Daniel Spielman

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Priti Balchandani , Meng Gu

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• Personal Site

Research Interests

My research interests are in the field of medical imaging, particularly magnetic resonance imaging and in vivo spectroscopy. While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been advancing at a rapid pace during the past decade, and provides excellent contrast between organs and lesions and exquisite anatomical detail, the promise that in vivo MR spectroscopy holds for revealing functional and physiological information will likely be realized in the decade to come. Many exciting correlations have been obtained between various MR spectroscopic components (e.g., metabolites such as lactate and choline) and disease diagnosis and treatment. However, until these can be robustly presented with high spatial resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and reasonable imaging times, they will remain primarily in the laboratory. Thus, current research in our laboratory has focussed on an array of novel techniques for producing clinically valuable images of these important metabolic components. These approaches, which include improved spectroscopic imaging and shimming methods as well as the application of estimation theory for optimal data quantification, address the inherent difficulties of low concentrations of the desired components, overlapping resonances, and field inhomogeneities caused by imperfect magnets and magnetic susceptibility variations with the body. Applications of this work include cancer diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and prediction of response to therapy. In addition, we are conducting basic research into a variety of neurologic conditions including brain development in pediatric patients and neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism, and aging.

These research activities are in collaboration with faculty and staff in various departments of the Medical School and in the School of Engineering, and I advise graduate students in various degree programs including Biophysics, Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering, and Medical Infor...

Publications

• Self-refocused spatial-spectral pulse for positive contrast imaging of cells labeled with SPIO nanoparticles. Balchandani P, Yamada M, Pauly J, Yang P, Spielman D. Magn Reson Med. 2009; 62 (1): 183-92
• B1 and T1 insensitive water and lipid suppression using optimized multiple frequency-selective preparation pulses for whole-brain 1H spectroscopic imaging at 3T. Gu M, Spielman DM. Magn Reson Med. 2009; 61 (2): 462-6
• Gradient moment compensated magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. Kim DH, Gu M, Spielman DM. Magn Reson Med. 2009; 61 (2): 457-61
• Methods for metabolic evaluation of prostate cancer cells using proton and (13)C HR-MAS spectroscopy and [3-(13)C] pyruvate as a metabolic substrate. Levin YS, Albers MJ, Butler TN, Spielman D, Peehl DM, Kurhanewicz J. Magn Reson Med. 2009; 62 (5): 1091-8
• Application of subsecond spiral chemical shift imaging to real-time multislice metabolic imaging of the rat in vivo after injection of hyperpolarized 13C1-pyruvate. Mayer D, Yen YF, Tropp J, Pfefferbaum A, Hurd RE, Spielman DM. Magn Reson Med. 2009; 62 (3): 557-64