Albert William
Research Associate
- Phone
- 317-278-9204
- Office
- 535 W. Michigan St.
IT 460
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3103
Web
http://informatics.iupui.edu/research/imaging/
Education
M.S. Media Arts and Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN (2002)
B.S. Biology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH (1984)
Introduction
Albert William is a Research Associate in the New Media Program. He specializes in three dimensional design and animation of scientific and medical content and is currently teaching N400, Digital Imaging Seminar.
Biography
Albert William received the 2003 Silicon Graphics Inc. Award for excellence in computational sciences and visualization at Indiana University. Prior to accepting an academic position, Albert worked for the past 12 years at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Albert has been involved in numerous projects in the School of Informatics. He created “The Cell- A Virtual Tour”, an interactive multimedia CD/ROM designed to be used as a learning aid in cellular biology. This presentation utilized state of the art 3D animation and interactive content to deliver complex subject matter in a user friendly environment.
Albert was involved in creating music and images for the Chichen Itza and Uxmal
virtual tours as part of the School of Informatics CLIOH projects. He also created
“Genomics,” an informative 3D animation for use in the I.U. School
of Medicine and INGEN initiative. His animation “The Neuron” can
be viewed as part of the Indiana State Museum’s “Tomorrow’s
Indiana” exhibit.
Research Interests
Medical and scientific visualization, 3D graphics and animation, Stereoscopic rendering, interactive learning tools.
Research Statement
A major function of laboratory research is to convey findings and statistics to peers and students. As a longtime medical laboratory researcher, I often felt that complex biological and scientific concepts were often difficult to learn due to a lack of communication and understanding. Many times the content was accurate but the graphical element was not, or the graphics looked very nice but lacked in content. Because few artists are knowledgeable in science, and scientists also don’t have the artistic skills or time, it is hard for scientists to convey their message in a graphically pleasing manner. My goal has been to bridge the gap between the scientist and artist and to generate images and content that are able to convey complex scientific concepts. By using state of the art 3D graphics and interactive software, it is possible to develop learning modules designed for scientists and students to maximize their learning potential.
We are now able to take these visually appealing images and produce a program that enables these images to be seen in stereo. By using 3D computer graphics software such as Alias/Wavefront’s Maya, we can create a virtual camera that renders separate images for each eye. Utilizing VisBox technology in the Visualization and Interactive Space Lab, it is possible to play back these images in a sequence and view a high definition stereo image. We can also import 3D models into the VisBox to interactively explore them. It is a long term goal to make these images accessible to other students and researchers around the world.
While many of the structures and functions that are studied in science are too complex or unknown to be graphically represented accurately, most are able to be rendered to a level of understanding that allows these concepts to be studied. Many great advances in the past few years have allowed researchers the ability to determine actual structures of complex biological components such as proteins. These data sets can be incorporated into 3D graphic software and extrapolated into structures that allow us to examine these complex structures further in a realistic simulation. It also permits us to investigate the possible theoretical models of abnormalities associated with disease.
Publications
- Piccardo P, Unverzagt F, William A, Takao M, Glazier B, Dlouhy S, DeCarli C, Farlow MR, Ghetti B. Pathologic prion protein is present in the brain of asymptomatic carriers of PRNP mutations associated with Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 23:131, 2002.
- Piccardo P, Unverzagt FW, William A, Takao M, Glazier BS, Dlouhy S, DeCarli C, Farlow MR, Ghetti B. In Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease, Prion Protein (PrP) accumulates prior to the onset of clinical symptoms. 7th European Congress of Neuropathology, 13-16 July 2002, Helsinki, Finland.
- Piccardo P, Unverzagt F, William A, Takao M, Dlouhy S, Farlow MR, Ghetti B. Pathologic prion protein in an asymptomatic carrier of a PRNP mutation. Meeting of the Italian Association of Neuropathology, May 2002
- Piccardo P, Liepnieks JJ, William A, Dlouhy SR, Farlow MR, Young K, Nochlin D, Bird TD, Nixon RR, Ball MJ, DeCarli C, Bugiani O, Tagliavini F, Benson MD, Ghetti B. Prion proteins with different conformations accumulate in Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease caused by A117V and F198S mutations. American J Pathology 158:2201-2207, 2001 (Refereed).
- P.Piccardo, A.William, S.R. Dlouhy, M. Takao, B. Ghetti. Two nonglycosylated prion protein (PrP) isoforms coexist within the same microregion in the brain of some individuals with sporadic Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 60: 549, 2001. Refereed.
- Piccardo P, Liepnieks JJ, William A, Dlouhy SR, Bugiani O, Tagliavini F, Benson M, Ghetti B. PrP conformational isomers are present in the variants A117V and F198S of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease. Brain Pathology 10: 671, 2000.
- Piccardo P, Liepnieks JJ, William A, Dlouhy SR, Bugiani O, Tagliavini F, Benson MD, Ghetti B. Determination of the amino-terminal cleavage site of PrPres in GSS F198S. Neurobiology of Aging 21: 268, 2000.
- Piccardo P, Liepnieks JJ, William A, Dlouhy SR, Farlow MR, Nochlin D, Bird TD, Nixon RR, DeCarli C, Bugiani O, Tagliavini F, Benson M, Ghetti B. Primary structure of PrPres in GSS A117V and F198S. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 59: 432, 2000. Refereed.
- Piccardo P, Dlouhy SR, Young K, William A, Feng Y, Quinn B, Dal Canto M, Sufit R, Ghetti B. Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) with prion protein gene (PRNP) V210I mutation. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 58:550, 1999. Refereed.
- Piccardo P, William A, Young K, Bugiano O, Tagliavini F, Dlouhy SR, Ghetti B. Human prion diseases. II Latinamerican Symposium on Biomedical Sciences. Oaxtepec, Mexico. November 22-26, 1998.
- Piccardo P, Young K, William A, Kish Sj, Ang LC, Bugiani O, Tagliavini F, Dlouhy SR, Ghetti B. Physicochemical properties of prion protein (PrP) in Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease(GSS) Q212P. Society for Neuroscience abstract 578.2, 1998.
