Department of Neurology
MSC10 5620
Health Sciences Center
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131

Phone: (505) 272-3342
Fax: (505) 272-6692

Department of Neurology

Posse MR Lab


team  

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MR Research Group: from left to right, back row: Kaung-Ti Yung, Ernesto Akio Yoshimoto, Chenguang Zhao; front row: Stefan Posse, Elena Ackley, Weili Zheng; separate photo: Kunxiu Gao, Jennifer Cordova.

 

Associate Professor/Principal Investigator

Stefan Posse, PhD    Dr. Posse obtained his undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of Cologne, Germany and pursued his PhD in Magnetic Resonance in vivo at the University of Florida and the University of Berne in Switzerland. During his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health he developed MR methodology to investigate brain metabolism and function at high magnetic field, and introduced one of the first high-speed MR metabolic imaging methods in human brain. He subsequently moved to Germany to build an MR research laboratory at the Research Center Juelich and pioneered real-time functional MRI in human brain. In 2000 he joined Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, MI, where he built a high-field MR research laboratory with one of the first clinical 4 Tesla whole body MR scanners. Since 2003 he is Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics and Astronomy.
 
His federally funded research program is aimed at advancing functional and metabolic MRI for applications in Neuroscience and Clinical Research. He trains students, fellows, residents, faculty and staff to prepare them for successful careers in academia and industry. He serves frequently on NIH study sections and collaborates with national and international research centers in the United States, Europe, Australia and Taiwan.
 

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Postdoctoral Fellows

Kaung-Ti Yung, PhD   After receiving his PhD in 1999 from Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur at U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kaung-Ti Yung was on faculty of Geneva College near Pittsburgh, PA and continued MR research at Carneige Mellon University and U. of Pittsburgh from 2003-2008. While there Dr. Yung constructed RF coils, implemented sequences, and calculated diffusion tensor anisotropy maps for murine models. Currently he is optimizing saturation band placement for high-speed MR spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI), and comparing short TE and TE-averaged PEPSI data for mapping Glutamate.
 
Chenguang Zhao, PhD   Since completing his PhD study in medical image processing in 2005, Chenguang Zhao has been working on MR imaging and spectroscopy (MRI/S). Dr. Zhao's background spans from Mathematics, MR physics, to signal processing. He is currently developing high-speed MR spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI) for the human breast to map total Choline, a metabolic marker of breast cancer. He recently implemented online reconstruction of PEPSI data on the Siemens 3T scanner which permits viewing of reconstructed spectra on the scanner.
 
Weili Zheng, PhD   Weili Zheng received her Ph.D in 2007 from the University of Singapore. Her research interests include signal and image processing and medical image analysis. Dr. Zheng has worked on vascular segmentation of MRA in strokes, and MR brain image analysis of Alzheimer's disease. She is currently working on novel pattern classification methods for real-time fMRI and outer volume suppression in high-speed MR spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI).
 

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Graduate Student

Ernesto Akio Yoshimoto    Ernesto Akio Yoshimoto is a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering at the University of New Mexico, specializing in digital image processing applied to magnetic resonance imaging. Since 2007, he has been working on high-speed MR spectroscopic imaging with parallel reconstruction techniques using large scale array coils. He also works on spectral quantification in high-spatial resolution MR spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI) to obtain detailed metabolite maps of the brain.
 

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Programmers/Analysts

Elena Ackley, MS   Elena Ackley received her Masters in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico in 2000. Most recently she programmed the 'Negative Database' for UNM CS research. Currently, she is developing the TurboFIRE real-time fMRI analysis software package and novel pattern classification methods for real-time fMRI.
 
Kunxiu Gao, MS    Kunxiu Gao received his Master's degree in Computer Science from Wayne State University in May 2001, and started working with Dr. Posse on the real-time fMRI project in August 2001 at the Brain Imaging Research Division, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Currently, he is lead developer of the TurboFIRE real-time fMRI software package and resides in Massachusetts.
 

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Administrative Support

Jennifer Cordova, AS  Jennifer Cordova completed her Associate Degree in Business Management through CNM in 2005, and recently became a member of UNM Department of Neurology coordinating Contract and Grant submissions for all Principal Investigators. She works closely with Dr. Posse and his team, and is the initial contact for volunteers interested in participating as subjects in the MR research studies.
 

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Our Collaborators

Acknowledging the many talented people we work with here at home, and around the globe:
 

University of New Mexico:  Juan Bustillo MD, S. Eberhardt MD, C. Ford MD PhD, P. Heintz PhD, L. Lomo MD, R. Rosenberg MD, M. Royce MD, L. Sillerud PhD, A.M. Wallace MD

MIND Research Network:  Vincent Calhoun PhD, Arvind Caprihan PhD, Hongji Chen, Chuck Gasparovic PhD

MGH/Harvard University:  B. Jenkins PhD, A. van der Kouwe PhD, Fa-Hsuan Lin PhD, Lawrence Wald PhD

CMRR/University of Minnesota:  Patrick Bolan PhD, Pierre-Gilles Henry PhD, Kelvin O. Lim PhD, Malgorzata Marjanska PhD, Bryon Mueller PhD, Kamil Ugurbil PhD

UCLA/University California Los Angeles:   Jeffry R. Alger PhD

University of Madrid, Spain:  Manel Martínez-Ramón PhD

University of Iowa:  Vincent Magnotta PhD

New York University Medical Center:  Ricardo Otazo PhD, Daniel Sodickson PhD

University of Washington:  Stephen R. Dager MD

Seattle Children's Hospital:  Denis Shaw MD

University of Montreal, Canada  Gary Duncan PhD, Emma Duerden M.Sc., Ph.D. candidate

McGill University, Canada  Bruce Pike PhD

National Taiwan University and Chang Gung University, Taiwan:  Fa-Hsuan Lin PhD, Shang-Yueh Tsai PhD

University of Magdeburg, Germany:  Oliver Speck PhD

University of Freiburg, Germany:  Maxim Zaitsev PhD

Radboud University, The Netherlands:  Tom Scheenen PhD

Georgetown University:  John van Meter PhD

University of Texas at Arlington:   Timothy N. Odegard PhD

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center:  Richard W. Briggs PhD

Kopenhagen University, Denmark:  Lars Hanson PhD

McLean Hospital:  Blaise Frederick PhD, Chun Zuo PhD

JABSOM, University of Hawaii:  Thomas Ernst PhD, Linda Chang MD,MS

Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf:  Rüdiger J. Seitz, MD

Purdue/Indiana University:  U. Dydak PhD

Siemens Medical Solutions, Inc.  

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