Dr. Edward F. Jackson

Regular Member

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Imaging Physics

Research Interests:

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Functional MRI
• Perfusion imaging
• Pharmacokinetic modeling of contrast agent-enhanced MRI data
• Image processing
• In vivo MR spectroscopy

The primary goal of the research in this laboratory is the application of high-speed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to allow the assessment of the functional status of tissues in a non-invasive manner. Functional MRI research projects are aimed at mapping of the areas of the brain activated in response to particular task activation paradigms (visual, sensorimotor, language, memory, and pain), assessing the modulation of the levels of activation as a result of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, and applications of functional MRI techniques to surgical planning. In addition, high-speed MRI data acquired before, during, and following the administration of MR contrast agents are being used to compute maps of blood volume and blood flow in various tissues. Such data are also being used in pharmacokinetic modeling studies to determine the feasibility of using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI to non-invasively assess the local tissue vascular volume and permeability in and around intracranial lesions. Volumetric imaging techniques and feature map tissue classification algorithms are being used to allow quantitative measurements of anatomical structures and to provide a means of tracking volume changes in the response to therapy. Finally, in vivo MR spectroscopy techniques are being investigated as a means of assessing the biochemical status of lesions with the goal of improving our ability to more fully characterize the lesion in a non-invasive manner.

A tutorial in this laboratory would provide experience in the applications of high-speed MRI and sophisticated post-acquisition data processing algorithms to in vivo systems.

Publications

Program Affiliation:

Program in Medical Physics