Jennia Rajaei
Research Specialist
Research Interests:
Jennia’s research interest lays at the intersection between lung physiology and bioengineering. Having studied biology and chemistry, she has a great interest in understanding biological principles within the lung structure through the use of disease models and MRI as a principle tool in understanding following:
- Pathophysiology in induced diseased lung states.
- Structural changes in lung tissue.
- Optimization of MRI methods during tissue imaging.
- Study of ADC, ventilation rates, partial pressure of oxygen whiting the alveoli for disease diagnostic purposes.
Current Projects:
Regional measurements of fractional ventilation provide a sensitive and noninvasive tool for studying physiological changes, which occur within the asthmatic lung. Evidence shows that asthmatic cohorts showed a statistically significant decline in regional ventilation compared to that of the naive and control cohorts, while ADC values did not demonstrate this similar decline, indicating that airway remodeling which contributes to lower ventilation is a result of asthmatic responses. Results indicate that hyperpolarized gas MRI and the quantitative measurements obtained through its use may yield promising advancements in the early detection and diagnosis of bronchial hyper-responsiveness, and other lung diseases which follow similar structural changes and physiological responses.
Other Projects and Collaborations:
- Imaging of Lung Micromechanics with Hyperpolarized Gas Diffusion MRI: Regional Compliance.
- Noninvasive Assessment of Pulmonary Developmental Deficiency in a Model of Transgenic Mice using Hyperpolarized Gas Diffusion MRI.
- Quantitative Assessment of Chronic Exposure to Cigarette Smoke in Mouse Lungs by Hyperpolarized Gas MRI.