Abstract The advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has brought a significant advance of knowledge of the human internal structure, especially the brain. Thanks to its various contrast mechanisms to inquire human brain in vivo, MRI has become an indispensable tool for the diagnosis of neurological disorders, such as Multiple Sclerosis. While visual inspection of the MRI images sometimes yields indecisive conclusions, quantitative methods provide a numeric way to detect subtle changes. And, multi-modal quantitative MRI can be complementary and can provide more insight into the disease processes (e.g., neuroinflammation, demyelination, iron accumulation, and axonal degradation) that are inaccessible through a single technique. In this talk, I will briefly discuss the basics of MRI physics. I will then proceed to describe two advanced MRI techniques such as T2 relaxation-based Myelin Water Imaging (MWI), and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI). I will close by presenting a few of my recent works and future directions.
Bio: Nasir Uddin is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Rochester, NY. In addition, he holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Radiology at the University of Manitoba. He earned his BSc (Honours) and MSc degrees in Physics at Jahanginagar University, Bangladesh. He then worked as Lecturer in the same University for two years before moving to Canada in 2008. Then he received another MSc in biophysics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2010, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alberta in 2015. Before moving to Rochester in January 2019, he worked as a Research Associate & Manitoba Neuroimaging Platform Coordinator at the University of Manitoba for 3 years. His research is primarily focused on developing and applying advanced MRI methods – e.g., T2 relaxometry, myelin water imaging, diffusion MRI, MR Elastography and fMRI – to study brain structure and function in both healthy and clinical populations (e.g., Multiple Sclerosis, HIV, Cerebral Small Vessel Disease, Stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, and Hypertension).