Felix Werner Wehrli, PhD

faculty photo
Professor of Radiologic Science in Radiology
Member, Committee for Appointments and Promotions, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Director, Laboratory for Structural, Physiologic and Functional Imaging, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Member, Research Executive Committee, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Department: Radiology

Contact information
University of Pennsylvania
Perelman School of Medicine
Department of Radiology
MRI Education Center
First Floor Founders Building
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283
Office: (215) 662-7951
Fax: (215) 662-7263
Lab: (215) 349-8519
Education:
MS (Chemistry)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology , 1967.
PhD (Chemistry)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1968.
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Description of Research Expertise

Research of the Laboratory for Structural, Physiologic and Functional Imaging is aimed at quantitatively characterizing tissue microarchitecture and its relationship to physiology and function by means of spatially resolved nuclear magnetic resonance in animals and humans.

A major focus of the Laboratory is the development of new methods for the quantitative assessment of metabolic bone disease by means of the MR-based "virtual bone biopsy" and image-based computational biomechanics. A related area of concentration is the reduction to practice and translation to the clinic of novel quantitative solid-state proton and phosphorus MRI techniques for the study of bone matrix and mineral properties. A further line of work focuses on the quantification of systemic vascular disease via functional MRI-based methods including time-resolved blood flow, vascular compliance and venous blood oximetry with applications to the peripheral and central vascular system

Other areas of active in-house and collaborative research comprise the further development of novel non-Cartesian imaging techniques for cancer staging in the abdomen and chest, research aimed at the study of gene expression in mouse models of disease using novel micro-CT approaches, the study of neuronal architecture in mouse models of spinal cord injury by means of diffusion diffraction NMR, the development of MRI techniques to map internal strains of the intervertebral disc, and the development of novel RF coil hardware for ultra-high field MRI. Investigators in the lab have also recently embarked on a program aimed to develop and implement methods for imaging with real-time feedback control applied to fMRI of drug addiction and treatment.

Selected Publications

Moon BF, Iyer SK, Josselyn NJ, Hwuang E, Swago S, Keeney SJ, Castillero E, Ferrari G, Pilla JJ, Gorman JH, Gorman RC, Tschabrunn CM, Shou H, Matthai W, Wehrli FW, Ferrari VA, Han Y, Litt H, Witschey WR.: Magnetic susceptibility and R2∗ of myocardial reperfusion injury at 3T and 7T. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Aug 2021.

Rajapakse CS, Johncola AJ, Batzdorf AS, Jones BC, Al Mukaddam M, Sexton K, Shults J, Leonard MB, Snyder PJ, Wehrli FW.: Effect of low-intensity vibration on bone strength, microstructure, and adiposity in pre-osteoporotic postmenopausal women: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 36(4): 673-684, Apr 2021.

Zimmerman CE, Khandelwal P, Xie L, Lee H, Song HK, Yushkevich PA, Vossough A, Bartlett SP, Wehrli FW.: Automatic segmentation of bone selective MR images for visualization and craniometry of the cranial vault. Academic Radiology Apr 2021.

Narciso L, Ssali T, Liu L, Biernaski H, Butler J, Morrison L, Hadway J, Corsaut J, Hicks JW, Langham MC, Wehrli FW, Iida H, St Lawrence K.: A noninvasive method for quantifying cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen by hybrid PET/MRI: validation in a porcine model. J Nucl Med Mar 2021.

Chatterjee S, Caporale A, Tao JQ, Guo W, Johncola A, Strasser AA, Leone FT, Langham MC, Wehrli FW.: Acute e-cig inhalation impacts vascular health: a study in smoking naïve subjects. American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology 320(1): H144-H158, Jan 2021.

Lee H, Wehrli FW.: Alternating unbalanced SSFP for 3D R2' mapping of the human brain. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 85(5): 2391-2402, 2021.

Caporale A, Lee H, Lei H, Rao H, Langham MC, Detre JA, Wu PH, Wehrli FW.: Cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen during transition from wakefulness to sleep measured with high temporal resolution OxFlow MRI with concurrent EEG. Journal of Cerebreal Blood Flow & Metabolism 41(4): 780-792, 2021.

Langham MC, Caporale AS, Wehrli FW, Parry S, Schwartz N.: Evaluation of vascular reactivity of maternal vascular adaptations of pregnancy with quantitative MRI: pilot study. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 53(2): 447-455, 2021.

Zhao X, Lee H, Song HK, Cheng C-C, Wehrli FW: Impact of gradient imperfections on bone water quantification with UTE MRI. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 84(4): 2034-2047, Oct 2020.

Lee H, Zhao X, Song HK, Wehrli FW: Venous cerebral blood volume mapping in the whole brain using venous-spin-labeled 3D turbo-spin-echo. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 39(9): 1991-2003, Oct 2020.

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Last updated: 09/07/2021
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