Grants
NSF CAREER Award
05/2023-04/2028
Open-Access, Real-Time High-Throughput Metabolomics for High-Field and Benchtop NMR for Biological Inquiry
The project will develop, validate, and disseminate open-access metabolomic techniques that will automatically quantify the metabolites in complex biological spectra obtained from high-field (HF) and benchtop low-field (LF) NMR via the following objectives: 1) investigate high-throughput metabolomic methods for HF NMR using deep learning, 2) reconstruct high-resolution and high-throughput spectra from benchtop LF NMR using autoencoder, 3) investigate these techniques for inquiring biological questions, and 4) disseminate metabolomic libraries and techniques for biological research and education via an open-access software. This research will provide a breakthrough in the field of NMR metabolomics by eliminating a major processing barrier for both HF and benchtop NMR, thus making NMR an accessible and effective analytical tool to the biological community. The results of this project will be available at the institutional website: Research.
$730,629
Role: Principal Investigator
NIH R21 Trailblazer Award
05/2021-02/2024
Modeling MRI-based Tissue Relaxation in the Presence of Iron Overload and Steatosis
The overall goal of this research is to model and understand magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal decay in the presence of iron and fat and determine an accurate signal model so as to establish MRI as a non-invasive replacement to liver biopsy for simultaneous assessment of iron overload and steatosis. Learn more...
$589,413
Role: Principal Investigator
NIH R15 Award
09/2022-09/2025
Mitochondrial Determinants of Monocyte Dysfunction in Aging
The overall goal of this research is to define how normal aging leads to a decline in the function of the immune system by studying dysfunctional mitochondrial that have defects in their ability to maintain cellular energy availability, potentially leading to suboptimal cellular functions. Learn more...
$414,136
Role: Co-Investigator
Research Jump-Start Pilot (RJSP) Program
Northwell Health
07/01/2022-06/30/2023
Automated Assessment of Sarcopenia and Muscle Fatty Infiltration using MRI and Correlation with Liver Frailty Index
The goal of this project is to develop an automated segmentation method using deep learning to accurately segment the muscle volumes and estimate intramuscular fatty infiltration on abdominal MRI images and correlate these measurements with functional liver frailty index for assessment of sarcopenia.
$50,000
Role: Co-investigator
Gap Funding, The University of Memphis
03/01/2020 - 06/15/2020
ARMA for Simultaneous and Confounder-Free Quantification of Hepatic Iron Overload and Steatosis by MRI and Validation Against Biopsy
The goal of this project is to develop a MRI technique for confounder-free assessment of iron overload and steatosis in patients and validate them against biopsy and histopathology as reference standard.
$26,530
Role: Principal Investigator
University of Memphis Faculty Research Grant
07/01/2019 - 06/30/2020
A 3D Simulation Model of Hepatic Iron Overload and Steatosis for Predicting Tissue Relaxivity by MRI
The goal of this project is to develop a Monte Carlo-based approach for creating a virtual liver model and simulating iron-proton interactions to investigate the effect of iron and fat deposits on MRI signal relaxation.
$6,000
Role: Principal Investigator