Investigator, Assoc Prof (M) Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Mass General Research Institute

Associate Professor of Radiology Harvard Medical School

SM MIT 2010

PhD MIT 2013

BS Bogazici University 2008

algorithms; brain mapping; deep learning; diffusion imaging; diffusion magnetic resonance imaging; fast mri; functional magnetic resonance imaging; machine learning; magnetic resonance imaging; quantitative susceptibility mapping

MRI has demonstrated ability to provide exquisite contrast for non-invasive imaging. What limits its efficiency and sensitivity are the tradeoffs between scan time, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. Dr. Bilgic’s research is devoted to breaking this stalemate by developing new acquisition and reconstruction methods that synergistically exploit MR physics, signal processing algorithms and hardware capabilities.

He pursues this goal on three fronts:

(i) Rapid comprehensive brain exam: Development of the Wave-CAIPI acquisition trajectory to fully harness the encoding capability of high-channel count receivers and provide an order of magnitude faster imaging. This enabled the development of a 6-minute, multi-contrast whole-brain exam at 1 mm isotropic resolution.

(ii) Efficient quantitative imaging: Spearheaded the development of Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM), a novel contrast mechanism that probes the magnetic properties of tissues to provide a biomarker strongly correlated with tissue iron concentration. Dr. Bilgic’s technical developments in MR Fingerprinting (MRF), a new quantitative imaging concept, have provided the fastest whole-brain MRF acquisition, with the highest resolution T1 and T2 relaxation maps to date.

(iii) Next generation imaging with joint reconstruction: Exploitation of similarities across multiple contrasts routinely acquired in MRI exams with our joint parallel imaging strategies. While these already allow >10-fold speed-up in conventional sequences, they can be combined with Wave-CAIPI trajectory to provide >20× faster clinical scans.