Speaker:

Dmitry S. Novikov, New York University School of Medicine

Host:

Sune Nørhøj Jespersen

Title:

The condensed matter physics of MRI

Abstract:

In this Colloquium, I will discuss how the diffusion of water molecules, ubiquitous in all living organisms, serves as a bridge between the mesoscopic condensed matter physics and biomedical imaging. By measuring water diffusion over a few microns with NMR-based methods, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) becomes sensitive to the cellular-level tissue architecture, its physiological and pathological changes. Hence, the images produced by MRI scanners reveal a wealth of information at the scale orders of magnitude below their nominal resolution. Applying the methods developed by physicists to describe transport in disordered systems can thereby help quantify human tissue microstructure in vivo and diagnose diseases. 

Coffee/tea and cake at 15:00