Associate Professor, Neurology, Biomedical Engineering, Radiology Technical Director, Center for Biomedical Imaging
Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Ageing; Anatomy; Artificial Intelligence; Biomedical Engineering; Biomedical Image Analysis; Biomedical Imaging; Biomedical Imaging; Biomedical Informatics; Biometal Imaging; Biophysical Modeling; Biophysics; Biostatistics; Brain Iron Homeostasis; Brain Research; Clinical Research; Disease Progression Modeling; Image Analysis; Image Processing and Analysis; Imaging Informatics; Inverse Imaging Problems; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) – High Resolution; Mathematical Modeling; Metabolic Imaging; Molecular Imaging; Molecular Imaging Techniques; Molecular Imaging Techniques; MRI - preclinical; MRI - Ultra-high field; MRI Methodology; Multimodal Imaging Technology; Multiple Sclerosis; Nanoparticles; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Neuroimaging; Neuroimaging Analysis; Neurology; Neuroradiology; Neuroscience; Nuclear Medicine; Preclinical Research; Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping; Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping; Radiological Physics; Radiology; Team Science; Technology; Translational imaging; Translational Research; Traumatic Brain Injury
My biomedical imaging research lab fosters translational team-science discovery from mouse to human. My lab is part of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC). In addition, my lab provides expertise in imaging physics and analysis for the Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI), a core facility of UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), for which I serve as the Technical Director.
My research program targets several interrelated topics in biomedical imaging of neurological disease. The principle thread connecting these topics is the advancement of neuroimaging technology for noninvasive profiling of tissue pathology. The focus of my research program lies in the development and application of novel computational methods to quantify biophysical tissue properties with MRI, primarily those related to tissue iron. Disease progression is associated with disturbed brain iron homeostasis in many neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), providing a strong rationale for the study of brain iron.
I pioneered the development of an MRI method referred to as quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). QSM capitalizes on the observation that biological tissues perturb the static magnetic field of the MRI scanner in a predictable way that depends on their magnetizability (or: magnetic susceptibility), which is strongly affected by tissue iron. QSM measures these perturbations and computes the underlying spatial distribution of susceptibility by solving several physics-based inverse mathematical problems, a process to which I have made several groundbreaking contributions.
Alongside my methodological work, a major priority of my research program is the clinical translation of advanced research imaging technology. I pursue this ambition through extensive collaboration with colleagues at the Department of Neurology, the CBI, and external partners.