Angelos Karlas

Angelos Karlas is a dual-qualified Medical Doctor and Electrical and Computer Engineer at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), holding advanced degrees including MD, Dipl-Ing (MEng), MSc, MRes, DIC, and Dr. rer. nat. His primary institutional affiliations span three critical research hubs: the Chair of Biological Imaging (HMGU) under Prof. Ntziachristos, the Chair of Informatics Applications in Medicine under Prof. Navab, and the Clinic and Polyclinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery under Prof. Branzan. This tripartite engagement underscores his interdisciplinary integration of engineering, computer science, and clinical medicine.

His educational background reflects exceptional versatility: medical training combined with rigorous engineering credentials (Dipl-Ing from Imperial College London equivalent), advanced computational degrees (MSc, MRes), and a natural sciences doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.). This foundation enables his cross-domain research bridging surgical practice, imaging physics, and AI development.

Karlas' research focuses on revolutionizing medical diagnostics through novel imaging-AI fusion. Core interests include:

• Optoacoustic tomography for vascular and metabolic disease quantification
• AI-driven ultrasound enhancement (anomaly detection, needle guidance, resolution improvement)
• Non-invasive diabetes and brown adipose tissue monitoring
• Surgical robotics with human-robot communication optimization
• Vascular surgery outcomes analysis and quality assurance

His work consistently targets clinical translation—transforming physics-based imaging into actionable diagnostic tools while addressing real-world constraints like instrument visibility and computational efficiency.

Analysis of his 50+ publications (2010-2025) reveals three dominant trajectories: (1) Imaging physics innovation (MSOT/ultrasound hardware and reconstruction), (2) AI-medical integration (diffusion models, GANs for medical image enhancement), and (3) Clinical vascular/diabetes applications. Recent work (2023-2025) increasingly emphasizes explainable AI and real-time surgical assistance, with strong German/EU clinical collaboration networks evident in multi-center studies.

His research operates at the intersection of TUM's Biological Imaging chair (developing optoacoustic technologies), Informatics Applications group (AI algorithm design), and Vascular Surgery clinic (clinical validation). This triad enables rapid prototyping—from physics simulations to bedside implementation—particularly evident in robotic ultrasound systems and metabolic imaging studies. Current projects focus on circadian heart failure monitoring, BAT activation diagnostics, and AI-enhanced vascular interventions.