Congyu Liao, PhD

Assistant Professor
Asst Professor In Residence
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Biography

Congyu Liao, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and the Technical Director of the Neuroimaging Technology Research Center (NTRC) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2018 and completed postdoctoral training at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, under the mentorship of Dr. Kawin Setsompop. Prior to joining UCSF in 2025, he was an Instructor at Stanford University. His research focuses on developing advanced diffusion and quantitative MRI techniques, with applications in neurodevelopment and neurological disorders.

Education

Instructor, 2025 - Radiology, Stanford University
Postdoctoral Scholar, 2022 - Radiology, Stanford University
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2021 - Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
PhD, 2018 - Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University
BS, 2013 - Control Technology and Instrument Science, China University of Geosciences

Honors and Awards

Junior Fellow, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2022
Summa Cum Laude Merit Award, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2022
Magna Cum Laude Merit Award, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2021
Magna Cum Laude Merit Award, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2020
Summa Cum Laude Merit Award, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2019
Young Investigator Award (Second Place), Overseas Chinese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2019
Magna Cum Laude Merit Award, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2018
Outstanding Research Award, Overseas Chinese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2018
Educational Stipend, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2015

Publications

Georgiadis M, der Heiden FA, Abbasi H, Ettema L, Nirschl J, Taghavi HM, Wakatsuki M, Liu A, Ho WHD, Carlson M, Doukas M, Koppes SA, Keereweer S, Sobel RA, Setsompop K, Liao C, Amunts K, Axer M, Zeineh M, Menzel M. Micron-resolution fiber mapping in histology independent of sample preparation. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 14.
Schauman SS, Iyer SS, Sandino CM, Yurt M, Cao X, Liao C, Ruengchaijatuporn N, Chatnuntawech I, Tong E, Setsompop K. Deep learning initialized compressed sensing (Deli-CS) in volumetric spatio-temporal subspace reconstruction. MAGMA. 2025 Apr; 38(2):221-237.
Huang J, Wu Y, Wang F, Fang Y, Nan Y, Alkan C, Abraham D, Liao C, Xu L, Gao Z, Wu W, Zhu L, Chen Z, Lally P, Bangerter N, Setsompop K, Guo Y, Rueckert D, Wang G, Yang G. Data- and Physics-Driven Deep Learning Based Reconstruction for Fast MRI: Fundamentals and Methodologies. IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2025; 18:152-171.
Cao X, Liao C, Zhu Z, Li Z, Bhattacharjee R, Nishmura M, Wang Z, Wang N, Zhou Z, Chen Q, Abraham D, Majumdar S, Villanueva-Meyer J, Yang Y, Setsompop K. Three-dimensional high-isotropic-resolution MR fingerprinting optimized for 0.55 T. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Jan 15.
Alkan C, Mardani M, Liao C, Li Z, Vasanawala SS, Pauly JM. AutoSamp: Autoencoding k-Space Sampling via Variational Information Maximization for 3D MRI. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2025 Jan; 44(1):270-283.
Yarach U, Chatnuntawech I, Liao C, Teerapittayanon S, Iyer SS, Kim TH, Haldar J, Cho J, Bilgic B, Hu Y, Hargreaves B, Setsompop K. Blip-up blip-down circular EPI (BUDA-cEPI) for distortion-free dMRI with rapid unrolled deep learning reconstruction. Magn Reson Imaging. 2025 Jan; 115:110277.
Wang N, Liao C, Cao X, Nishimura M, Brackenier YWE, Yurt M, Gao M, Abraham D, Alkan C, Iyer SS, Zhou Z, Jeong H, Kerr A, Haldar JP, Setsompop K. Spherical echo-planar time-resolved imaging (sEPTI) for rapid 3D quantitative T2* and susceptibility imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Jan; 93(1):121-137.
Hu J, Zhou J, Liao C, Wang Y, Hao X, Qiu B. Highly Accelerated Three-Dimensional Free-Breathing Cardiac T2 Mapping with Modified Low-Rank Modeling of Local K-Space Neighborhoods. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2024 Jul; 2024:1-4.
Yablonski M, Zhou Z, Cao X, Schauman S, Liao C, Setsompop K, Yeatman JD. Fast and reliable quantitative measures of white matter development with magnetic resonance fingerprinting. bioRxiv. 2024 Jun 30.
Yang H, Wang G, Li Z, Li H, Zheng J, Hu Y, Cao X, Liao C, Ye H, Tian Q. Artificial intelligence for neuro MRI acquisition: a review. MAGMA. 2024 Jul; 37(3):383-396.
Finkelstein AJ, Liao C, Cao X, Mani M, Schifitto G, Zhong J. High-fidelity intravoxel incoherent motion parameter mapping using locally low-rank and subspace modeling. Neuroimage. 2024 Apr 15; 292:120601.
Liu Q, Ning L, Shaik IA, Liao C, Gagoski B, Bilgic B, Grissom W, Nielsen JF, Zaitsev M, Rathi Y. Reduced cross-scanner variability using vendor-agnostic sequences for single-shell diffusion MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2024 Jul; 92(1):246-256.
Liu Y, Liao C, Setsompop K, Haldar JP. The Potential of Phase Constraints for Non-Fourier Radiofrequency-Encoded MRI. IEEE Trans Comput Imaging. 2024; 10:223-232.
Brackenier Y, Wang N, Liao C, Cao X, Schauman S, Yurt M, Cordero-Grande L, Malik SJ, Kerr A, Hajnal JV, Setsompop K. Rapid and accurate navigators for motion and B0 tracking using QUEEN: Quantitatively enhanced parameter estimation from navigators. Magn Reson Med. 2024 May; 91(5):2028-2043.
Liao C, Cao X, Iyer SS, Schauman S, Zhou Z, Yan X, Chen Q, Li Z, Wang N, Gong T, Wu Z, He H, Zhong J, Yang Y, Kerr A, Grill-Spector K, Setsompop K. High-resolution myelin-water fraction and quantitative relaxation mapping using 3D ViSTa-MR fingerprinting. Magn Reson Med. 2024 Jun; 91(6):2278-2293.
Liao C, Cao X, Srinivasan Iyer S, Schauman S, Zhou Z, Yan X, Chen Q, Li Z, Wang N, Gong T, Wu Z, He H, Zhong J, Yang Y, Kerr A, Grill-Spector K, Setsompop K. High-resolution myelin-water fraction and quantitative relaxation mapping using 3D ViSTa-MR fingerprinting. ArXiv. 2023 Dec 21.
Feinberg DA, Beckett AJS, Vu AT, Stockmann J, Huber L, Ma S, Ahn S, Setsompop K, Cao X, Park S, Liu C, Wald LL, Polimeni JR, Mareyam A, Gruber B, Stirnberg R, Liao C, Yacoub E, Davids M, Bell P, Rummert E, Koehler M, Potthast A, Gonzalez-Insua I, Stocker S, Gunamony S, Dietz P. Next-generation MRI scanner designed for ultra-high-resolution human brain imaging at 7 Tesla. Nat Methods. 2023 Dec; 20(12):2048-2057.
Cao X, Liao C, Zhou Z, Zhong Z, Li Z, Dai E, Iyer SS, Hannum AJ, Yurt M, Schauman S, Chen Q, Wang N, Wei J, Yan Y, He H, Skare S, Zhong J, Kerr A, Setsompop K. DTI-MR fingerprinting for rapid high-resolution whole-brain T1 , T2 , proton density, ADC, and fractional anisotropy mapping. Magn Reson Med. 2024 Mar; 91(3):987-1001.
Liao C, Yarach U, Cao X, Iyer SS, Wang N, Kim TH, Tian Q, Bilgic B, Kerr AB, Setsompop K. High-fidelity mesoscale in-vivo diffusion MRI through gSlider-BUDA and circular EPI with S-LORAKS reconstruction. Neuroimage. 2023 Jul 15; 275:120168.
Ong F, Zhong Z, Liao C, Lustig M, Vasanawala SS, Pauly JM. SLfRank: Shinnar-Le-Roux Pulse Design With Reduced Energy and Accurate Phase Profiles Using Rank Factorization. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2023 May; 42(5):1522-1531.
Iyer SS, Schauman SS, Sandino CM, Yurt M, Cao X, Liao C, Ruengchaijatuporn N, Chatnuntawech I, Tong E, Setsompop K. Deep Learning Initialized Compressed Sensing (Deli-CS) in Volumetric Spatio-Temporal Subspace Reconstruction. bioRxiv. 2023 Mar 28.
Chen Z, Liao C, Cao X, Poser BA, Xu Z, Lo WC, Wen M, Cho J, Tian Q, Wang Y, Feng Y, Xia L, Chen W, Liu F, Bilgic B. 3D-EPI blip-up/down acquisition (BUDA) with CAIPI and joint Hankel structured low-rank reconstruction for rapid distortion-free high-resolution T2* mapping. Magn Reson Med. 2023 May; 89(5):1961-1974.
Zhou Z, Li Q, Liao C, Cao X, Liang H, Chen Q, Pu R, Ye H, Tong Q, He H, Zhong J. Optimized three-dimensional ultrashort echo time: Magnetic resonance fingerprinting for myelin tissue fraction mapping. Hum Brain Mapp. 2023 Apr 15; 44(6):2209-2223.
Misquitta K, Daou M, Conklin J, Liao C, Setsompop K, Poublanc J, Shirzadi Z, MacIntosh BJ, Tomlinson G, Cohn M, Aviv RI, Silver FL, Mandell DM. Detecting Silent Acute Microinfarcts in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Using Submillimeter Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Preliminary Results. Stroke. 2022 Jul; 53(7):e251-e252.
Cho J, Liao C, Tian Q, Zhang Z, Xu J, Lo WC, Poser BA, Stenger VA, Stockmann J, Setsompop K, Bilgic B. Highly accelerated EPI with wave encoding and multi-shot simultaneous multislice imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Sep; 88(3):1180-1197.
Zhang Z, Cho J, Wang L, Liao C, Shin HG, Cao X, Lee J, Xu J, Zhang T, Ye H, Setsompop K, Liu H, Bilgic B. Blip up-down acquisition for spin- and gradient-echo imaging (BUDA-SAGE) with self-supervised denoising enables efficient T2 , T2 *, para- and dia-magnetic susceptibility mapping. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Aug; 88(2):633-650.
Cao X, Liao C, Iyer SS, Wang Z, Zhou Z, Dai E, Liberman G, Dong Z, Gong T, He H, Zhong J, Bilgic B, Setsompop K. Optimized multi-axis spiral projection MR fingerprinting with subspace reconstruction for rapid whole-brain high-isotropic-resolution quantitative imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Jul; 88(1):133-150.
Yu FF, Huang SY, Kumar A, Witzel T, Liao C, Duval T, Cohen-Adad J, Bilgic B. Erratum to: Rapid simultaneous acquisition of macromolecular tissue volume, susceptibility, and relaxometry maps (Magn Reson Med. 2022;87:781-790.). Magn Reson Med. 2022 Jun; 87(6):3022-3023.
Yu FF, Huang SY, Kumar A, Witzel T, Liao C, Duval T, Cohen-Adad J, Bilgic B. Rapid simultaneous acquisition of macromolecular tissue volume, susceptibility, and relaxometry maps. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Feb; 87(2):781-790.
Stout JN, Liao C, Gagoski B, Turk EA, Feldman HA, Bibbo C, Barth WH, Shainker SA, Wald LL, Grant PE, Adalsteinsson E. Quantitative T1 and T2 mapping by magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) of the placenta before and after maternal hyperoxia. Placenta. 2021 Oct; 114:124-132.
Cao X, Wang K, Liao C, Zhang Z, Srinivasan Iyer S, Chen Z, Lo WC, Liu H, He H, Setsompop K, Zhong J, Bilgic B. Efficient T2 mapping with blip-up/down EPI and gSlider-SMS (T2 -BUDA-gSlider). Magn Reson Med. 2021 Oct; 86(4):2064-2075.
Wang F, Dong Z, Tian Q, Liao C, Fan Q, Hoge WS, Keil B, Polimeni JR, Wald LL, Huang SY, Setsompop K. In vivo human whole-brain Connectom diffusion MRI dataset at 760?µm isotropic resolution. Sci Data. 2021 Apr 29; 8(1):122.
Ramos-Llordén G, Vegas-Sánchez-Ferrero G, Liao C, Westin CF, Setsompop K, Rathi Y. SNR-enhanced diffusion MRI with structure-preserving low-rank denoising in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. Magn Reson Med. 2021 Sep; 86(3):1614-1632.
Manhard MK, Stockmann J, Liao C, Park D, Han S, Fair M, van den Boomen M, Polimeni J, Bilgic B, Setsompop K. A multi-inversion multi-echo spin and gradient echo echo planar imaging sequence with low image distortion for rapid quantitative parameter mapping and synthetic image contrasts. Magn Reson Med. 2021 Aug; 86(2):866-880.
Liao C, Bilgic B, Tian Q, Stockmann JP, Cao X, Fan Q, Iyer SS, Wang F, Ngamsombat C, Lo WC, Manhard MK, Huang SY, Wald LL, Setsompop K. Distortion-free, high-isotropic-resolution diffusion MRI with gSlider BUDA-EPI and multicoil dynamic B0 shimming. Magn Reson Med. 2021 Aug; 86(2):791-803.
Lobos RA, Hoge WS, Javed A, Liao C, Setsompop K, Nayak KS, Haldar JP. Robust autocalibrated structured low-rank EPI ghost correction. Magn Reson Med. 2021 06; 85(6):3403-3419.
Fair MJ, Liao C, Manhard MK, Setsompop K. Diffusion-PEPTIDE: Distortion- and blurring-free diffusion imaging with self-navigated motion-correction and relaxometry capabilities. Magn Reson Med. 2021 May; 85(5):2417-2433.
Tian Q, Bilgic B, Fan Q, Liao C, Ngamsombat C, Hu Y, Witzel T, Setsompop K, Polimeni JR, Huang SY. DeepDTI: High-fidelity six-direction diffusion tensor imaging using deep learning. Neuroimage. 2020 Oct 01; 219:117017.
Ramos-Llordén G, Ning L, Liao C, Mukhometzianov R, Michailovich O, Setsompop K, Rathi Y. High-fidelity, accelerated whole-brain submillimeter in vivo diffusion MRI using gSlider-spherical ridgelets (gSlider-SR). Magn Reson Med. 2020 Oct; 84(4):1781-1795.
Haldar JP, Liu Y, Liao C, Fan Q, Setsompop K. Fast submillimeter diffusion MRI using gSlider-SMS and SNR-enhancing joint reconstruction. Magn Reson Med. 2020 08; 84(2):762-776.
Han S, Liao C, Manhard MK, Park DJ, Bilgic B, Fair MJ, Wang F, Blazejewska AI, Grissom WA, Polimeni JR, Setsompop K. Accelerated spin-echo functional MRI using multisection excitation by simultaneous spin-echo interleaving (MESSI) with complex-encoded generalized slice dithered enhanced resolution (cgSlider) simultaneous multislice echo-planar imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2020 Jul; 84(1):206-220.
Liao C, Stockmann J, Tian Q, Bilgic B, Arango NS, Manhard MK, Huang SY, Grissom WA, Wald LL, Setsompop K. High-fidelity, high-isotropic-resolution diffusion imaging through gSlider acquisition with B1+ and T1 corrections and integrated ?B0 /Rx shim array. Magn Reson Med. 2020 Jan; 83(1):56-67.
Wang K, Cao X, Wu D, Liao C, Zhang J, Ji C, Zhong J, He H, Chen Y. Magnetic resonance fingerprinting of temporal lobe white matter in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2019 Sep; 6(9):1639-1646.
Li Q, Cao X, Ye H, Liao C, He H, Zhong J. Ultrashort echo time magnetic resonance fingerprinting (UTE-MRF) for simultaneous quantification of long and ultrashort T2 tissues. Magn Reson Med. 2019 Oct; 82(4):1359-1372.
Bilgic B, Chatnuntawech I, Manhard MK, Tian Q, Liao C, Iyer SS, Cauley SF, Huang SY, Polimeni JR, Wald LL, Setsompop K. Highly accelerated multishot echo planar imaging through synergistic machine learning and joint reconstruction. Magn Reson Med. 2019 Oct; 82(4):1343-1358.
Manhard MK, Bilgic B, Liao C, Han S, Witzel T, Yen YF, Setsompop K. Accelerated whole-brain perfusion imaging using a simultaneous multislice spin-echo and gradient-echo sequence with joint virtual coil reconstruction. Magn Reson Med. 2019 Sep; 82(3):973-983.
Liao C, Manhard MK, Bilgic B, Tian Q, Fan Q, Han S, Wang F, Park DJ, Witzel T, Zhong J, Wang H, Wald LL, Setsompop K. Phase-matched virtual coil reconstruction for highly accelerated diffusion echo-planar imaging. Neuroimage. 2019 Jul 01; 194:291-302.
Cao X, Ye H, Liao C, Li Q, He H, Zhong J. Fast 3D brain MR fingerprinting based on multi-axis spiral projection trajectory. Magn Reson Med. 2019 Jul; 82(1):289-301.
Haldar JP, Griswold MA, Setsompop K, Wald LL. Optimal Experiment Design for Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting: Cramér-Rao Bound Meets Spin Dynamics. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2019 03; 38(3):844-861.
Liao C, Wang K, Cao X, Li Y, Wu D, Ye H, Ding Q, He H, Zhong J. Detection of Lesions in Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy by Using MR Fingerprinting. Radiology. 2018 Sep; 288(3):804-812.
Li Q, Liao C, Ye H, Chen Y, Cao X, Yuan L, He H, Zhong J. Squeezed Trajectory Design for Peak RF and Integrated RF Power Reduction in Parallel Transmission MRI. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2018 Aug; 37(8):1809-1821.
Bilgic B, Kim TH, Liao C, Manhard MK, Wald LL, Haldar JP, Setsompop K. Improving parallel imaging by jointly reconstructing multi-contrast data. Magn Reson Med. 2018 08; 80(2):619-632.
Liao C, Bilgic B, Manhard MK, Zhao B, Cao X, Zhong J, Wald LL, Setsompop K. 3D MR fingerprinting with accelerated stack-of-spirals and hybrid sliding-window and GRAPPA reconstruction. Neuroimage. 2017 Nov 15; 162:13-22.
Cao X, Liao C, Wang Z, Chen Y, Ye H, He H, Zhong J. Robust sliding-window reconstruction for Accelerating the acquisition of MR fingerprinting. Magn Reson Med. 2017 Oct; 78(4):1579-1588.
Chen M, Liao C, Chen S, Ding Q, Zhu D, Liu H, Yan X, Zhong J. Uncertainty assessment of gamma-aminobutyric acid concentration of different brain regions in individual and group using residual bootstrap analysis. Med Biol Eng Comput. 2017 Jun; 55(6):1051-1059.
Liao C, Chen Y, Cao X, Chen S, He H, Mani M, Jacob M, Magnotta V, Zhong J. Efficient parallel reconstruction for high resolution multishot spiral diffusion data with low rank constraint. Magn Reson Med. 2017 Mar; 77(3):1359-1366.