Main Focus
β-Amyloid plaques are a classical hallmark of Alzheimer's Disease brain and, in vivo, amyloid load is currently quantified using Positron Emission Tomography (PET), which requires exposure to ionizing radiation and is hampered by low spatial resolution.
On the other hand, β-Amyloid plaques cause effects that can be detected by quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques which are sensitive and specific to iron (paramagnetic) and myelin (diamagnetic) content of the tissue, such as quantitative susceptivility mapping (QSM).
QSM is a novel post-processing technique to determine the magnetic susceptibility distribution of the tissue by numerically solving the inverse problem of deriving the local tissue magnetic susceptibility from the measured magnetic field distribution, which is reflected in the phase images of gradient-echo (GRE) sequences.
Furthermore, ultra-high field (UHF) MRI enables imaging of pathological processes at a ultra-high spatial resolution.
Our project is focused on the detection of micro-structural alterations in the cortex of Alzheimer's Disease patients due to β-Amyloid plaques, using QSM at Ultra-High Magnetic Field, in-vivo (9.4T) and ex-vivo (14.1T).
Curriculum Vitae
Since 2016: PhD student. "Quantitative MRI in Alzheimer's Disease at ultra-high field strength", MPI for Biological Cybernetics and University Hospital, Tuebingen, Germany.
2008-2015: Clinical research fellow. "MRI in Neurodegenerative Diseases", I.R.C.C.S. Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
2006-2012: MSc. in Biophysics, "University of Rome Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
2002-2006: BSc. in Physics, "La terza University of Rome", Rome, Italy.