Description of Research Expertise

My research interests are In developing novel, multinuclear (23Na, 17O, 13C and 1H) magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopic techniques for early diagnosis and quantification of physiological and functional parameters in pathologies such as arthritis, stroke, cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease. Our pulse sequence developmental approaches exploit quadrupolar spin-dynamics, polarization transfer, multiple quantum coherences, indirect detection and spin locking for studying molecular dynamics in biological tissues in vivo.  In particular, sodium and spin-locking MRI are targeting to map proteoglycan molecules (e.g. Aggrecan) in the connective tissues in vivo. Indirect 17O MRI is aimed at studying cerebral blood flow and cerebral oxidative metabolism and tumor perfusion and metabolism.  Spin-locking MRI is being developed to impart novel contrast in various tissue types (brain, connective tissues and tumors), macromolecular ordering in tissues, and visualize and quantify Amyloidal plaques in Alzheimer’s disease in vivo.