Biomedical & Molecular Imaging
![Biomedical and molecular imaging picture](/education/graduate-school/programs/biomedical-engineering/assets/bmi-top-banner-desktop.jpg)
Biomedical and Molecular Imaging (BMI) emphasizes the development and application of cutting-edge imaging technologies, molecular imaging probes, and image processing techniques.
Through coursework, seminars, journal clubs, and their own research, students in BMI will be exposed to a wide range of traditional and emerging imaging methodologies.
Research Topics
The current BMI faculty consists of basic scientists, biomedical engineers, and clinicians interested in developing new imaging methodologies in both basic and clinical research at scales ranging from the molecular level to the whole body. Examples include:
- Novel applications of noninvasive imaging including MRI, MRS, SPECT, PET, ultrasound, and optical imaging.
- Functional brain imaging using fMRI and near infrared imaging (NIR).
- RF pulse sequence development for clinical MRI.
- Metabolic imaging using isotope tracers and NMR spectroscopy.
- MRI-guided high intensity focused ultrasound for tissue ablation and therapeutics.
- Responsive MR agents and targeted PET agents for imaging biological function in vivo.
- Molecular imaging of cancer using targeted nanoparticles.
- Combinatorial chemistry to identify and image biological targets.
Director
![Anke Henning, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/henning-anke-187168-380x380.jpg)
Faculty
Professor
Research Interests: Molecular Imaging; optical imaging; instrument development; image-guided surgery; cancer treatment, molecular probes; spectroscopy, multimodal nuclear and magnetic imaging; stimulated thermal imaging, nanomedicine
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Immunotherapy and radiotherapy in cancer prevention and treatment; premature aging and carcinogenesis; DNA damage response signaling in heart development
![Asaithamby Aroumougame, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/aroumougame-asaithamby-69368-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Development of hybrid positron emission tomography (PET) (e.g. PET-CT and PET-MR) tools to enable precision imaging for the care and study of oncology, neurology, and cardiology patients.
![Spencer Bowen, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/bowen-spencer-192261-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: NMR spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy in conjunction with the application of stable isotope tracers to study metabolic function
![Shawn Burgess, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/burgess-shawn-46213-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Developing non- and minimally invasive optical tools to monitor deep tissues in health and disease, as well as throughout therapy
![David Busch, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/busch-david-175627-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Biomechanical Modeling of Cardiovascular System; Computational Physiology; Cardiovascular MRI; Heart Failure; Congenital Heart Disease
![Radomir Chabiniok, M.D., Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/default-headshot.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Nanomedicine and image-guided drug delivery for novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications in oncology
![](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/corbin-ian-110988-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Cognitive neuroscience; language; cognition; social communication; fMRI; neuroimaging; autism spectrum disorders; development; cerebellum
![Anila D'Mello, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/anila-dmello-216241-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Sub concussive head impact exposure in contact sports, traumatic brain injury, magnetoencephalography
![Elizabeth Davenport, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/davenport-elizabeth-167588-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Autonomous Microscopy, Molecular Multiplexing, Optical Probe Development, and Content Rich Histopathology
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: The long-term goal of our lab’s research is to develop and implement imaging technologies that provide unprecedented insight into cancer biology.
![Reto Fiolka, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/fiolka-reto-150662-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Activatable optical/MRI imaging probes to study tumor metabolism and theranostic nanomedicine for cancer-targeted drug therapy
![Jinming Gao, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/gao-jinming-76088-380x380.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Evaluate the use of newly designed biodegradable stints to treat pulmonary artery stenosis
![Gerald Greil, M.D., Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/greil-gerald-153989-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Heart-lung interaction; lung morphometry; structure-function correlation of lung growth
![Connie Hsia, M.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/hsia-connie-13360-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Assessment of ventriculographie-arterial coupling in congenital and acquired heart disease. Cardiac MRI for improved vascular imaging
![Tarique Hussain, M.D., Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/hussain-tarique-164347-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Cloud and GPU-based high-performance computing in medical physics and imaging; automatic radiotherapy treatment planning; adaptive radiotherapy; image-guided radiotherapy; low-dose and dynamic-cone-beam CT
![Steve Jiang, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/jiang-steve-150563-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Generation and application of hyperpolarized13C-labeled compounds and89Y-complexes for MRI/Radiopharmaceutical applications
![Zoltan Kovacs, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/kovacs-zoltan-80695-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Neuroimaging, MRI, Dynamic Brain Connectivity, Dopamine, Astrocytes, Reward and Learning
![Nan Li, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/li-nan-196619-200x200.png)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Probe engineering and targeted drug delivery to islet cells for treating diabetes; Islet biology with an emphasis on functional analysis on zinc signaling and zinc transporters in islet endocrine cells.
![Wen-Hong Li, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/li-wen-hong-44975-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Fast and motion-robust MRI acquisition and reconstruction, High-resolution MRI for in vivo imaging intracortical structure and deep nuclei, Novel MRI contrast and quantification of tissue properties
![Jiaen Liu, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/liu-jiaen-203195-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Molecular Imaging, lung cancer, kidney cancer, tumor microenvironment
![Li Liu, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/liu-li-62664-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Ultrasound-guided drug and gene delivery, Targeted drug delivery system, Materials Science, Immunotherapy, Image-guided therapy, Nanomedicine
![Jacques Lux, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/lux-jacques-165362-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Parturition (the process of labor); cervical ripening; male and female reproductive biology
![Mala Mahendroo, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/mahendroo-mala-14546-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Deep Learning applications in neuroimaging including brain tumor molecular marker prediction, Traumatic Brain Injury, MEG, MRI, fMRI
![Joseph Maldjian, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/maldjian-joseph-159817-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: 13C MRS methods for measuring cardiac intermediary-metabolism flux and function analysis/neurotransmitter metabolism of human brain
![Craig Malloy, M.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/malloy-craig-14563-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Tumor pathophysiology and MR assessment of prognostic biomarkers/hypoxia and pH
![Ralph Mason, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/mason-ralph-14638-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Developing state-of-the-art machine-learning approaches to extract radiological imaging and imaging-genomic biomarkers for individualized prognostics in neuroscience and oncological applications
![Albert Montillo, Ph.D. Albert Montillo, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/montillo-albert-163266-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Application of structural (X-ray, CT, and MR) and functional (SPECT and PET) imaging methods to quantify changes in bone mass and metabolism induced by metabolic bone diseases; in vivo assessment of beta-cell mass and function by novel probes; novel PET and SPECT probe development for bone cells
![Orhan Oz, M.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/oz-orhan-15477-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Development of noninvasive molecular imaging tools to elucidate in vivo metabolism
![Jae Mo Park, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/park-jae-mo-164924-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Development of novel MRI techniques for improved diagnosis of abdominal/pelvic diseases and noninvasive in vivo assessment of physiology and response to therapy in tumors
![Ivan Pedrosa, M.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/pedrosa-ivan-126193-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Translational biophotonics, optical spectroscopy & imaging, instrumentation
![Isaac Pence, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/pence-isaac-214090-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Cell motility and mechanics, corneal repair and regeneration, in-vivo confocal imaging
![Matthew Petroll, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/petroll-matthew-15671-380x380.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Spatial organization of tumors by combining machine identified phenotypes and existing pathology scoring within the framework established by cancer biology
![Satwick Rajaram, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/rajaram-satwik-113606-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Role of cycloxygenase-2 in radiation and chemo-resistance, role of small molecule inhibitors as radio-sensitizers
![Debabrata Saha, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/saha-debabrata-61864-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Intermediary Metabolism in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases, Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 Metabolic Imaging, Metabolomics in the Heart, Lung, and Perfusion Preservation, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) based Metabolomics
![Gaurav Sharma, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/sharma-gaurav-170642-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Polymer and materials chemistry, drug and gene delivery, RNAi, biomedical imaging, detection and treatment of cancer
![Daniel Siegwart, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/siegwart-daniel-133851-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Development of PET, SPECT, and MRI imaging probes to assess biological abnormalities and evaluation of disease treatment
![Xiankai Sun, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/sun-xiankai-68538-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Endogenous and exogenous MRI contrast agents and mechanisms in vivo, CEST and PARACEST imaging, hyperpolarization
![Elena Vinogradov, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/vinogradov-elena-131699-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Tomographic image reconstruction; cone-beam computed tomography; image-guided radiation therapy; medical imaging processing
![Jing Wang, Ph.D](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/wang-jing-115158-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Biomedical optics, In Vivo cell tracking, Optical tomography-guided radiation therapy and Ultra-high dose rate irradiation
![Ken Wang, Ph.D. Ken Wang, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/wang-ken-196778-200x200.jpeg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Diffusion MRI; QSM; Neuroimaging; ML/AI; Alzheimer's Disease; Osteoarthritis
![Nian Wang, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/wang-nian-195189-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: My methodology research is focused on model development for high-dimensional data such as gene expression, epigenomics, copy number variation, proteomics, genome-wide RNAi functional screening data and brain image data.
![Guanghua Xiao, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/xiao-guanghua-85324-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: PET, SPECT, Deep Learning
![Jaewon Yang, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/biomedical-engineering/assets/jaewon-yang-sq.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Instrumentation, imaging
![Raiyan Zaman, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/zaman-raiyan-217358-200x200a.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:Cardiac MRI, Deep Learning, MR Sequence Development
![Qing Zou, Ph.D.](https://swlxwsvauthprd1edu.swmed.edu/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/zou-qing-219364-200x200.jpeg)
Associate Members
These faculty members do not accept graduate students. They participate in teaching, co-mentoring, exam and dissertation committees, and all other program activities.
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Biomedical imaging, molecular imaging, optical device design, nanomaterials, cancer biology and treatment
![Walter J. Akers, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/akers-walter-212261-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: PET, SPECT, and optical imaging probes to assess biological abnormalities and evaluate disease treatment; radiotheranostics for cancer treatment
![Guiyang Hao, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/default-headshot.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Molecular-imaging instrumentation, linear and nonlinear diffraction tomography, tensor tomography, applied inverse problems
![Matthew Lewis, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/lewis-matthew-14278-200x200.jpg)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: In vivo MRS for studies of energy and phospholipids metabolism in brain and skeletal muscle
![Jimin Ren, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/ren-jimin-70867-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Deciphering molecular characteristics of tumors using Radiogenomics; Identifying quantitative imaging parameters reflective of molecular alterations in solid tumors as noninvasive prognostic and predictive tools; Characterizing biomarkers of bone metastasis
![Durga Udayakumar, Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/udayakumar-durga-132241-200x200.jpg)
Professor
Research Interests: Application of Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques (fMRI, DTI, MRS, etc). Correction of magnetic susceptibility artifacts on brain MRI caused by orthodontic appliances. MR Quality Assurance and Safety. MRI Assessment of Body Iron. Application of AI in medical imaging
![Default Headshot](/education/graduate-school/programs/biomedical-engineering/assets/wang-sq.png)
Associate Professor
Research Interests: Applied mathematics and MRI methods for translational research in liver imaging with special focus on evaluation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
![Takeshi Yokoo, M.D., Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/yokoo-takeshi-133919-200x200.jpg)
Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Magnetic resonance imaging, in vivo histology using non-invasive imaging, Alzheimer's Disease, Multiple sclerosis, dementia
![Shaw-Wei Tsen, M.D., Ph.D.](/education/graduate-school/programs/assets/faculty/default-headshot.jpg)