Michael Albert Thomas | |
---|---|
Nationality | Indian-American |
Occupation(s) | Physicist, academic, and clinical researcher |
Academic background | |
Education | Ph.D., Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy |
Alma mater | Indian Institute of Science |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of California,Los Angeles |
Michael Albert Thomas (M. Albert Thomas) is an Indian-American physicist,academic,and clinical researcher. He is a Professor-in-Residence of Radiological Sciences,and Psychiatry at the Geffen School of Medicine,University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA). [1] He is most known for developing novel single voxel based 2D NMR techniques (L-COSY and JPRESS),multi-voxel 2D MRS techniques (4D/5D echo-planar correlated and J-resolved spectroscopic Imaging,EP-COSI/EP-JRESI) using hybrid Cartesian as well as non-Cartesian spatio-temporal encoding such as concentric ring,radial and rosette trajectories. [2]
Thomas has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and 12 book chapters. His research is focused on the physics of Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy,with particular emphasis on the development and evaluation of Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) techniques in the context of healthy tissues and different pathologies. [3]
Thomas is a life member of National Magnetic Resonance Society of India (NMRS). [4] He was elected to the Experimental NMR Conference (ENC) executive committee in 2014,and was appointed the Chair of the 61st ENC in 2020. He became a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 2018. [5] He also served as an Associate Editor of Magnetic Resonance Insights,and is currently an associate editorial member of Medicine and Frontiers Oncology. [6]
Thomas received his Master's degree in Physics from American College,Madurai,in 1978. He then enrolled at Indian Institute of Science,and earned a Doctoral degree in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in 1984. [2] Following his Physics Doctoral degree,Thomas served a Postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University,and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich until 1987. Later on,in 1987-1990,he completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in Radiology and MR Spectroscopic Imaging Physics at the University of California,San Francisco. [2]
Thomas began his career as a visiting scientist of Physics at Indian Institute of Science in 1985. He held his next appointment as a Visiting Assistant Research Spectroscopist in the Department of Medicine at the University of California,San Francisco (UCSF) in 1987. From 1990 till 1993,he was appointed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison as Assistant Scientist of Radiology and Medical Physics. He then joined David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 1993,as an Assistant Professor of Radiology and Psychiatry. He became an Associate Professor in 2000 and a Professor in 2006. [2]
Thomas was appointed as Director of Clinical MR Spectroscopy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison till 1993,and as MR Consultant for BF Research Institute GE 3T MRI Facility in early 2000s. He was an MR Physicist Consultant at Harbor-UCLA Radiology Imaging Center (2000-2014). Since 1993,he is the Director of MR Spectroscopy at UCLA Radiological Sciences. [7] He was an Integration panel member of the prostate cancer research program (PCRP) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP).
Thomas has worked to develop novel single voxel based 2D NMR techniques (L-COSY and JPRESS),multi-voxel 2D MRS techniques (4D/5D echo-planar correlated and J-resolved spectroscopic Imaging,EP-COSI/EP-JRESI). His recent work has focused on non-Cartesian spatio-temporal encoding such as concentric ring,radial and rosette trajectories. Using accelerated acquisition and non-linear reconstruction (compressed sensing),MRSI data have been acquired within 20 minutes or so in contrast to a couple of hours of acquisition using the fully encoded multi-dimensional MRSI sequences. In 2007,he was awarded a US patent on a novel 2D localized correlated spectroscopy (L-COSY). [8]
Thomas has successfully used his multi-dimensional 4D/5D EP-COSI and EP-JRESI techniques investigating breast [9] [10] and prostate cancer, [11] [12] neurochemistry of HIV [13] and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients, [14] metabolites and lipids in calf muscle of patients with type 2 diabetes and in patients with major and late life depression.
In early 1990s,using a biomedical investigator grant awarded by the Whitaker Foundation,Thomas developed brain phantom with an intention to mimic the gray matter of human brain with the metabolites at physiological concentrations. He recorded spectra with phantoms containing common cerebral metabolites-alanine,N-acetyl aspartate,glutamine,glutamate (neurotransmitter),taurine,myo-inositol,glucose,aspartate,GABA,and choline at physiological and slightly higher concentrations. While demonstrating the strong coupling impacts in vitro and in vivo,he found out that in vivo 2D J-PRESS spectra of healthy human brain and patients with brain tumor are in conformity with those recorded from the brain phantom. [15] Later on,he presented a theoretical calculation of the volume localization as well as the coherence transfer efficiencies in 2D MRS,while using the product operator formalism. [16] He worked in a project focused on comparing differences in brain proton spectra between children and adolescents with bipolar disorder (BPD) and gender and age-matched normal controls. While utilizing in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS),he further measured changes in myo-inositol associated with acute lithium therapy persist in long-term clinical response of patients with and without lithium compliance. [17]
Thomas also evaluated the biochemical basis of depression in patients with type 2 diabetes,while using proton (1H) Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). Results of his study suggested that alterations in terms of glutamate and glutamine levels in subcortical regions along with white matter changes in myo-inositol play a significant role in providing important neurobiological substrates of mood disorders. [18] His 2007 study examined baseline 1HMRS spectra of bipolar depressed patients,with particular emphasis onto highlighting whether the level of cerebral metabolites changes after an open trial of lamotrigine,an anti-glutamatergic mood stabilizer. [19] Later on,it was indicated that hippocampal changes serve to mediate the relationship between early-life adversity and depressive illness in a subset of patients. [20] He also investigated the ability of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to detect 2-HG production in order to non-invasively identify patients with IDH1 mutant brain tumors. [21]
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields,magnetic field gradients,and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body. MRI does not involve X-rays or the use of ionizing radiation,which distinguishes it from computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans. MRI is a medical application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which can also be used for imaging in other NMR applications,such as NMR spectroscopy.
Robert Gerson Shulman is an American biophysicist and Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and a senior research scientist at the Department Diagnostic Radiology at Yale University.
The first neuroimaging technique ever is the so-called 'human circulation balance' invented by Angelo Mosso in the 1880s and able to non-invasively measure the redistribution of blood during emotional and intellectual activity. Then,in the early 1900s,a technique called pneumoencephalography was set. This process involved draining the cerebrospinal fluid from around the brain and replacing it with air,altering the relative density of the brain and its surroundings,to cause it to show up better on an x-ray,and it was considered to be incredibly unsafe for patients. A form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) were developed in the 1970s and 1980s. The new MRI and CT technologies were considerably less harmful and are explained in greater detail below. Next came SPECT and PET scans,which allowed scientists to map brain function because,unlike MRI and CT,these scans could create more than just static images of the brain's structure. Learning from MRI,PET and SPECT scanning,scientists were able to develop functional MRI (fMRI) with abilities that opened the door to direct observation of cognitive activities.
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,most commonly known as NMR spectroscopy or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS),is a spectroscopic technique to observe local magnetic fields around atomic nuclei. This spectroscopy is based on the measurement of absorption of electromagnetic radiations in the radio frequency region from roughly 4 to 900 MHz. Absorption of radio waves in the presence of magnetic field is accompanied by a special type of nuclear transition,and for this reason,such type of spectroscopy is known as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. The sample is placed in a magnetic field and the NMR signal is produced by excitation of the nuclei sample with radio waves into nuclear magnetic resonance,which is detected with sensitive radio receivers. The intramolecular magnetic field around an atom in a molecule changes the resonance frequency,thus giving access to details of the electronic structure of a molecule and its individual functional groups. As the fields are unique or highly characteristic to individual compounds,in modern organic chemistry practice,NMR spectroscopy is the definitive method to identify monomolecular organic compounds.
Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a form of elastography that specifically leverages MRI to quantify and subsequently map the mechanical properties of soft tissue. First developed and described at Mayo Clinic by Muthupillai et al. in 1995,MRE has emerged as a powerful,non-invasive diagnostic tool,namely as an alternative to biopsy and serum tests for staging liver fibrosis.
Kenneth Kin Man Kwong is a Hong Kong-born American nuclear physicist. He is a pioneer in human brain imaging. He received his bachelor's degree in Political Science in 1972 from the University of California,Berkeley. He went on to receive his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California,Riverside studying photon-photon collision interactions.
In vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a specialized technique associated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The physics of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) concerns fundamental physical considerations of MRI techniques and technological aspects of MRI devices. MRI is a medical imaging technique mostly used in radiology and nuclear medicine in order to investigate the anatomy and physiology of the body,and to detect pathologies including tumors,inflammation,neurological conditions such as stroke,disorders of muscles and joints,and abnormalities in the heart and blood vessels among others. Contrast agents may be injected intravenously or into a joint to enhance the image and facilitate diagnosis. Unlike CT and X-ray,MRI uses no ionizing radiation and is,therefore,a safe procedure suitable for diagnosis in children and repeated runs. Patients with specific non-ferromagnetic metal implants,cochlear implants,and cardiac pacemakers nowadays may also have an MRI in spite of effects of the strong magnetic fields. This does not apply on older devices,and details for medical professionals are provided by the device's manufacturer.
Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging is a concept and a method initially introduced and developed by Le Bihan et al. to quantitatively assess all the microscopic translational motions that could contribute to the signal acquired with diffusion MRI. In this model,biological tissue contains two distinct environments:molecular diffusion of water in the tissue,and microcirculation of blood in the capillary network (perfusion). The concept introduced by D. Le Bihan is that water flowing in capillaries mimics a random walk (Fig.1),as long as the assumption that all directions are represented in the capillaries is satisfied.
Paul Bottomley pioneered the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) leading to modern commercial clinical 1.5 Tesla MRI scanners and techniques for localized magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Currently,he is Russel H. Morgan Professor of Radiology and Director of the Division of MR Research at Johns Hopkins University,with about 200 peer-reviewed journal articles,over 50 U.S patents and is a Founder and past member of the Board of Directors of ClearPoint Neuro Inc,formerly known as MRI Interventions Inc and SurgiVision Inc,a Johns Hopkins start-up.
Nadine Barrie Smith (1962–2010) was an American biomedical researcher in the field of therapeutic ultrasound and non-invasive drug delivery. She was also an educator and mentor,especially to women students.
Functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the brain (fMRS) uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study brain metabolism during brain activation. The data generated by fMRS usually shows spectra of resonances,instead of a brain image,as with MRI. The area under peaks in the spectrum represents relative concentrations of metabolites.
Val Murray Runge is an American and Swiss professor of radiology and the editor-in-chief of Investigative Radiology. Runge was one of the early researchers to investigate the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),giving the first presentation in this field,followed two years later by the first presentation of efficacy. His research also pioneered many early innovations in MRI,including the use of tilted planes and respiratory gating. His publication on multiple sclerosis in 1984 represented the third and largest clinical series investigating the role of MRI in this disease,and the first to show characteristic abnormalities on MRI in patients whose CT was negative.
Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI) is an independent,nonprofit,applied medical research organization in Pasadena,California. The Institutes conduct laboratory and clinical work for the development of technology used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The Molecular Medicine programs,such as cancer genetics,molecular neurology,molecular pathology and tissue engineering,were conducted at the 99 North El Molino Avenue facility until April 2018. The Neural Engineering program is conducted at the 734 Fairmount Avenue building directly adjacent to Huntington Hospital. The Advanced Imaging Laboratory is located nearby at 10 Pico Street,as is the Liver Center at 660 South Fair Oaks Avenue. A new 35,000 square foot laboratory building for HMRI opened at 686 South Fair Oaks Avenue,Pasadena in April 2018. Programs in the new facility include neurolological and cardiovascular studies,as well as preeclampsia research.
Sodium MRI is a specialised magnetic resonance imaging technique that uses strong magnetic fields,magnetic field gradients,and radio waves to generate images of the distribution of sodium in the body,as opposed to more common forms of MRI that utilise protons present in water (1H-MRI). Like the proton,sodium is naturally abundant in the body,so can be imaged directly without the need for contrast agents or hyperpolarization. Furthermore,sodium ions play a role in important biological processes via their contribution to concentration and electrochemical gradients across cellular membranes,making it of interest as an imaging target in health and disease.
Hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI is a functional medical imaging technique for probing perfusion and metabolism using injected substrates.
The history of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) includes the work of many researchers who contributed to the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and described the underlying physics of magnetic resonance imaging,starting early in the twentieth century. MR imaging was invented by Paul C. Lauterbur who developed a mechanism to encode spatial information into an NMR signal using magnetic field gradients in September 1971;he published the theory behind it in March 1973. The factors leading to image contrast had been described nearly 20 years earlier by physician and scientist Erik Odeblad and Gunnar Lindström. Among many other researchers in the late 1970s and 1980s,Peter Mansfield further refined the techniques used in MR image acquisition and processing,and in 2003 he and Lauterbur were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the development of MRI. The first clinical MRI scanners were installed in the early 1980s and significant development of the technology followed in the decades since,leading to its widespread use in medicine today.
Denis Le Bihan is a medical doctor,physicist,member of the Institut de France,member of the French Academy of Technologies and director since 2007 of NeuroSpin,an institution of the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay,dedicated to the study of the brain by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a very high magnetic field. Denis Le Bihan has received international recognition for his outstanding work,introducing new imaging methods,particularly for the study of the human brain,as evidenced by the many international awards he has received,such as the Gold Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2001),the coveted Lounsbery Prize,the Louis D. Prize from the Institut de France,the prestigious Honda Prize (2012),the Louis-Jeantet Prize (2014),the Rhein Foundation Award (2021). His work has focused on the introduction,development and application of highly innovative methods,notably diffusion MRI.
Rolf Gruetter is a Swiss physicist and neurobiologist specialized in magnetic resonance,biomedical imaging and brain metabolism. He is a professor of physics at EPFL and the head of the Laboratory Functional and Metabolic Imaging at the School of Basic Sciences.
Hyperpolarized 129Xe gas magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the anatomy and physiology of body regions that are difficult to image with standard proton MRI. In particular,the lung,which lacks substantial density of protons,is particularly useful to be visualized with 129Xe gas MRI. This technique has promise as an early-detection technology for chronic lung diseases and imaging technique for processes and structures reliant on dissolved gases. 129Xe is a stable,naturally occurring isotope of xenon with 26.44% isotope abundance. It is one of two Xe isotopes,along with 131Xe,that has non-zero spin,which allows for magnetic resonance. 129Xe is used for MRI because its large electron cloud permits hyperpolarization and a wide range of chemical shifts. The hyperpolarization creates a large signal intensity,and the wide range of chemical shifts allows for identifying when the 129Xe associates with molecules like hemoglobin. 129Xe is preferred over 131Xe for MRI because 129Xe has spin 1/2,a longer T1,and 3.4 times larger gyromagnetic ratio (11.78 MHz/T).