About Us

Most of our work is focused on:

  • Ultrahigh-Field Human MRI Developments
  • MRI RF Coil Design and Methodology for Neuro, Extremity and Whole-Body Applications
  • Applications of Ultrahigh Field MRI in Late Life Depression,  Alzheimer’s Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Brain Aging, Midlife Disparities, Childhood Adversity, Normal Aging, Sickle Cell Disease, Schizophrenia, Arm Transplantation and Drug Delivery Using Magnetic Nano Particles.

But we also develop:

  • Antennas for Brain Computer Interface
  • Anthropomorphic, Heterogeneous, Anatomically-Detailed Human Phantoms.

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7 Tesla Human MRI:

The 7 Tesla (7T) Human MRI system (as of 2017, one of ~60 systems around the world) is located at the Basement of Biomedical Science Tower 3 (BST3).  The Siemens system has 32 independent receive channels, each of them with multi-nuclear capabilities.  The 7T supports parallel transmission capabilities with 8 independent transmission channels.

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RF Research Facility:

The RF Research Facility (BST3 building at University of Pittsburgh) contains all the necessary equipment for designing and constructing MRI coils/antennas and electromagnetic devices for different types of medical applications.  The Facility includes state of the art RF testing and machining equipment.  Below are some of the resources that we have at our disposal:

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Machine Shop

The associated mechanical workshop has a lathe and milling machine with accessories for fabrication of metal, fiberglass and plastic supports for antennas, coils and phantoms.

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Computational Capabilities

  • Super computer cluster: +352-Core/1.3TB (RAM) 64-bit Opteron Architecture

  • 5 Workstations

  • >200 Terabyte Raids

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Other equipment in the RF Research Facility

  • 12-channel network analyzer

  • RF conductivity and dielectric constant meter

  • DAK: a high-precision dielectric measurement system for fast and reliable evaluation of liquids, solids, and semi-solids

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  • 8-channel fiber optic thermometry

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  • Chemistry kits for designing biological phantoms

  • Access to a 3D printer