The Christodoulou Laboratory develops and translates novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques through innovations in MR physics, machine learning and image reconstruction. Our primary focus is on multidimensional quantitative imaging methods for the diagnosis, risk prediction and treatment monitoring of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Interested graduate students and postdoctoral scientists are encouraged to investigate our work and contact us to inquire about positions

 

Major Research Goal

Our long-term research goal is to enable comprehensive quantification of multiple MR biomarkers in a single, short “push-button” scan that simultaneously quantifies multiple biomarkers—for any organ and for a wide range of diseases. Our primary approach toward this goal, “MR Multitasking,” redesigns the quantitative MRI process to allow fast, accurate, and repeatable motion-resolved quantitative imaging—enabling non-ECG, free-breathing quantification of multiple tissue parameters at once, even in the heart and abdomen.

 

Current Members

 

Alumni

• Xianglun Vincent Mao, Ph.D. (GE Healthcare)
• Fardad Michael Serry, M.S. (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center)
• Matthew Dausch, M.S. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
• Tianle Cao, Ph.D. (Noah Medical)

 

Funded Projects

As Principal Investigator

Active:

• NIH R01 EB032801
  Fully quantitative low-dose, motion-resolved dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in pancreatic adenocarcinoma
  (Christodoulou/Li)
• NIH R01 HL127153
  Expanding on a new paradigm for MRI in pediatric congenital heart disease
  (Finn/Nguyen/Christodoulou)

Completed:

• AHA 11PRE5240004
  Moving towards real-time 3D cardiovascular MRI
  (Christodoulou)
• SCMR 2018 Clinical Seed Grant
  Toward a push-button, single-scan quantitative CMR exam
  (Christodoulou)
• NIH R01 EB028146
  Motion-resolved, comprehensive quantitative tissue characterization using MR Multitasking
  (Li/Christodoulou)
• NIH R01 HL156818
  SSFP cardiovascular MR imaging on 3.0T using unified-coil local shimming
  (Han/Christodoulou/Yang)

 

As Co-Investigator/Subaward PI

• CDMRP W81XWH-18-1-0070
  Investigation of neurodevelopment concomitant with cardiovascular hemodynamic function in genetically engineered mouse models of hypoplastic left heart syndrome
  (Wu)
• NIH R21 EB023507
  Gating-free ultra-fast fetal cardiac MRI with sub-Nyquist sampling for live in utero imaging and cardiovascular phenotyping of fetal mice
  (Wu)
• NIH R01 HL147355
  Longitudinal and quantitative MR plaque imaging for prediction of response to medical management in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis
  (Fan)
• NIH R01 EB029088
  Multi-task MR simulation for abdominal radiation treatment planning
  (Fan/Yang)
• CDMRP W81XWH-22-1-0221
  4D Oxy-wavelet MRI as a non-invasive biomarker of brain mitochondrial function in vivo
  (Wu)

 

As Co-Investigator

• NIH R01 HL148182
  Ferumoxytol-enhanced cardiac MRI for ischemic heart disease
  (Nguyen)
• NIH R01 HL165211
  Push-button cardiac MRI for non-invasive quantification of myocardial energy consumption in heart failure
  (Yang)
• NIH R01 HL168635
  Multiparametric PET/MRI assessment of mast cell stabilization effects on inflammaging and glucose utilization in infarcted myocardium
  (Cokic/Li/Ader)

 

Selected Publications

For a complete list of publications, please refer to Google Scholar, PubMed, or Dimensions.

• Christodoulou AG, Shaw JL, Nguyen C, Yang Q, Xie Y, Wang N, Li D.
  Magnetic resonance multitasking for motion-resolved quantitative cardiovascular imaging.
  Nature Biomed Eng. 2018 Apr;2(4):215-226.
• Shaw JL, Yang Q, Zhou Z, Deng Z, Nguyen C, Li D, Christodoulou AG.
  Free-breathing, non-ECG, continuous myocardial T1 mapping with cardiovascular magnetic resonance multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2019 Apr;81(4):2450-2463.
• Chen Y, Shaw JL, Xie Y, Li D, Christodoulou AG.
  Deep learning within a priori temporal feature spaces for large-scale dynamic MR image reconstruction: Application to 5-D cardiac MR Multitasking.
  Med Image Comput and Comput Assist Interv (MICCAI), 2019;11765:495-504.
• Christodoulou AG, Lingala SG.
  Accelerated dynamic magnetic resonance imaging using learned representations: A new frontier in biomedical imaging.
  IEEE Signal Process Mag. 2020 Jan;37(1):83-93.
• Ma S, Nguyen C, Han F, Deng Z, Binesh N, Moser F, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Three-dimensional simultaneous brain T1, T2, and ADC mapping with MR Multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2020 Jul;84(1):72-88. †Contributed equally.
• Wang N, Gaddam S, Wang L, Xie Y, Fan Z, Yang W, Tuli R, Lo S, Hendifar A, Pandol S, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Six‐dimensional quantitative DCE MR Multitasking of the entire abdomen: Method and application to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
  Magn Reson Med. 2020 Aug;84(2):928-948. †Contributed equally.
• Han P, Zhang R, Wagner S, Xie Y, Cingolani E, Marbán E, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  ECG-less, free-breathing myocardial ECV mapping in small animals at high heart rates using motion-resolved CMR multitasking: a feasibility study in a HFpEF rat model.
  J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2021 Feb;23:8. †Contributed equally.
• Ma S, Wang N, Fan Z, Kaisey M, Sicotte NL, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Three‐dimensional whole‐brain simultaneous T1, T2, and T1ρ quantification using MR Multitasking: Method and initial clinical experience in tissue characterization of multiple sclerosis.
  Magn Reson Med. 2021 Apr;85(4):1938-1952. †Contributed equally.
• Wang N, Xie Y, Fan Z, Ma S, Saouaf R, Guo Y, Shiao SL, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Five‐dimensional quantitative low‐dose Multitasking dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI: Preliminary study on breast cancer.
  Magn Reson Med. 2021 Jun;85(6):3096-3111. †Contributed equally.
• Serry FM, Ma S, Mao X, Han F, Xie Y, Han H, Li D, Christodoulou AG.
  Dual flip-angle IR-FLASH with spin history mapping for B1+ corrected T1 mapping: Application to T1 cardiovascular magnetic resonance multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2021 Dec;86(6):3182-3191.
• Ma S, Wang N, Xie Y, Fan Z, Li D, Christodoulou AG.
  Motion-robust quantitative multiparametric brain MRI with motion-resolved MR multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2022 Jan;87(1):102-119.
• Wang N, Cao T, Han F, Xie Y, Zhong X, Ma S, Kwan A, Fan Z, Han H, Bi X, Noureddin M, Deshpande V, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Free-breathing multitasking multi-echo MRI for whole-liver water-specific T1, proton density fat fraction, and R2* quantification.
  Magn Reson Med. 2022 Jan;87(1):120-137. †Contributed equally.
• Cao T, Ma S, Wang N, Gharabaghi S, Xie Y, Fan Z, Hogg E, Wu C, Han F, Tagliati M, Haacke EM, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Three-dimensional simultaneous brain mapping of T1, T2, T2* and magnetic susceptibility with MR Multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2022 Mar;87(3):1375-1389. †Contributed equally.
• Mao X, Lee H-L, Hu Z, Cao T, Han F, Ma S, Serry FM, Fan Z, Xie Y, Li D, Christodoulou AG.
  Simultaneous multi-slice cardiac MR Multitasking for motion-resolved, non-ECG, free-breathing T1–T2 mapping.
  Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Mar;9:833257.
• Chen Z, Xie Y, Li D, Christodoulou AG.
  Data-Consistent non-Cartesian deep subspace learning for efficient dynamic MR image reconstruction.
  IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging (ISBI), 2022.
• Han P, Cheema K, Lee H-L, Zhou Z, Cao T, Ma S, Wang N, Han H, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Whole-brain steady-state CEST at 3 T using MR Multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2022 May;87(5):2363-2371. †Contributed equally.
• Han P, Chen J, Xiao J, Han F, Hu Z, Yang W, Cao M, Ling DC, Li D, Christodoulou AG†, Fan Z†.
  Single projection driven real-time multi-contrast (SPIDERM) MR imaging using pre-learned spatial subspace and linear transformation.
  Phys Med Biol. 2022 Jun;67(13):135008. †Contributed equally.
• Cao T, Wang N, Kwan AC, Lee H-L, Mao X, Xie Y, Nguyen K-L, Colbert CM, Han F, Han P, Han H, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Free-breathing, non-ECG, simultaneous myocardial T1, T2, T2*, and fat-fraction mapping with motion-resolved cardiovascular MR multitasking.
  Magn Reson Med. 2022 Oct;88(4):1748-1763. †Contributed equally.
• Han P, Cheema K, Cao T, Lee H-L, Han F, Wang N, Han H, Xie Y, Christodoulou AG†, Li D†.
  Free-breathing 3D CEST MRI of human liver at 3.0 T.
  Magn Reson Med. 2023 Feb;89(2):738-745. †Contributed equally.
• Sheagren CD, Cao T, Patel JH, Chen Z, Lee H-L, Wang N, Christodoulou AG, Wright GA.
  Motion-compensated T1 mapping in cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging: a technical review.
  Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Sept;10:1160183.
• Chen Z, Stapleton MC, Xie Y, Li D, Wu YL†, Christodoulou AG†.
  Physics-informed deep learning for T2-deblurred superresolution turbo spin echo MRI.
  Magn Reson Med. 2023 Dec;90(6):2362-2374. †Contributed equally.
• Christodoulou AG, Cruz G, Arami A, Weingärtner S, Artico J, Peters D, Seiberlich N.
  The future of cardiovascular magnetic resonance: All-in-one vs. real-time (Part 1).
  J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2024 Jun;26(1):100997.