Biomedical & Molecular Imaging
Biomedical and Molecular Imaging (BMI) emphasizes the development and application of cutting-edge imaging technologies, molecular imaging probes, and image processing techniques. Through coursework, seminars, journal clubs, and their own research, students in BMI will be exposed to a wide range of traditional and emerging imaging methodologies.
Research Topics
The current BMI faculty consists of basic scientists, biomedical engineers, and clinicians interested in developing new imaging methodologies in both basic and clinical research at scales ranging from the molecular level to the whole body. Examples include:
- Novel applications of noninvasive imaging including MRI, MRS, SPECT, PET, ultrasound, and optical imaging.
- Functional brain imaging using fMRI and near infrared imaging (NIR).
- RF pulse sequence development for clinical MRI.
- Metabolic imaging using isotope tracers and NMR spectroscopy.
- MRI-guided high intensity focused ultrasound for tissue ablation and therapeutics.
- Responsive MR agents and targeted PET agents for imaging biological function in vivo.
- Molecular imaging of cancer using targeted nanoparticles.
- Combinatorial chemistry to identify and image biological targets.
Faculty
Professor
Research Interests: Molecular Imaging; optical imaging; instrument development; image-guided surgery; cancer treatment, molecular probes; spectroscopy, multimodal nuclear and magnetic imaging; stimulated thermal imaging, nanomedicine
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Development of hybrid positron emission tomography (PET) (e.g. PET-CT and PET-MR) tools to enable precision imaging for the care and study of oncology, neurology, and cardiology patients.
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Developing non- and minimally invasive optical tools to monitor deep tissues in health and disease, as well as throughout therapy
Radomir Chabiniok, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Research Interests:Biomechanical Modeling of Cardiovascular System; Computational Physiology; Cardiovascular MRI; Heart Failure; Congenital Heart Disease
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: MR spectroscopy, MR spectroscopic imaging, MRI, Brain, GABA, glutamate, glutatamate, Glioma, Major depressive disorder, Bipolar disorder, epilepsy, MEGA-PRESS, metabolite mapping, AI, neural networks
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Nanomedicine and image-guided drug delivery for novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications in oncology
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Cognitive neuroscience; language; cognition; social communication; fMRI; neuroimaging; autism spectrum disorders; development; cerebellum
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Sub concussive head impact exposure in contact sports, traumatic brain injury, magnetoencephalography
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Autonomous Microscopy, Molecular Multiplexing, Optical Probe Development, and Content Rich Histopathology
Associate Professor
Research Interests: The long-term goal of our lab’s research is to develop and implement imaging technologies that provide unprecedented insight into cancer biology.
Professor
Research Interests: Activatable optical/MRI imaging probes to study tumor metabolism and theranostic nanomedicine for cancer-targeted drug therapy
Professor
Research Interests: Molecular imaging, Synthetic chemistry, Spin physics, Metabolism
Professor
Research Interests: Evaluate the use of newly designed biodegradable stints to treat pulmonary artery stenosis
Professor
Research Interests: Heart-lung interaction; lung morphometry; structure-function correlation of lung growth
Professor
Research Interests: Assessment of ventriculographie-arterial coupling in congenital and acquired heart disease. Cardiac MRI for improved vascular imaging
Professor
Research Interests: Cloud and GPU-based high-performance computing in medical physics and imaging; automatic radiotherapy treatment planning; adaptive radiotherapy; image-guided radiotherapy; low-dose and dynamic-cone-beam CT
Professor
Research Interests: Generation and application of hyperpolarized13C-labeled compounds and89Y-complexes for MRI/Radiopharmaceutical applications
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Neuroimaging, MRI, Dynamic Brain Connectivity, Dopamine, Astrocytes, Reward and Learning
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Probe engineering and targeted drug delivery to islet cells for treating diabetes; Islet biology with an emphasis on functional analysis on zinc signaling and zinc transporters in islet endocrine cells.
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Fast and motion-robust MRI acquisition and reconstruction, High-resolution MRI for in vivo imaging intracortical structure and deep nuclei, Novel MRI contrast and quantification of tissue properties
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Molecular Imaging, lung cancer, kidney cancer, tumor microenvironment
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Ultrasound-guided drug and gene delivery, Targeted drug delivery system, Materials Science, Immunotherapy, Image-guided therapy, Nanomedicine
Professor
Research Interests: Parturition (the process of labor); cervical ripening; male and female reproductive biology
Professor
Research Interests: Deep Learning applications in neuroimaging including brain tumor molecular marker prediction, Traumatic Brain Injury, MEG, MRI, fMRI
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Developing state-of-the-art machine-learning approaches to extract radiological imaging and imaging-genomic biomarkers for individualized prognostics in neuroscience and oncological applications
Professor
Research Interests: Application of structural (X-ray, CT, and MR) and functional (SPECT and PET) imaging methods to quantify changes in bone mass and metabolism induced by metabolic bone diseases; in vivo assessment of beta-cell mass and function by novel probes; novel PET and SPECT probe development for bone cells
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Development of noninvasive molecular imaging tools to elucidate in vivo metabolism
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Translational biophotonics, optical spectroscopy & imaging, instrumentation
Professor
Research Interests: Cell motility and mechanics, corneal repair and regeneration, in-vivo confocal imaging
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Spatial organization of tumors by combining machine identified phenotypes and existing pathology scoring within the framework established by cancer biology
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Role of cycloxygenase-2 in radiation and chemo-resistance, role of small molecule inhibitors as radio-sensitizers
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Intermediary Metabolism in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases, Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 Metabolic Imaging, Metabolomics in the Heart, Lung, and Perfusion Preservation, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) based Metabolomics
Professor
Research Interests: Polymer and materials chemistry, drug and gene delivery, RNAi, biomedical imaging, detection and treatment of cancer
Professor
Research Interests: Development of PET, SPECT, and MRI imaging probes to assess biological abnormalities and evaluation of disease treatment
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Aging, Cerebral blood flow, Cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption, Cerebrovascular physiology, Mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Endogenous and exogenous MRI contrast agents and mechanisms in vivo, CEST and PARACEST imaging, hyperpolarization
Professor
Research Interests: Tomographic image reconstruction; cone-beam computed tomography; image-guided radiation therapy; medical imaging processing
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Biomedical optics, In Vivo cell tracking, Optical tomography-guided radiation therapy and Ultra-high dose rate irradiation
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Diffusion MRI; QSM; Neuroimaging; ML/AI; Alzheimer's Disease; Osteoarthritis
Professor
Research Interests: My methodology research is focused on model development for high-dimensional data such as gene expression, epigenomics, copy number variation, proteomics, genome-wide RNAi functional screening data and brain image data.
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Cardiac MRI, Deep Learning, MR Sequence Development
Associate Members
These faculty members do not accept graduate students. They participate in teaching, co-mentoring, exam and dissertation committees, and all other program activities.
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Biomedical imaging, molecular imaging, optical device design, nanomaterials, cancer biology and treatment
Professor
Research Interests: NMR spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy in conjunction with the application of stable isotope tracers to study metabolic function
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Computational neuroimaging of neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis, functional network modeling using resting-state functional MRI, imaging biomarker development and validation, microstructural imaging using high-gradient diffusion MRI
Associate Professor
Research Interests: PET, SPECT, and optical imaging probes to assess biological abnormalities and evaluate disease treatment; radiotheranostics for cancer treatment
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Developing advanced signal processing and AI-driven tools to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries in newborns
Associate Professor
Research Interests: In vivo MRS for studies of energy and phospholipids metabolism in brain and skeletal muscle
Professor
Research Interests: Application of Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques (fMRI, DTI, MRS, etc). Correction of magnetic susceptibility artifacts on brain MRI caused by orthodontic appliances. MR Quality Assurance and Safety. MRI Assessment of Body Iron. Application of AI in medical imaging
Associate Professor
Research Interests: MRI Physics, Radiomics, Synthetic MRI, Cardiac MRI
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Applied mathematics and MRI methods for translational research in liver imaging with special focus on evaluation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Magnetic resonance imaging, in vivo histology using non-invasive imaging, Alzheimer's Disease, Multiple sclerosis, dementia