Dmitriy Yablonskiy, PhD
Professor, WashU Radiology
- Phone: 314-362-1815
- Email: yablonskiyd@nospam.wustl.edu
Quantitative Neuroimaging: A Bridge between Brain Tissue Cellular Neurovascular Injury & Repair and Function
Our work focuses on development and applications of quantitative MRI-based methods for studying humans and animals in health and disease. Extensive background in mathematics and theoretical physics has allowed us to make unique contributions to this direction by integrating biophysical modeling of mechanisms underlying MRI signal into MRI methods design to reveal biological tissue structure and function. Dr. Yablonskiy has authored and co-authored more than 200 papers in peer-review journals in the areas of MRI, physiology, and theoretical physics.
Recent work in our lab is focused on applying MRI-based Gradient Echo Plural Contrast Imaging (GEPCI) technique that we have developed to link brain genetic and cellular microstructure with brain functioning. We study patients with Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and different psychiatric diseases.
For Alzheimer disease (AD), our most important finding is that GEPCI can identify AD-related tissue cellular damage well before onset of the tissue atrophy measured by volumetric MRI. Hence GEPCI has a great potential for early diagnostic of the preclinical stage of AD, thus providing a large window for therapeutic intervention. It has also a great potential as a non-invasive MRI technique available in a conventional clinical setting for screening population for preclinical AD pathology and clinical drug trials.
In multiple sclerosis we have demonstrated that GEPCI can uncover brain tissue damage in normal appearing gray matter and white matter that is not visible with standard clinical MRI.
In October 2018 Dr. Yablonskiy was invited to give a talk at the i2i Workshop hosted by the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation & Research (CAI2R) at NYU Langone Health.