When
Monday, April 14, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.
Christa Sonderer
PhD Student of Biomedical Engineering
"Analysis of Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) Data for Multi-site and Multi-modal Brain Imaging Studies"
Nan-kuei Chen
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
"Interdisciplinary Brain and Body MR Imaging Studies from BME"
Keating 103
Zoom link | Password: BearDown
Hosts: Alex McGhee and Swarna Ganesh
(Instructor permission required for enrolled students to attend via Zoom)
Persons with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting the Disability Resource Center at 621-3268 (V/TTY).
Christa Sonderer
Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) post-processing technique that uses image phase data to map magnetic susceptibility in tissues, influenced by biological sources such as iron, myelin, and calcium. QSM is particularly valuable for measuring iron deposition in the brain, both during normal aging and in pathological conditions like Parkinson’s Disease.
To improve the generalizability of QSM results, researchers often aggregate data across multiple study sites—however, this comes with challenges:
- Difficulty in precisely aligning brain atlases to individual anatomies for region-of-interest (ROI) analyses
- Uncertainty regarding the impact of QSM processing pipeline choices on multi-site studies
Sonderer will share work from the Precision Aging Network (PAN), highlighting a multi-contrast MRI registration pipeline and an evaluation of 16 QSM processing pipelines using data from over 500 individuals across four sites. Results demonstrate that QSM pipeline selection—especially background field removal and zero referencing methods—significantly affects findings, underscoring the need for harmonized analysis pipelines in multi-site studies.
Nan-kuei Chen
Chen will showcase the collaborative contributions of BME students, staff, and faculty in advancing brain and body MR imaging research. This presentation will cover:
- Recent innovations in MRI hardware
- Development of novel data acquisition methods and pulse sequences
- Cutting-edge algorithm development
- Inventions and industrial collaborations
He will also highlight the broader implications of these advancements in biomedical and clinical research across various diseases, and discuss future opportunities for impactful contributions to human health.