the spatial structure of the surgical targets from outside the body, effectively overcoming the "eye-hand coordination" challenges faced by surgeons and providing a new "eye" for the observer. By integrating AI-powered 3D image analysis and real-time intraoperative guidance, the system enables millimeter-level automated recognition of anatomical landmarks and lesion boundaries, enhancing surgical accuracy.

3. Development and application of the integrated diagnostic and therapeutic system for intelligent medicine

Professor Liao has successfully transformed the concept of intelligent precision diagnosis and therapy into research and clinical application. He has developed novel medical robotic systems to enhance the performance of surgical instruments in terms of flexibility, controllability, multi-functionality, and automation level. His innovative spatial three-dimensional fusion navigation device and integrated intelligent diagnostic and therapeutic system have undergone clinical trials in various medical institutions such as Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, The University of Tokyo Hospital, etc. It has shown advantages over existing commercial systems in the diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgery, orthopedics, and complex hepatobiliary lesions, and has contributed to the promotion of the development of domestic high-end medical equipment.

1. L. Zhang, G. Ning, H. Liang, B. Han and H. Liao*: One-shot neuroanatomy segmentation through online data augmentation and confidence aware pseudo label. Medical Image Analysis, Vol.95, 103182, 2024.
2. X. Lu, Z. Cui, Y. Sun, H. Khor, A. Sun, L. Ma, F. Chen, S. Gao, Y. Tian, F. Zhou, Y. Lv* and H. Liao*: Better Rough than Scarce: Proximal Femur Fracture Segmentation with Rough Annotations, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 43, No.9, pp.3240-3252, 2024.
3. J. Wang, C. Hu, G. Ning, L. Ma, X. Zhang, and H. Liao*: A Novel Miniature Spring-Based Continuum Manipulator for Minimally Invasive Surgery: Design and Evaluation, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol.28, No. 5, pp. 2716-2727, 2023.
4. H. G. Khor, G. Ning, Y. Sun, X. Lu, X. Zhang, and H. Liao*: Anatomically Constrained and Attention-Guided Deep Feature Fusion for Joint Segmentation and Deformable Medical Image Registration, Medical Image Analysis, Vol.88, 102811, 2023.
5. J. Zhang#, D. Sun#, Z. Luo, A. Yao, H. Chen, L. Zhou, T. Shen, Y. Chen, L. Quan, and H. Liao*: OANet: Learning Two-View Correspondences and Geometry Using Order-Aware Network, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol.44, No.6, pp. 3110-3122, 2022.
6. B. Zhang, J. Chen, X. Ma, Y. Wu, X. Zhang, H. Liao*: Pneumatic System Capable of Supplying Programmable Pressure States for Soft Robots, Soft robotics, ol.9, No.5, pp.1001-1013, 2022.
7. G. Ning, X. Zhang, Q. Zhang, Z. Wang and H. Liao*: Real-time and multimodality image-guided intelligent HIFU therapy for uterine fibroid, Theranostics, Vol. 10, No. 10, pp. 4676-4693, 2020. (Front Cover Article)
8. C. Ma, G. Chen, X. Zhang, G. Ning, H. Liao*: Moving-Tolerant Augmented Reality Surgical Navigation System Using Autostereoscopic Three-Dimensional Image Overlay, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Vol. 23, No. 6, pp. 2483-2493, 2019. (Cover Article)
9. B. Zhang, F. Ying, P. Yang, T. Cao, and H. Liao*: Worm-like Soft Robot for Complicated Tubular Environments, Soft Robotics, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 399-413, 2019.
10. Y. Fan#, Y. Sun#, W. Chang, X. Zhang, J. Tang, L. Zhang*, H. Liao*: Bioluminescence imaging and two-photon microscopy guided laser ablation of GBM decreases tumor burden, Theranostics, Vol. 8, No. 15, pp.4072-4085, 2018. (Front Cover Article)
11. F. Chen, J. Liu, and H. Liao*: 3D Catheter Shape Determination for Endovascular Navigation using a Two-step Particle Filter and Ultrasound Scanning, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 36, No.3, pp.685-695, 2017.
12. X. Zhang, G. Chen, and H. Liao*: High Quality See-Through Surgical Guidance System Using Enhanced 3D Autostereoscopic Augmented Reality, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 64, No. 8, pp.1815-1825, 2017.
13. H. Liao*: Super long viewing distance light homogeneous emitting three-dimensional display, Scientific Reports, Vol.5, 9532, 2015.
14. J. Wang, H. Suenaga, K. Hoshi, L. Yang, E. Kobayashi, I. Sakuma, and H. Liao*: Augmented Reality Navigation with Automatic Marker-Free Image Registration Using 3-D Image Overlay for Dental Surgery, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol.61, No.4, pp.1295-1303, 2014.
15. K. Nakagawa, A. Iwasaki, Y. Oishi, R. Horisaki, A. Tsukamoto, A. Nakamura, K. Hirosawa, H. Liao, T. Ushida, K. Goda*, F. Kannari, and I. Sakuma*: Sequentially timed all-optical mapping photography (STAMP), Nature Photonics, Vol.8, No.9, pp.695–700, 2014.
16. H. Liao*, M. Noguchi, T. Maruyama, Y. Muragaki, E. Kobayashi, H. Iseki, I. Sakuma: An Integrated Diagnosis and Therapeutic System using Intraoperative 5-Aminolevulinic-Acid-Induced Fluorescence Guided Robotic Laser Ablation for Precision Neurosurgery, Medical Image Analysis, Vol.16, No. 3, pp.754-766, 2012.
17. H. Liao*, T. Inomata, I. Sakuma, and T. Dohi: Three-dimensional Augmented Reality for MRI-guided Surgery using Integral Videography Autostereoscopic-image Overlay, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol.57, No.6, pp.1476-1486, 2010. (Cover Article)
18. H. Liao*, M. Iwahara, Y. Katayama, N. Hata, T. Dohi: Three-dimensional display with a long viewing distance by use of Integral Photography, Optics Letter, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 613-615, March 2005.
19. H. Liao*, N. Hata, S. Nakajima, M. Iwahara, I. Sakuma, T. Dohi: Surgical Navigation by Autostereoscopic Image Overlay of Integral Videography, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 114-121, 2004.
20. H. Liao*, M. Iwahara, N. Hata, T. Dohi: High-quality integral videography using a multiprojector, Optics Express, Vol. 12 No. 6, pp. 1067-1076, 2004.