Research

No two hearts are the same. And no one knows that better than Shezhang Lin, MD. Lin spends his days creating detailed, interactive, models of patient’s hearts at UCSF’s 3DLab. His 3D heart models help surgeons visualize a patient’s heart before surgery, to better understand and address the unique case at hand, to plan the best surgical approach, and to help explain complex procedures to patients and their families.

Susanne Mueller, MD, has developed a new method for imaging cortical layers of the brain, using MP2RAGE contrasts to follow the cortical myelination pattern within the gray matter.

UCSF hosted the 10^th annual Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center (HMTRC) Workshop

“I love the science we are doing. I believe it has the potential to make a difference for the patient,” said researcher Pavithra Viswanath, PhD, principal investigator of the Cancer Metabolic Imaging and Therapy Lab and associate professor in the UCSF Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. “At UCSF, we have a fantastic setup to develop novel therapies, and there’s no place better than Radiology to develop metabolic imaging biomarkers.”

A study from the UCSF Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging investigates the relationship between aberrant neuronal circuit mechanisms and functional abnormalities observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD) using magnetoencephalography (MEG) imaging.

Many veterans with Gulf War illness report losing their sense of smell. Because anosmia is recognized as a potential early symptom of diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, Linda Chao, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, has sought to identify if anosmia in GW veterans could be predictive of impaired cognitive function.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), plays a pivotal role in healthcare, determining treatment paths and eligibility for procedures like hip or knee replacements. Yet, approximately 90% of the global population lacks access to this vital technology. The prospect of a more compact, affordable, and easily installable MRI machine raises an intriguing question: How many lives could be saved, and how much suffering could be alleviated with improved access to this transformative technology?

People are living longer, and as a result, we’re seeing more patients experiencing chronic pain conditions associated with implant/joint replacement pain. At UCSF, we have the opportunity to develop an optimal MRI strategy to diagnose and treat pain sources for these patients.

Models trained on other pathologies can be adapted to identify MS lesions with smaller datasets.

“What I find most meaningful about my work as a researcher is fulfilling my search for knowledge and curiousity,” said Celine Taglang, PhD, a researcher in the Cancer Metabolic Imaging and Therapy Lab in UCSF’s Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.