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rofessor and Canada Research Chair in Functional and Molecular Imaging Research Interests / Specializations: Medical Biophysics, Neuroscience, Development and Application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) techniques, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), design of sophisticated Radio Frequency hardware
Biography: Dr. Menon’s research centres around the application of ultra-high field MRI to problems in neuroscience. Towards this end, Dr. Menon’s team is developing new radio frequency coil hardware to improve the homogeneity of the images in conjunction with software techniques to speed up the image acquisition. Utilizing these advancements to study the biophysical basis of the functional MRI signal which is used in all modern day cognitive and clinical neuroscience as well as developing MRI methods such as quantitative susceptibility mapping for use in the early diagnosis and monitoring of multiple sclerosis.
Professor and Vice-Dean, Research and Innovation, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. Research Interests / Specializations: Medical Biophysics, Neuroimaging
Biography: Dr. Bartha received his PhD in medical biophysics at Western University in 1998. He joined the faculty at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and became a scientist at Robarts in 2002. During the past 18 years, he has served in a number of leadership roles including Acting Chair, Medical Biophysics from 2010 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2016. He has served as a member of Robarts Director Advisory Committee and Executive Committee since 2009 and was appointed Director of Imaging Research at Robarts in 2018 for a brief time. He currently serves as the Vice-Dean, Research and Innovation, at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. His expertise includes high and ultra-high field MRI and MRS methods development in patient populations and in animal models, working at 4T since 1996, 7T and 3T since 1999 and 9.4T since 2005. He has an extensive experience in short-echo time MR spectroscopy acquisition and processing for measuring brain metabolism,and chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) methods for;measuring brain pH. He has more than 200 joint publications and grants with various team members in the areas of Alzheimer's disease, MCI, Dementia, Spinal Cord Compression, Brain Cancer, Epilepsy, Concussion, and Schizophrenia.
Professor
Research Interests / Specializations: Physiology & Pharmacology and Psychology
Biography: Stefan Everling focuses on the cognitive control of eye movements and visual attention, using both high-density single neuron recordings in awake behaving nonhuman primates as well as fMRI in humans and nonhuman primates. His recent studies on the homology and dynamics of resting state networks in humans and NHPs opens up the possibility of doing resting state studies in NHPs across a whole variety of interventions that are not possible in humans. He leads the development of the nonhuman primate facility at the Centre for Brain and Mind at Western, serving as the Director of this facility since 2003.
Associate Professor
Research Interests / Specializations: Diffusion MRI, Microstructure, non-Cartesian MRI, Neuroscience
Biography: Corey Baron is an Associate Professor of Medical Biophysics and a Robarts Scientist. His expertise includes high field diffusion MRI, MRI physics and image reconstruction, and his lab develops and applies ultra high field quantitative MRI to uncover new imaging biomarkers for and obtain a greater understanding of the brain and neurological conditions.
Assistant Professor
Research Interests / Specializations: Medical Biophysics, Medical Imaging, Neuroscience
Biography: Ali Khan (CRC) has been with the CFMM since 2016. My research is focussed on the development of intelligent image processing and analysis technologies, and their application in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.
Professor
Research Interests / Specializations: Neuroimaging, Neuroscience
Biography:
Dr. Seminowicz has been with CFMM since 2022. His work focuses on the cognitive aspects of pain, individual differences in the response to pain, and the consequence of chronic pain on brain structure and function. His studies have clarified how pain-related and cognitive-related brain activity interact and how passive and active pain coping strategies affect these types of activity. His work further suggested a brain mechanism through which chronic pain might affect cognitive ability and continues testing this hypothesis in intervention studies in people with chronic pain. The clinical populations in these studies include chronic low back pain, chronic and episodic migraine, and burning mouth syndrome. Dr. Seminowicz has also used rodent MRI to ask a question that could not easily be addressed in humans, such as how the brain changes over time from before the onset of an injury that leads to chronic pain to the time when the disease affects cognitive and affective behaviors. Ongoing studies in Dr. Seminowicz’s lab employ longitudinal designs to assess how interventions affect brain function and whether pain biomarkers can be developed. Another line of work examines the role of the claustrum in cognitive control and pain. The main techniques in his lab include quantitative sensory testing, EEG, structural and functional MRI, and simultaneous EEG-fMRI.
