We attempt to understand fundamental relationships between function and structure in living tissues, “engineered” tissue constructs, and tissue analogs. Specifically, we are interested in how microstructure, hierarchical organization, composition, and material properties of tissue affect its biological function and dysfunction. We investigate biological and physical model systems at different time and length scales, making physical measurements in tandem with the development of mathematical and computational models. Primarily, we use water molecules to probe both equilibrium and dynamic interactions among tissue constituents over a wide range of time and length scales. To determine the equilibrium osmo-mechanical properties of well-defined model systems, we vary water content or ionic composition. To probe tissue structure and dynamics, we employ atomic force microscopy (AFM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), static light scattering (SLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry. We develop and use mathematical models to help us understand how observed changes in tissue microstructure and physical properties (e.g., mass, charge, and momentum) affect essential transport processes. The most direct noninvasive in vivo method for characterizing these transport processes in tissues is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which we use to follow microstructural changes in development, degeneration, aging, and trauma. A goal of our basic tissue sciences research is to translate our quantitative methodologies and the understanding we glean from them from "bench to bedside."
SQITS News
"The Invention and Development of Diffusion Tensor NMR and MRI at the NIH" (YouTube), recorded at a conference hosted by Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), January 31 – February 1, 2017
Medical imaging device developed by NIH researchers awarded U.S. patent (May 19, 2017)
Dr. Derek Jones, Former NIH Mentee, Directs Brain Imaging Center in Wales (NIH Record, July 1, 2016)
"Twitchy Nerves (Literally) May Explain Epilepsy, Pain" on NPR's Morning Edition (October 5, 2010)
Awards:
- Dr. Ruiliang Bai receives the Summa Cum Laude Merit Award at ISMRM 2017.
- Dr. Ruiliang Bai receives two Summa Cum Laude awards for outstanding posters at ISMRM 2016
- Dr. Ruiliang Bai receives the Young Investigator Award at the Overseas Chinese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
- Dr. Dan Benjamini receives the 2016 Giulio Cesare Borgia Prize at MRPM13
- http://www.ismrm.org/08/08_Gold.htm
- http://www.ismrm.org/2010-fellows/
- http://www.ismrm.org/08/08_Fellows.htm
Click here for info about the NIH Conference, "Diffusion Tensor MRI: From Bench to Bedside"
NIH Backgrounder, "Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging"
Smith, C. (2002) NIH commercializes new imaging technique. Nature Medicine 8(9): 906.
The MRI Study of Normal Brain Development
Diffusion – Data Processing Center (DPC)
