The Advanced Imaging Research group is a joint program between the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute and the Indiana Institute of Biomedical Imaging Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine. The central mission of the Advanced Imaging Research program is threefold: to advance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) technologies; to promote working knowledge of MRI and PET physics; and to facilitate integrating advanced imaging technologies into the basic and clinical research community at IU School of Medicine.
With strong imaging physics backgrounds, primary members from departments across the school of medicine focus their research on developing innovative imaging technologies through pulse sequence programming, building customized in-house imaging protocols and optimizing imaging acquisition and processing approaches. Members organize and provide a 10-session weekly educational seminar in the winter semester to the imaging community. Because in vivo imaging with MRI and PET holds great advantages for translational and reverse-translational validation studies, the program also hosts a monthly journal club in the summer and fall with a special format of discussing both preclinical and clinical imaging-focused articles per selected research topic. The research topics will include a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as normative aging and neurodegenerative disease (with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease), alcohol and substance use disorders, traumatic brain injury and adolescent and adult neuropsychiatric disorders. To achieve its mission, the group proactively works with the Indiana Institute of Biomedical Imaging Sciences In-Vivo Imaging Core and the Center for Neuroimaging.
