Jerome Ackerman, PhD, has conducted research in magnetic resonance for over 45 years, and has led the solid-state MR program at MGH for over 30 years. As of May, 2019, his work (over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, reviews, chapters and patents; over 200 abstracts) has been cited 5048 times (886 times since 2014). He has trained or supervised approximately 53 postdoctoral fellows and PhD, MS and undergraduate students and two staff engineers (prime faculty advisor for eight PhD and three MS dissertations, mentor for one K99/R00 awardee) and hosted two visiting scientists.
He has been developing NMR spectrometers and MRI scanners and their associated components and software since the 1970s. In the Martinos Center, he has been the Principal Investigator of four Shared Instrumentation and High End Instrumentation grants. Also, he pioneered the first use of high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) spectroscopy for tissue specimens, the use of true solid-state MRI for MR-PET attenuation correction, and the use of RF microcoils for position tracking.
Education
PhD in Physical Chemistry (Solid State NMR Spectroscopy), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Select Publications
1. Wu Y, Chesler DA, Glimcher MJ, Garrido L, Wang J, Jiang HJ, et al. Multinuclear solid-state three-dimensional MRI of bone and synthetic calcium phosphates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999;96(4):1574-8.
2. Cho G, Wu Y, Ackerman JL. Detection of hydroxyl ions in bone mineral by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Science. 2003;300(5622):1123-7.
3. Cohen O, Zhao M, Nevo E, Ackerman JL. MR Coagulation: A Novel Minimally Invasive Approach to Aneurysm Repair. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2017;28(11):1592-8.
Highlights
Dr. Ackerman’s current interests include:
- Development of a cryogen-free compact point-of-care superconducting extremity MRI scanner for conventional and solid state MR characterization of bone (collaboration with Superconducting Systems, Inc.)
- A magnesium diboride/solid nitrogen table-top superconducting MRI scanner (collaboration with MIT)
- Ultrahigh field (15T) MR
- MR-mediated RF ablation and coagulation technologies in which the scanner sources and controls the energy for these interventional procedures (collaboration with Robin Medical, Inc.)