The research in our lab focuses on the development of new MRI acquisition technologies that can dramatically improve the speed, sensitivity and specificity of brain imaging. Our research explores approaches in designing tailored data acquisition & reconstruction algorithms using signal processing/optimization/ML methods, to take advantage of the underlying MR Physics and emerging hardware.
The goal is to create new imaging strategies that can help address important clinical & neuroscientific questions. The technologies that we have developed have enabled highly detailed brain data at unprecedented temporal and spatial resolutions, that have helped extract a wealth of quantitative information about brain structure and physiology. Some of these technologies have now been successfully translated as FDA-approved product, that are now being used daily in the clinic on the Siemens, GE and Phillips MRI scanners worldwide.
- – Nat Commun.
Optimal deep brain stimulation sites and networks for stimulation of the fornix in Alzheimer’s disease
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) to the fornix is an investigational treatment for patients with mild Alzheimer’s Disease. Outcomes from randomized clinical trials have shown that cognitive function improved in some patients but deteriorated in others.
- – Eur Radiol
Validation of a highly accelerated post-contrast wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI) 3D-T1 MPRAGE compared to standard 3D-T1 MPRAGE for detection of intracranial enhancing lesions on 3-T MRI - European Radiology
Objectives: High-resolution post-contrast T1-weighted imaging is a workhorse sequence in the evaluation of neurological disorders. The T1-MPRAGE sequence has been widely adopted for the visualization of enhancing pathology in the brain. However, this three-dimensional (3D) acquisition is lengthy and prone to motion artifact, which often compromises diagnostic quality.
- – European Radiology
Clinical validation of Wave-CAIPI susceptibility-weighted imaging for routine brain MRI at 1.5 T
Objectives: Wave-CAIPI (Controlled Aliasing in Parallel Imaging) enables dramatic reduction in acquisition time of 3D MRI sequences such as 3D susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) but has not been clinically evaluated at 1.5 T. We sought to compare highly accelerated Wave-CAIPI SWI (Wave-SWI) with two alternative standard sequences, conventional three-dimensional SWI and two-dimensional T2*-weighted Gradient-Echo (T2*w-GRE), in patients undergoing routine brain MRI at 1.5 T.
- – Stroke
Detecting Silent Acute Microinfarcts in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Using Submillimeter Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Preliminary Results
This research is part of a prospective observational study approved by the institutional review boards of the University Health Network and the University of Toronto. A board-certified neuroradiologist with 12 years of experience reviewed the submillimeter DWI, conventional DWI, and routine brain sequences side-by-side for each participant and identified acute and subacute microinfarcts.
- – Magn Reson Med
Highly accelerated EPI with wave encoding and multi‐shot simultaneous multislice imaging
Wave-EPI allows highly accelerated single- and multi-shot EPI with reduced g-factor and artifacts and may facilitate clinical and neuroscientific applications of EPI by improving the spatial and temporal resolution in functional and diffusion imaging.
- – ISMRM
2022 ISMRM Society Award Winners