Speaker

Dr. Vadim Malis, Project Scientist, Department of Radiology, University of California

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful medical imaging modality for noninvasively probing tissue structure, function, and biochemical composition, yet many important disease-related changes remain difficult to detect with conventional clinical imaging. In this talk, I present a set of quantitative MRI techniques developed to improve tissue characterization across multiple organ systems and applications. In musculoskeletal MRI, I examine velocity-encoded phase-contrast imaging for strain and strain-rate mapping, and STEAM-based diffusion MRI for microstructural modeling, to study muscle mechanics and extracellular matrix remodeling associated with aging and disuse atrophy. I then discuss magnetization transfer methods, including Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) and Z-spectrum Analysis Protons (ZAP), for probing exchange processes and molecular properties in phantoms and in vivo abdominal imaging. Finally, I present ultrashort echo time (UTE) imaging with tight echoes δTE for quantitative pulmonary MRI, where T2* mapping provides sensitive markers of lung parenchymal changes. Together, these techniques illustrate how quantitative MRI can provide quantitative imaging biomarkers of tissue microstructure, composition, and physiological function across a broad range of biomedical applications.

Bio

Dr. Vadim Malis is a Project Scientist in the Department of Radiology at the University of California, San Diego. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from UC San Diego, and his research focuses on developing quantitative MRI methods for tissue characterization, with expertise in phase-contrast imaging, diffusion MRI, magnetization transfer, ultrashort echo time imaging and arterial spin labeling techniques. His work integrates pulse sequence design, quantitative modeling, and clinical translation. He is a Junior Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), has received multiple ISMRM merit awards, and is the principal investigator of an NIH K99 award focused on lung MRI biomarkers for COPD patients.