MRI has demonstrated ability to provide exquisite contrast for non-invasive imaging. What limits its efficiency and sensitivity are the tradeoffs between scan time, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. Dr. Bilgic’s research is devoted to breaking this stalemate by developing new acquisition and reconstruction methods that synergistically exploit MR physics, signal processing algorithms and hardware capabilities.
He pursues this goal on three fronts:
(i) Rapid comprehensive brain exam: Development of the Wave-CAIPI acquisition trajectory to fully harness the encoding capability of high-channel count receivers and provide an order of magnitude faster imaging. This enabled the development of a 6-minute, multi-contrast whole-brain exam at 1 mm isotropic resolution.
(ii) Efficient quantitative imaging: Spearheaded the development of Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM), a novel contrast mechanism that probes the magnetic properties of tissues to provide a biomarker strongly correlated with tissue iron concentration. Dr. Bilgic’s technical developments in MR Fingerprinting (MRF), a new quantitative imaging concept, have provided the fastest whole-brain MRF acquisition, with the highest resolution T1 and T2 relaxation maps to date.
(iii) Next generation imaging with joint reconstruction: Exploitation of similarities across multiple contrasts routinely acquired in MRI exams with our joint parallel imaging strategies. While these already allow >10-fold speed-up in conventional sequences, they can be combined with Wave-CAIPI trajectory to provide >20× faster clinical scans.
Education
PhD in Electrical and Computing Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Select Publications
1: Bilgic B, Pfefferbaum A, Rohlfing T, Sullivan EV, Adalsteinsson E. MRI estimates of brain iron concentration in normal aging using quantitative susceptibility mapping. Neuroimage. 2012 Feb 1;59(3):2625-35.
2: Bilgic B, Goyal VK, Adalsteinsson E. Multi-contrast reconstruction with Bayesian compressed sensing. Magn Reson Med. 2011 Dec;66(6):1601-15.
3. Bilgic B, Gagoski BA, Cauley SF, Fan AP, Polimeni JR, Grant PE, Wald LL, Setsompop K. Wave-CAIPI for highly accelerated 3D imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2015 Jun;73(6):2152-62.
Highlights
2017: Outstanding Emerging Investigator, University of Utah
2015: ISMRM Junior Fellow
2012: MICCAI Young Scientist Award Finalist
Websites
Berkin Bilgic
MRI Acquisition Group
Magnetic Resonance – Physics & Instrumentation Group