Young Investigator Award candidates acquire fresh insight from advanced imaging techniques

The differing interests of clinical and basic science researchers are apparent in the work of the finalists for Young Investigator Awards at this year's ISMRM/ESMRMB meeting.

The three finalists for the Moore Award for clinical research focused on cardiovascular topics, while two of the three finalists for the Rabi Award for basic research examined the high-powered potential of undersampled image reconstruction. The third candidate addressed questions about organ-specific effects of oxygen and carbogen that are relevant for applications in oncology, neuroradiology, and cardiac imaging.

The finalists' collective work reflects the breadth of science undertaken by the MRI community as whole, said Dr. Daniel Sodickson, Young Investigator Award committee chair.

"It is a microcosm of the range of things that you will see at the meeting," said Sodickson, director of the Laboratory for Biomedical Imaging Research. at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

The finalists for the two awards are presenting their papers throughout the week. The following are vying for the Moore Award:

• Thomas Hope, Stanford University. A comparison of flow patterns in ascending aortic aneurysms and volunteers using four-dimensional magnetic resonance velocity mapping. (10:30 to 10:50 a.m., Tuesday)
• Iga Muradian, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Human regional pulmonary gas exchange with xenon polarization transfer. (10:30 to 10:50 a.m., Wednesday)
• Reza Nezafat, Ph.D., Cardiac MR Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. Papers. Coronary magnetic resonance vein imaging. (11:00 to 11:20 a.m., Monday)

Finalists for the Rabi Award are:'

• Kai Tobias Block, Ph.D. candidate and staff member of the Biomedical NMR Research Laboratory in Goettingen, Germany. Undersampled radial MRI with multiple coils. Iterative image reconstruction using a total variation constraint. (4:30 to 4:50 p.m., Monday)
• Chunlei Liu, postdoctoral fellow in the Moseley molecular imaging laboratory at Stanford University. Parallel imaging reconstruction for arbitrary trajectories using k-space sparse matrices. (4:00 to 4:20 p.m., Tuesday)
• James O'Connor, clinical research fellow at the University of Manchester, U.K. Organ-specific effects of oxygen and carbogen gas inhalation on tissue longitudinal relaxation times. (4:00 to 4:20 p.m., Wednesday)

Twenty-five researchers submitted abstracts. Works were judged on the basis of novelty, innovation, and potential impact on MRI practice and science, Sodickson said. The judges also looked for young investigators who were the primary movers behind the project, not just team members. Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 24.

For additional coverage on these topics, examine the Diagnostic Imaging archives:

3D ultrasound speeds up monitoring of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Hyperpolarized gas MRI illuminates lung function

Parallel imaging spurs performance of MT at 3T

Report from ECR: Functional MR imaging maps brain function and plasticity