Description of Research Expertise

My research interests are in developing novel, multinuclear (23Na, 17O, 13C and 1H) magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopic techniques for the early diagnosis and quantification of physiological and functional aberrations 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 via chemical exchange and spin-locking T1ρ MRI for studying molecular dynamics in biological tissues in vivo.

Specifically, T1ρ and Sodium MRI techniques are designed to map proteoglycan molecules (e.g. aggrecan) in cartilage as a biomarker for early arthritis in vivo. T1ρ MRI is also targeted to impart novel contrast in various tissue types (brain, connective tissues and tumors), and to detect metabolically produced H217O for studying cerebral blood flow and cerebral oxidative metabolism.

Recent developmental work on chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) based MRI methods is focused on measuring endogenous but low concentration metabolites in the brain, such as glutamate, myoinositol and creatine to address central nervous system disorders. In addition, a creatine CEST method is currently being explored to measure high-energy phosphate metabolism in the myocardium in heart disease.