The McNab Lab is part of the Radiological Sciences Laboratory division of the Department of Radiology in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. We are based at the Richard M. Lucas Center for Imaging.

Our mission is to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that probe human brain tissue microstructure. This requires new MRI contrast mechanisms, strategic encoding and reconstruction schemes, physiological monitoring, brain tissue modeling and validation. Applications of these methods include neuronavigation, neurosurgical planning and the development of improved biomarkers for brain development, degeneration, disease and injury. 

Our current research is focused on the development of MRI pulse sequences and analysis strategies for:

  • Multi-dimensional Diffusion Encoding
  • Mapping Cortical Fiber Patterns
  • Integration of MRI and Advanced Histology
  • Mixed-Reality Neuronavigation for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
  • Diffusion Tractography for Neurosurgical Targeting

More details about our research >>

Lab News

03/22/2023: We welcome Jaqueline Velazquez as our new Administrative Assistant to our Lab!

03/16/2023: Erpeng Dai is selected as an ISMRM Junior Fellow for 2023.

03/08/2023: Jennifer is named Research Faculty of the Year in Stanford Radiology.

02/02/2023: Erpeng's abstract (Measuring time-dependent diffusion on a high-performance head-only gradient system at 3T: influence and correction of gradient nonlinearity) accepted as an oral presentation by ISMRM at the 2023 Annual Meeting.

02/02/2023: Gustavo's abstract (A transfer learning approach to predict Axon Diameter and g-ratio distributions from MRI Data) accepted as an oral presentation by ISMRM at the 2023 Annual Meeting.

01/25/2023: Together with Drs. Emmanuelle Weber, Ehsan Adeli and Nolan Williams, Jennifer is awarded a 2022 HAI Seed Grant from the Institute for Human-Centered Artifical Intelligence at Stanford.

Jennifer A. McNab, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Director of Industry Collaborations

RSL Division
Department of Radiology
School of Medicine

Stanford University