The Microstructural Imaging Group from the A.I. Virtanen Institute is participating in a RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project aims to develop more sensitive non-invasive imaging measurements of microstructural changes after neonatal hypoxic ischemic injury in a mouse model and study the optimal treatment to reduce tissue damages.
The neonatal brain is vulnerable to hypoxic ischemic insult, which affects the normal brain development and has distinct pathogenesis different from adult ischemic injuries. Advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) methods can improve diagnostic markers by specifically capturing key pathological events after neonatal hypoxic ischemic injury.
Combining microstructural MRI with 3D brain tissue modeling
Associate Professor Jiangyang Zhang from New York University School of Medicine is one of the leading experts in diffusion MRI. In this work, novel MRI methods such as oscillating gradient dMRI, kurtosis diffusion imaging, and manganese-enhanced MRI will be used as developing diagnostic markers that specifically capture key pathological events after neonatal hypoxic ischemia. Academy Research Fellow Alejandra Sierra Lopez from the A.I. Virtanen Institute will incorporate her expertise in combining MRI data with 3D electron microscopy and tissue modelling to measure precise cellular and subcellular level changes, and to explore the exact MRI-pathology relationships. The combination of 3D histology and MRI provide unprecedented information of tissue microstructural changes in the diseased brain.
For further information, please contact:
Academy Research Fellow Alejandra Sierra Lopez, alejandra.sierralopez (a) uef.fi, +358 403552219