Description of Research Expertise

My research interests are in developing novel, multinuclear (23Na, 17O, 13C and 1H) magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopic techniques for the early diagnosis and quantification of physiological and functional aberrations in pathologies such as arthritis, stroke, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Our pulse sequence developmental approaches exploit quadrupolar spin-dynamics, polarization transfer, multiple quantum coherences, indirect detection via chemical exchange and spin-locking T1ρ MRI for studying molecular dynamics in biological tissues in vivo.

Specifically, T1ρ and Sodium MRI techniques are designed to map proteoglycan molecules (e.g. aggrecan) in cartilage as a biomarker for early arthritis in vivo. T1ρ MRI is also targeted to impart novel contrast in various tissue types (brain, connective tissues and tumors), and to detect metabolically produced H217O for studying cerebral blood flow and cerebral oxidative metabolism.

Recent developmental work on chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) based MRI methods is focused on measuring endogenous but low concentration metabolites in the brain, such as glutamate, myoinositol and creatine to address central nervous system disorders. In addition, a creatine CEST method is currently being explored to measure high-energy phosphate metabolism in the myocardium in heart disease.

Selected Publications

Armbruster R, Wilson N, Elliott MA, Liu F, Benyard B, Jacobs P, Swain A, Nanga RPR, Reddy R.: Repeatability of Lac+ measurements in healthy human brain at 3 T. NMR Biomed. 37 ((9)): e5158,2024.

Jacobs PS, Wilson N, Brink W, Swain A, Armbruster R, Hanumapur A, Tisdall MD, Detre J, Nanga RPR, Elliott MA, Reddy R.: In vivo B 1 + enhancement of calf MRI at 7 T via optimized flexible metasurfaces. Magn Reson Med. 92 ((3)): 1277,2024.

Tamaroff J, Nguyen S, Wilson NE, Stefanovski D, Xiao R, Scattergood T, Capiola C, Schur GM, Dunn J, Dedio A, Wade K, Shah H, Sharma R, Mootha VK, Kelly A, Lin KY, Lynch DR, Reddy R, Rickels MR, McCormack SE.: Insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion in adults with Friedreich's Ataxia: the role of skeletal muscle. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. : 2024.

Nanga RPR, Wiers CE, Elliott MA, Wilson NE, Liu F, Cao Q, Swago S, Jacobs PS, Armbruster R, Reddy D, Baur JA, Witschey WR, Detre JA, Reddy R.: Acute nicotinamide riboside supplementation increases human cerebral NAD+ levels in vivo. Magn Reson Med. : doi: 10.1002/mrm.30227.,2024.

Armbruster RR, Kumar D, Benyard B, Jacobs P, Khandavilli A, Liu F, Nanga RPR, McCormack S, Cappola AR, Wilson N, Reddy R.: Personalized and muscle-specific OXPHOS measurement with integrated CrCEST MRI and proton MR spectroscopy. Nat Commun. 15 ((1)): 5387,2024.

Jacobs PS, Jee J, Fang L, Devlin E, Iannelli C, Thakuri D, Loughead J, Epperson CN, Wilson N, Roalf D, Reddy R, Nanga RPR.: Application of glutamate weighted CEST in brain imaging of nicotine dependent participants in vivo at 7T. PLoS One 19 ((2)): e0297310,2024.

Swain A, Soni ND, Wilson N, Juul H, Benyard B, Haris M, Kumar D, Nanga RPR, Detre J, Lee VM, Reddy R.: Early-stage mapping of macromolecular content in APPNL-F mouse model of Alzheimer's disease using nuclear Overhauser effect MRI. 37876875 Front Aging Neurosci. 9 (15): 1266859,2023.

Jacobs PS, Benyard B, Cao Q, Swain A, Wilson N, Nanga RPR, Tisdall MD, Detre J, Elliott MA, Haris M, Reddy R.: B1+ inhomogeneity correction of volumetric brain NOEMTR via high permittivity dielectric padding at 7 T. Magn Reson Med. 90 ((4)): 1537,2023.

Nanga RPR, Elliott MA, Swain A, Wilson NE, Swago S, Witschey WR, Reddy R.: Identification of new resonances in downfield 1 H MRS of human calf muscle in vivo: Potentially metabolite precursors for skeletal muscle NAD. Magn Reson Med. 90 ((3)): 1166,2023.

Swago S, Elliott MA, Nanga RPR, Wilson NE, Cember A, Reddy R, Witschey WR.: Quantification of cross-relaxation in downfield 1 H MRS at 7 T in human calf muscle. Magn Reson Med. 90 ((1)): 11,2023.

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Academic Contact Information

B1 Stellar-Chance Laboratories
422 Curie Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6100
Phone: 215-898-5708