2014 Distinguished Investigators
The Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research is pleased to announce that 46 researchers have been selected to receive the Academy’s 2014 Distinguished Investigator Award. This prestigious honor recognizes individuals for their accomplishments in the field of medical imaging. The award recipients are listed below.
Dr. Anderson has had a significant impact on cancer imaging through the development of novel imaging agents that target primary tumors and metastases. For example, she developed a copper-linked PET tracer that is highly specific for VLA-4, an up-regulated protein found in multiple cancers and in the tumor-associated macrophages that occupy the pre-metastatic niche. She also developed another tracer that targets an osteoclast integrin and has shown great promise for human imaging of multiple myeloma bone disease and bone metastases in breast cancer. Dr. Anderson also developed a bifunctional chelator for copper-based radiopharmaceuticals that lays the foundation for improved targeted-therapy.
Dr. Bredella has made important scientific contributions on the effects of different fat depots on bone using novel functional imaging techniques. Her research has changed the paradigm that obesity is protective against bone loss. She has demonstrated that visceral and ectopic fat (intrahepatic and intramyocellular lipids) and serum lipids are detrimental to bone. She furthermore has identified the growth hormone/IGF-1 axis as a mediator of bone loss in obesity. Her work on the effect of obesity on bone has resulted in a R01 grant, multiple publications, and has been featured in press conferences, newspaper, radio and television reports.
Dr. Carroll’s research focuses primarily on the evaluation of neurovascular disease using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). He researches the development of MRI to diagnose and evaluate diseases that affect the vasculature and the underlying physiology. Since arriving at Northwestern University, his focus has been primarily on neurovascular disease and stroke. However, given the systemic nature of vascular disease his work has a more broad appeal. Many of the conditions which precipitate neurovascular disease, such as atherosclerosis, have a common underpinning, so his work extends to cardiovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease.
Dr. Chenevert’s scientific focus has been refinement and translation of quantitative MRI techniques for oncologic applications. As orinator of the one-dimensional diffusion imaging method, a precursor to line-scan DWI, he demonstrated diffusion anisotropy in human white matter, free of motion artifact well before widespread availability of EPI. This allowed for original applications of diffusion imaging to measure cytotoxic therapeutic effects in preclinical models, and its translation to humans. He continues to play a leading role in design of multi-center trials utilizing diffusion as a quantitative treatment response biomarker.
Dr. Chung’s contributions are in musculoskeletal MRI. She applied ultrashort echo time (UTE) techniques allowing MR signal acquisition from joint tissues, including knee, temporomandibular joint, and spine, that were previously ‘invisible’. Specifically, her seminal work allowed MR characterization of the deepest layers of articular cartilage and calcified cartilage of the knee, disc and condyle of temporomandibular joint, and cartilaginous endplates of the spine. This enabled direct imaging of these tissues establishing quantititave MR values reflecting structure and material property. These projects are important foundations for future musculoskeletal MR research, defining biomarkers for objective, and sensitive early diagnosis of joint diseases
Dr. Damon is a leading investigator using advanced imaging methods to study muscle physiology and biomechanics and their changes in muscular disorders. He is a leader in the development and application of imaging for both fundamental and translational studies of muscle. He has pioneered the use of MR methods to study the metabolic and physiological effects of exercise, and has developed sophisticated biophysical models of muscle microstructure and physiology to interpret quantitative imaging measurements. Dr. Damon has made seminal contributions to our fundamental understanding of the changes in perfusion, metabolism, tissue composition, muscle fiber organization, tissue water compartmentation and other factors such as pH, that accompany both normal and diseased challenges to muscle.
Dr El Fakhri is an international leader in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging with seminal work in simultaneous quantitative dual isotope SPECT and PET for mapping neurotransmission and perfusion in PD, MSA, and prodromal AD. He pioneered absolute quantitation of myocardial blood flow using dynamic Rb PET, now available clinically. He also pioneered objective assessment of lesion detection and quantitation accuracy in oncologic and cardiac PET when the gold standard is unavailable. Dr. El Fakhri also developed the first in-room PET-CT to monitor proton therapy, and quantitative simultaneous whole body PET-MRI to compensate for cardiac and respiratory motion, use anatomical MR priors, and significantly improve detection of hepatic lesions.
Dr. Gazelle is the Founding Director of the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment and stepped down as Director in Spring of 2015. Dr. Gazelle directs the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Program in Cancer Outcomes Research Training. He is also Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Associate Vice-Chair for Research in the MGH Department of Radiology. Dr. Gazelle has been President of the Association of University Radiologists, the Radiology Research Alliance and the New England Roentgen Ray Society. He has also been Chair of the American College of Radiology Commission on Research and Technology Assessment, the RSNA Research Development Committee, Director of Partners Radiology and a member of the RSNA R&E Foundation Board of Trustees. Dr. Gazelle is nationally and internationally known for his research evaluating the benefits, costs, and appropriate use of new medical technologies. Locally, he has led efforts at Partners HealthCare System to improve quality and safety in radiology and to develop approaches that can be used to measure and document performance improvement. Dr. Gazelle has authored more than 250 scientific articles, published 3 textbooks and presented numerous papers, lectures, and workshops nationally and internationally.
Dr. Glover’s research interests encompass the physics and mathematics of imaging with Magnetic Resonance (MR). His research is directed in part towards exploration of rapid MRI scanning methods using spiral and other non-Cartesian k-space trajectories for dynamic imaging of function. Using spiral techniques, his lab has developed MRI pulse sequences and processing methods for mapping cortical brain function by imaging the metabolic response to various stimuli, with applications in the basic neurosciences as well as for clinical applications. These methods develop differential image contrast from hemodynamically driven increases in oxygen content in the vascular bed of activated cortex (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent, or BOLD contrast), using pulse sequences sensitive to the paramagnetic behavior of deoxyhemoglobin or to the blood flow changes. Other interests include multimodal imaging using fMRI in conjunction with EEG, fPET, fNIRS, and neuromodulation with tDCS, tACS, TMS and HiFU. Investigating viscoelasticity of human brain using MR Elastography is of interest as an alternative to BOLD contrast for depicting brain activation.
Dr. Grist is the Chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Dr. Grist has lectured extensively nationally and internationally. He has served as President of ISMRM, authored 3 books, 15 book chapters and more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, and his research has resulted in 16 patents. Dr. Grist is interested in the development and application of magnetic resonance imaging techniques for diagnoses and therapy of human disease, primarily for the evaluation of cardiovascular disorders.
Dr. Hargreaves is Professor of Radiology, with a research focus on body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He directs the Stanford Body MRI research group, which develops and implements new MRI techniques with the goal of improving patient care. His group’s contributions affect hundreds of patients each year at Stanford and in other imaging centers around the world. In addition to research, Dr. Hargreaves teaches two graduate level courses, and lectures in numerous other courses at Stanford. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, where he served as chair of the Web Editorial Board and on the Board of Trustees for 5 years, and Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
Dr. Harris is a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the 3D Imaging Service, the Radiology Computed Aided Diagnostics Laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Tumor Imaging Metrics Core Lab of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Harris has published over 100 scientific articles and book chapters, and has developed software and services that apply computer analyses of medical images to aid in diagnosis, treatment planning and clinical trials. Dr. Harris’ primary research interests include structural and functional brain imaging research in psychiatric and neurologic illnesses, including alcoholism and stroke, as well as quantitative tracking of tumors for clinical care and clinical trials. He holds a PhD in radiation health sciences from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and a BS in electrical engineering from Lafayette College.
Dr. Hetherington has significantly contributed to advancing the use of high field magnetic resonance for patients with neurological disorders. He was one of the first to show that MRSI at 4.1T could localize seizure foci in epilepsy patients. He, as well, identified the technical requirements and advantages of very high degree B0shimming to minimize static field inhomogeneity in the human brain at 7T, thereby vastly improving the quality of brain imaging. He was also the first to report that MRSI at 7T can be used to identify neuronal injury in MRI-negative veterans with memory impairment due to blast exposure.
Dr. Jadvar is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Radiology. He is also a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He is the past President and Fellow of both ACNM and SNMMI. He has written more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, published 4 books, 39 book chapters, 9 US and European patents, numerous conference abstracts and full articles, and has had more than 200 invited speaker presentations and visiting professorships at national and international venues. His research interests include applications of PET in clinical outcome research and in translational molecular imaging research and particular current interest in prostate cancer, theranostics and targeted radionuclide therapy.
Dr. Jensen received his PhD in physics from Princeton University. After several years at the New York University School of Medicine, he joined the faculty of MUSC in 2011. He is currently Professor of Neuroscience and Interim Director of the Center for Biomedical Imaging. His research focuses on applications of MRI to neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and stroke.
Elizabeth Krupinski, PhD, is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Emory, She is past chair of the SPIE Medical Imaging Conference, past president of the American Telemedicine Association, and past chair of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine. Dr. Krupinski is an experimental psychologist with research interests in medical image perception, observer performance, medical decision making, and human factors as they pertain to radiology and telemedicine.
Dr. Kundra is a Professor in the Department of Cancer Systems Imaging. Some of his contributions include demonstrating key signaling pathways used by platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) for chemotaxis (Nature, 1994). He created methods for imaging of gene expression using somatostatin-receptor-type 2-based reporters and demonstrated that a combination of functional and anatomic imaging can be used for quantifying such gene expression (Radiology, 2005). Dr. Kundra showed that the metastatic pattern can aide determining the site of the carcinoid primary (European Radiology, 2012). He has also showed that diffusion weighted imaging adds to the diagnostic capability of MR for prostate cancer.
Dr. Law is a radiologist whose focus is neuroradiology, a subspecialty of radiology that focuses on the diagnosis of abnormalities of the brain, spine, and head and neck using various imaging techniques. Dr. Law is currently practicing at three different locations in California, including the Keck Hospital of University of Southern California, USC Healthcare Center 2, and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital. Furthermore, he maintains several academic appointments, including Professor of Radiology, Neurology, Neurological Surgery at Keck School of Medicine) and Biomedical Engineering at Viterbi School of Engineering. Dr. Law is also the Director of Neuroradiology and program Director of the Neuroradiology Fellowship Program at USC, and Director of Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Core also at USC. He has chaired the Research American Society of Spine Radiology. Dr. Law has been actively involved in numerous societies including the RSNA, ISMRM, ARRS, ASNR, ASSR, ASFNR and the ENRS.
Dr. Lee’s expertise is in molecular imaging with a specialty in PET imaging with small molecule radio-tracers. He is also well-versed in quantitative analysis and can contribute to the processing of dynamically acquired PET image data for correlation with histological evaluation. Over the years, he has gained considerable experience in animal imaging using micro-scanners for small animal such as mice and rats, and clinical scanners for mid- and large size animals such as rabbits, woodchucks, canines, and pigs. Cancer imaging is the main research focus of his lab as they have been investigating the mechanisms of tracer uptake in tumors as well as evaluating the potentials for clinical utility of these tracers. Dr. Lee’s lab has also been developing novel reporter systems to study biology events associated with stem cell-based repair and regeneration in vivo.
Dr. Lewis is Vice Chair for Research, Chief of the Radiochemistry and Imaging Sciences Service, and Director of the Radiochemistry and Molecular Imaging Probe Core Facility. He heads a laboratory in the Sloan Kettering Institute’s molecular pharmacology program and is a professor at the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He has published more than 200 papers, books, book chapters, and reviews on cancer imaging, and also serves on grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute and a number editorial boards.
Dr. Mahmood has focuses on translational molecular imaging for the past 20 years across diverse diseases, including development of preclinical imaging methods for evaluation of molecular targets in cancer, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disease. He has placed an emphasis on clinically translatable techniques across PET, SPECT, MR and optical methods to help address early response assessment and in situ lesion characterization needs.
Dr. Maier’s work focuses on magnetic resonance diffusion imaging and its application in clinical diagnosis and research. He was one of the pioneers who observed that the diffusion-related signal decay in tissues deviates from a characteristic monoexponential decay observed in fluids. He was also the first to demonstrate that this deviation can be gainfully applied to differentiate tumor tissue from normal tissue. Moreover, Dr. Maier has been developing several MR diffusion imaging techniques, most notably line scan diffusion imaging. His most recent technique development reduces the distortions of single-shot echo planar diffusion images without sacrificing scan speed.
Dr. Mathis’ landmark discovery of the selective in vivo beta-amyloid positron emission tomography imaging agent, Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB), has transformed the approach to Alzheimer’s disease. PiB was shown to provide quantitative information on beta-amyloid deposits in humans. Dr. Mathis has subsequently done a multitude of additional studies to characterize beta-amyloid imaging, including one demonstrating an increased prevalence of deposition with age, even in the absence of symptoms. Currently, PiB has been used throughout the world and remains the gold standard for beta-amyloid imaging tracers.
Dr. Mattrey began his research career while still a resident. He received his first National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 Research Project Grant award in July 1983, after he discovered that perfluorocarbon emulsions served as effective ultrasound contrast agents. Since then, he has been continually funded, receiving 28 NIH grants as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI, including a National Cancer Institute Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08). In 2010, he received $2.6 million in research support through eight active awards, a rare accomplishment for a clinician-scientist in radiology. Dr. Mattrey’s research is focused on contrast media in general and molecular imaging in particular, with an emphasis on ultrasound solutions. Over the past 20 years, he has translated several agents from concept through preclinical validation to the clinic, including multicenter trials, with two receiving approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. MacDannold’s laboratory investigates therapeutic uses of ultrasound. Ultrasound, which can be focused deep into the body can be used for a wide range of therapies. Most of his work is centered on using it as a noninvasive tool for ablating tumors or for temporarily modifying vascular barriers to enhance the delivery of drugs. His lab is particularly interested in the brain, and has been working for years on using focused ultrasound and microbubbles to disrupt the blood-brain barrier. In addition to these basic works, Dr. MacDannold also has a strong interest in developing imaging methods to guide and monitor focused ultrasound therapies and is closely involved with tumor ablation clinical trials at BWH.
Dr. Meyerhoff is a Professor in Residence in the Department of Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is also Co-Director of the Treatment Research Center in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF. Dr. Meyerhoff completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Westphälische Wilhelms Universität in Münster, Germany, and he obtained his PhD in Chemistry at Westphälische Wilhelms Universität, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley Department of Chemistry. Dr. Meyerhoff’s research goal is to better understand the neurodegenerative processes associated with specific insults to the human brain and repair process after removal of these insults. At the VA, Dr. Meyerhoff studies insults exceedingly common in the brain of veterans with substance dependence (alcohol, cocaine, and nicotine), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gulf War Syndrome, and HIV infection. As senior scientist at the CIND, he primarily uses 1H MR to study mechanisms of neurodegenerative insults and recovery from them under special consideration of behavioral and cognitive correlations as well as genetic determinants. Dr. Meyerhoff serves as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator, and Co-Investigator on numerous NIH- and DoD-funded research projects. Dr. Meyerhoff has published more than 120 peer-reviewed research articles, has written and co-authored about 15 book chapters and presented more than 250 abstracts at national and international scientific meetings.
Dr. Molloi has introduced techniques for quantification of volume and blood flow using coronary angiography. These techniques represent the first in-vivo measurement of absolute volume and flow using angiography. They make available important diagnostic parameters for quantification of coronary artery disease. They have also introduced a solid theoretical foundation on the design of the coronary artery branches. They have established morphametric and hemodynamic relationships between vessel cross-sectional area, length, volume and blood flow, which are based on a detailed anatomical database, optimality and conservation principles. These relationships provide insight into the design of the coronary artery tree.
Dr. Moore’s research interests are directed at the development and use of in vivo molecular imaging technologies as indispensable preclinical and clinical tools to unravel complex biological pathways and pathogenic mechanisms in various diseases including cancer. Early in her research she recognized the need to use imaging for detection of specific alternation in genomic makeup, paving the way to personalized medicine approach. And as imaging was becoming a powerful tool in biomedical research, her work has shifted from developing target-specific contracts agents to utilizing these agents for direct delivery of therapeutic drugs.
Dr. Mountz is Director of Neuro-Nuclear Medicine at UPitt, as well as Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and the Medical Director of PET Imaging and Director of Nuclear Medicine Research. Dr. Mountz has successfully led many research projects in brain and cancer imaging research as evidenced by the range of important publication listed in his curriculum vitae. Dr. Mountz currently or has been the principal investigator on four NIH funded grant applications and several corporate grant applications in addition to Society, foundation, and approximately 20 other intramural and extramural grant applications. He has published over 150 peer review manuscripts and over 20 book chapters and presented over 400 peer-reviewed presentations concerning results from these research endeavors.
Dr. Muzic’s research spans multiple therapeutic areas including cancer, cardiac, and diabetes research. His research works includes quantitative analysis of biomedical imaging data, physiologic modeling, optimal experiment design, assessment of new radiopharmaceuticals, imaging response to therapy, and in vivo quantification of receptor concentration. His work also includes creation and dissemination of COMKAT software for quantitative analysis of biomedical image data, and is used to support research and teaching. Dr. Muzic is the Scientific Director of the Quantitative Imaging Laboratory.
Dr. Nishikawa is a leader in the field of technology assessment and computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) for breast imaging. Not only was he the first to establish the benefits of a digital mammography system over a screen-film system, but he also formulated and tested the idea that an automated scheme could improve radiologists’ ability to distinguish benign from malignant microcalcification clusters. He then proceeded to study how to evaluate CAD in clinical use and found that radiologists ignore 70% of correct computer cancer prompts, instigating further study into how to improve the CAD system.
Dr. Panych is an Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. He joined the research staff of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1993 after graduating from the Radiological Sciences Program in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at MIT. Since that time, has been active in the development of novel MRI methods and is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles. His major area of research has been in the development of real-time adaptive methods for dynamic MR. He has specialized in image encoding methods that use spatially selective RF encoding, sometimes also referred to as non-Fourier encoding. Dr. Panych, in collaboration with others, is investigating applications for these methods in interventional MRI, cardiac MRI, and in functional MRI.
Dr. Patz is the James and Alice Chen Professor of Radiology, Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University for the Academy of Radiologists Research Distinguished Investigator Award. After training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, he joined the faculty at Duke in 1991 and has been a member of the Thoracic Radiology Division since then. He has had an interest in early lung cancer detection, molecular diagnostics and novel therapeutic strategies for over 20 years. Dr. Patz is a world-renowned expert when it comes to early lung cancer detection with imaging. He has been involved with numerous clinical trials including the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST), and serves on the ACRIN-NLST Executive Committee, and helped design and was the Chair of the ACRIN-NLST Biomarker Committee. Dr. Patz runs a funded basic science laboratory that focuses on the development of tumor imaging probes, biomarkers, and the role of inflammation and cancer.
Dr. Pelc is Professor of Radiology, Emeritus. His primary research interests are in the physics, engineering, and mathematics of diagnostic imaging and the development of applications of this imaging technology. His current work focuses on computed tomography, specifically in methods to improve the information content and image quality and to reduce the radiation dose from these examinations. He holds a doctorate and master degrees in Medical Radiological Physics from Harvard University and a BS from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He served on the first National Advisory Council of NIBIB of the NIH. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and of SPIE.
Dr. Reeder is a tenured professor, H. I. Romnes Faculty Fellow, Vice Chair of Research, and Chief of MRU at UW-M, as well as the former Director of the UW Clinical MRI Fellowship. He is also the Director of the UW Liver Imaging Research Program an active NIH-funded group that performs research in technical development and translation of new imaging methods, particularly quantitative imaging biomarkers, to assess liver disease. Specific areas of research interests included development of the new MRI methods for quantification of abdominal adiposy, liver fat, liver iron overload and other features of diffuse liver disease, quantification of perfusion in liver tumors, hemodynamics of portal hypertension, and the use of new contract agents in liver and biliary diseases.
Dr. Regatte is the Director of the Quantitative Multinuclear Musculoskeletal Imaging Group (QMMIG), a multidisciplinary research group within the Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI), Department of Radiology, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York. This group specifically focuses on the development of novel multinuclear imaging techniques for cartilage (osteoarthritis), trabecular bone (osteoporosis) and skeletal muscle (diabetes), to establish not only an excellent resource for other musculoskeletal imaging investigators but also for the rapid clinical translation of new state-of-the-art methodologies into the routine clinical environment. The primary goal of the Quantitative Multinuclear Musculoskeletal Imaging Group (QMMIG) is to develop novel, quantitative, non-invasive, multinuclear (1H, 23Na and 31P) biomedical imaging technologies for early structural, biochemical, and functional assessment of various musculoskeletal disorders using high and ultra high field MRI systems. His lab’s projects are currently supported by multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, Bi-national Science Foundation (BSF), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Bayer Corporation, and intramural NYULMC Musculoskeletal Center of Excellence seed grants.
Dr. Shah is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics and Imaging at BWH. He is also the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Neurosurgery at BWH and a Principal Faculty at Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston. In recent years, Dr. Shah and his team have pioneered major developments in the stem cell therapy field, successfully developing experimental models to understand basic cancer biology and therapeutic stem cells for cancer, particularly brain tumors. These studies have been published in a number of very high impact journals like Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, Nature Reviews Cancer, JNCI, Stem Cells and Lancet Oncology. Recently, Dr. Shah’s work has caught the attention in the public domain and as such it has been highlighted in the media world-wide including features on BBC and CNN. Dr. Shah holds current positions on numerous councils, advisory and editorial boards in the fields of stem cell therapy and oncology. In an effort to translate the exciting therapies developed in his laboratory into clinics, he has founded biotech company, AMASA Technologies Inc. whose main objective is the clinical translation of therapeutic stem cells in cancer patients.
Dr. Song’s research program emphasizes functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and has been continuously funded since 2000 by grants (e.g. R01 s, P01, R21, S10, etc.) from the NIH and NSF (e.g. Career Award). Dr. Song is the first to incorporate diffusion weighting strategies into fMRI (in the early 90’s) This original work revealed the vascular origin of the blood oxygenation level dependent signal (the main contrast mechanism for fMRI research today) and provided greatly improved localization of the neuronal activities in the brain. He is also one of the first researchers to combine structural connectivity DTI and fMRI to investigate brain function in the context of brain circuitry. Most recently, Dr. Song has initiated new research projects improving MRI hardware. Along with his colleagues, they proposed a new MRI imaging platform which integrates RF and shimming into one coil, thereby greatly improving the main magnetic field uniformity without sacrificing SNR. Dr. Song is also a leading educator in the field. His one of the principal authors of an authoritative and most widely adopted textbook “Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging”. This textbook is currently in use by virtually all universities teaching modern neuroimaging courses.
Dr. Tanabe a professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology. She studies mechanisms of drug-related behavior in addiction. She has shown that stimulant-dependent individuals have reduced medial prefrontal gray matter volume and activity, even after years of abstinence, suggesting that such changes in the brain are enduring. Recent work from her lab using computational fMRI modeling suggests that a potential mechanism underlying pathological decision-making in these individuals may be related to aberrant tracking of striatal prediction error learning signals. Dr. Tanabe has had sustained peer-reviewed extramural funding, including four NIH and 2 foundational grants, while she also teaches and practices neuroradiology.
Dr. Turski is Emeritus Professor in Radiology and Medical Physics, and Past Chair of the Department of Radiology. His NIH funding has supported investigations into the pathophysiology of neurovascular disease resulting in 160 publications in peer reviewed journals, 22 book chapters and one textbook n Clinical MRA. He is internationally recognized for his contribution to the development of clinical Magnetic Resonance Angiography.
Since 1998, Dr. Wang’s research has been focused on the development of molecular probes for imaging-guided diagnosis and efficacy evaluation of therapeutic treatments in neurological diseases and cancer, which are based on a variety of imaging modalities including positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), multiphoton microscopy (SPECT), and near-infrared fluorescent imaging (NIRF). He has developed several imaging agents targeting some important pathological processes such as amyloid deposition in Alzheimer’s disease and aging, myelin damage and repair in multiple sclerosis, DNA damage and repair as well as MET receptor expression in cancer. He was one of the joint inventors of PIB, an amyloid-imaging agent that has now been widely used in clinical trials worldwide. He is also noted for his work on longitudinal imaging of demyelination/remyelination based on multiple imaging modalities. As Director of Radiopharmaceutical Research at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Wang provides radiolabeled agents for nuclear imaging.
Dr. Weiner is a Professor in Residence in Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Medicine, Psychiatry, and Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is Principle Investigator of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, which is the largest observational study in the world concerning Alzheimer’s Disease. He is the former Director of the Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND) at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Weiner’s research activities involve the development and utilization of MRI and PET for investigating and diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases. In 1980, Dr. Weiner was one of the first to perform MRS on an intact animal, and subsequently pursued his goal to develop MRI/S as a clinical tool. In 1988, his group used MRS to show that the amino acid N acetyl aspartate (NAA), a marker of healthy nerve cells, is reduced in the epileptic focus in the brain. In 2004, Dr. Weiner’s group reported that reduced NAA predicts development of Alzheimer’s disease in mildly impaired elderly subjects. During the past 25 years he has worked to develop and optimized the use of MRI, PET, and blood based biomarker methods to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Also, Dr. Weiner’s research focuses on monitoring effects of treatment to slow progressions in Alzheimer’s disease, and detecting Alzheimer’s disease early in patients who are not demented, but risk subsequent development of dementia. He is the Principle Investigator of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a 14-year national longitudinal study of over 1500 subjects which is aimed at validating biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease at 60 sites across the USA and Canada for cognitive testing, MRI, PET, and lumbar puncture. He also launched the BrainHealthRegistry.org which is an internet-based registry with the overall goal of accelerating development of effective treatments for brain diseases. This website registry recruits, screens, and longitudinally monitors brain function on more than 60,000 participants. His overall research goals are to participate in the development of effective treatments and methods for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders. Recently he has focused on developing inexpensive, scalable, tools to identify normal elders at risk for cognitive decline and dementia, and to provide the Brain Health Registry software to facilitate the work of other investigators. Dr. Weiner has mentored over 120 postdoctoral fellows, has authored 821 peer reviewed research papers and 62 book chapters. He holds 19 separate research grants. He has received numerous honors including the Middleton Award for outstanding research in the Veterans Administration, the Nancy and Ronald Reagan Award for research from the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Potemkin Award for research in Picks Disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders from the American Association of Neurology and the American Brain Foundation.
Dr. Westin is the founding Director of the Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging and Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, Boston. He is Director for the Neuroimage Analysis Center, a Biomedical Technology Resource Center, funded by NIBIB. Additionally, he has a joint appointment with the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, MA. The Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging is focused on the application of mathematical theory, analysis, modeling, and signal processing to medical imaging applications. Dr. Westin’s main direction of research is the development of novel methods for analysis of imaging data. He has been involved in imaging studies, including structural, functional and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) studies since 1996 when he joined Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Over the past two decades, Dr. Westin has developed considerable expertise in all aspects of dMRI. He has (co)-authored over 300 publications, abstracts excluded, in the fields of computer vision, medical image analysis and image guided surgery. His laboratory is known for developing new algorithms and technology for analysis of dMRI data. During his career, Dr. Westin has mentored five undergraduate students, 22 graduate students, 17 post-doctoral fellows, four medical students, and eight junior faculty. He has served as a Guest Editor on several special issues on image analysis (IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, International Journal of Computer Vision, Signal Processing).
Dr. Wu is Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and the Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor of Medicine and Radiology. His clinical interests include adult congenital heart disease and cardiovascular imaging. His lab works on biological mechanisms of patient-specific and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The main goals are to (i) understand cardiovascular disease mechanisms, (ii) accelerate drug discovery, (iii) develop “clinical trial in a dish” concept, and (iv) implement precision medicine for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular patients. His lab uses a combination of genomics, stem cells, cellular & molecular biology, physiological testing, and molecular imaging technologies to better understand molecular and pathological processes. Dr. Wu has published over 400 manuscripts with H-index of 99 on Google scholar and recognized in the top 1% of highly cited researchers in Web of Science (2018 & 2019). Among his trainees, over 30 of them are principal investigators in the US or abroad.
Dr. Yankeelov is the W. A. “Tex” Moncrief Professor of Computational Oncology and a professor of biomedical engineering and medicine. He servs as the Director of the Center for Computational Oncology in the Institute for Computational and Engineering Sciences and as the Director of cancer imaging research with the Livestrong Cancer Institutes. The overall goal of Yankeelov’s research is to improve patient care by employing advanced in vivo imaging methods for the early identification, assessment and prediction of tumors’ response to therapy. He develops tumor forecasting methods by employing patient-specific, quantitative imaging data to initialize and constrain predictive, multiscale biophysical models of tumor growth with the purpose of optimizing therapies for the individual cancer patient. This is accomplished by dividing his efforts into approximately equal parts mathematical modeling, preclinical development, application, validation and implementation in human studies.
Dr. Zhang is a pioneer in the development of ultrahigh field MR imaging and spectroscopy. He is known for his contributions to the development of the world’s first8 Tesla and 7 Tesla whole-body MR imaging systems, and obtaining the first human images at ultrahigh fields. He introduced and developed microstrip RF coils and coil arrays to generate efficient radio frequency magnetic field which is a main challenge in ultrahigh field MRI. His microstrip technique has become one of the industrial standards and used in numerous MR systems today.