May 10 – May 15, 2025: 2025 ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Dr. Julia Stabinska (left) of Kennedy Krieger Institute and FM Kirby Research Center and Dr. Saipavitra Manohar (right) of the Division of MRI Research in the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University received the ISMRM Junior Fellow award.
Other notable events at the ISMRM
- Dr, Jiadi Xu became chair of the ISMRM CEST study group
- Dr. Georg Oeltzschner became chair of ISMRM MR Spectroscopy study group
- Dr. Jun Hua completed his term as chair of the ultra-high-field study group
- Dr. Xu Li completed his term as Chair of the EMTP study group
- Dr. Hyeong-Geol Shin became student representative of the ultra-high-field study group
- Dr. Hanzhang Lu gave a keynote presentation at the ISMRT annual meeting
- Two of the 5 most highly cited papers in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published in 2022 (announced during the 2025 ISMRM annual meeting plenary session) were from our Center:
- #1: Zhou J, Zaiss M, Knutsson L, Sun PZ, Ahn SS, Aime S, Bachert P, Blakeley JO, Cai K, Chappell MA, Chen M, Gochberg DF, Goerke S, Heo HY, Jiang S, Jin T, Kim SG, Laterra J, Paech D, Pagel MD, Park JE, Reddy R, Sakata A, Sartoretti-Schefer S, Sherry AD, Smith SA, Stanisz GJ, Sundgren PC, Togao O, Vandsburger M, Wen Z, Wu Y, Zhang Y, Zhu W, Zu Z, van Zijl PCM. Review and consensus recommendations on clinical APT-weighted imaging approaches at 3T: Application to brain tumors. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Aug;88(2):546-574
- #4: Jiang D, Lu H. Cerebral oxygen extraction fraction MRI: Techniques and applications. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Aug;88(2):575-600.
May 8 – May 9, 2025
The 3rd installation of the MRS Hackathon was held ahead of ISMRM in Honolulu, Hawaii. This event was first organized by Dr. Oeltzschner and others in Toronto in 2023. Modeled after the successful OHBM "BrainHack" series, the MRS Hackathon aims to provide a space for researchers interested in creating collaborative open-source resources for the community. It also features a parallel educational track for novices wanting to learn basics of software development and MR physics. For the first time, the 2025 edition was jointly held with the "MRathon", a similar series of events geared towards quantitative MR and open-source sequence development. It was attended by approximately 50 students, postdocs, faculty, and industry representatives.
March 31 – April 2, 2025: ISMRM Joint Workshop of the Ultra-High Field MR & Brain Function Study Groups. Annapolis, MD, USA.
Jun Hua (TRD1), the Chair of the Ultra-High Field MR Study Group, was co-chair of the organizing committee. This workshop had 217 participants, 29 sessions, 119 invited speakers and moderators and 113 abstracts. This workshop is jointly organized by the Brain Function Study Group and the High-Field MR Study Group. It adopted a two-and-a-half-day format, consisting of parallel sessions from both study groups on the first and third (half) day, and joint sessions on the second day. In the parallel sessions, state-of-the-art technologies and applications in each field were presented, which include fMRI across different field strengths and high field MR in other body parts. In the joint sessions, the focus was high resolution functional MRI and its applications in basic and clinical neuroscience.
February 5, 2025: 7 Tesla scanner upgrade to digital dSync architecture is completed, making available a state-of-the-art platform including many features, such as Omega HP gradients with 40 mT/m and a slew rate of 200 T/m/s, compressed sense and simultaneous multislice (SMS) acquisition/reconstruction.
December 17, 2024: Dr. van Zijl receives a $125,000 award from the Kirby Foundation towards the purchase of a Tracoline optical motion monitor for the 3T scanners. For more information:
December 20, 2024: The 11.7 T scanner was upgraded in December 2024 to the Bruker AVANCE NEO generation with scalable transceiver architecture and is equipped with mouse cryocoils and phased array coils (including a 4-channel phased-array cryocoil) and 8-channel transmit coils.
November 18-24, 2024: 8th International Symposium on GABA and advanced MRS
We organized the 5th EDITINGSCHOOL workshop back-to-back with the 8th International Symposium on Advanced MRS and GABA in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The workshop offers introductory lectures on the theory and practice of spectral-edited MRS, including MRI physics, basic sequence elements, data acquisition, data analysis and processing/quantification. The workshop featured a full day of exciting presentations on methods development and applications of MRS, showcasing its versatility for research in clinical and neuroscientific contexts. Presentations were given on a wide range of topics (from autism spectrum disorder to low-grade glioma) by researchers of all experience level (from graduate students to full-time faculty). The workshop/symposium combination has become a well-established meeting place for the MRS community and is exceptionally welcoming to those new to the world of MRS.”
November 13-14: 28th MRI Division retreat.
At this annual retreat, students, fellows and faculty gather to share the latest research results, meet new potential collaborators, and brainstorm on future projects. There are several prices for the students/fellows, including the golden hairball award for the most promising research (Winner: Dr. Hyeong-Geol Shin), the best presentation (Dinil Sasi Sankaralayam), and the Paul Bottomley Award for critical questioning (Kexin Wang).
October 30, 31 2024: The 25th anniversary of the F.M. Kirby Research Center was celebrated with a two-day symposium, gathering experts, researchers, and distinguished speakers from around the world to discuss advancements in brain imaging and their applications to autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, stroke, epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, and others.
At this symposium, Terri Brawner and Joe Gillen received the first ever “F.M. Kirby Research Center exceptional performance awards”.
Ms. Terri Brawner received the award for outstanding leadership in building the F.M. Kirby Research Center technologist support and unwavering dedication to supporting all investigators since the its onset.
Mr. Joe Gillen (left) received the award for invaluable contributions to designing and developing the F.M. Kirby Research Centerand unwavering dedication to supporting investigators and staff since its onset.
October 2-5, 2024: 40th Annual ESMRMB Meeting, Barcelona, Spain.
Dr. Linda Knutsson is awarded fellowship of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB) for important contributions to the development of methods for human perfusion measurement and microvascular blood flow. This is the highest award that this Society can bestow on its members.
October 2024: Chris Davies-Jenkins' paper "GABA-edited MEGA-PRESS at 3T: Does a measured macromolecule background improve linear combination modeling?" was an Editor's Pick at the journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine”.
September 25-27, 2024: EMTP workshop in Santiago, Chile
The 2024 Electromagnetic Tissue Properties (EMTP) Workshop took place in Santiago, Chile, as a joint event on MR Phase, Magnetic Susceptibility, and Electrical Properties Mapping. Dr. Xu Li (TRD3) was a co-organizer.
Organized with the support of the ISMRM EMTP Study Group, the three-day workshop brought together experts and researchers from around the world to explore both technical innovations and clinical applications in Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) and Electrical Properties Tomography (EPT). The program featured a mix of educational lectures, scientific presentations, and dynamic panel discussions. A major highlight was the session on the first QSM consensus, where participants reviewed recent advances, discussed outstanding challenges, and identified key priorities for future collaborative efforts. Several new study group initiatives were proposed to address these ongoing needs.
This workshop was also featured in this year’s MRM Highlights, which included an interview covering recent activities and goals of the EMTP study group. The next EMTP Workshop is scheduled for September 2026 in Annapolis, Maryland, and will be chaired by Dr. Xu Li.
September 16-20, 2024: 10th CEST Workshop (Nürnberg, Germany)
The 10th international CEST Workshop took place in Nürnberg, Germany with 5 days of lectures and posters showing the latest advances in the field in terms of pulse sequences, applications, and standardization of technologies. Drs. Peter van Zijl, Linda Knutsson, Jinyuan Zhou, Jiadi Xu were part of organizing committee, and many faculty, fellows and students from our Resource Center contributed to the program.
May 4-9, 2024: 2024 ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition, Singapore.
Dr. Helge Zöllner (located on the far left of the picture) of the Division of MRI Research in the Department of Radiology receives the ISMRM Junior Fellow award.
April 11, 2024: The date of the Kirby Center's 25th anniversary symposium is announced. The symposium will take place October 30-31, 2024.
March 2, 2024: Dr. Hyeog-Geol Shin receives first prize in Young Investigator Poster competition at the annual Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2024 will took place February 29 - March 2 in West Palm Beach, Florida
March 1, 2024: Dr. van Zijl is awarded a $1,708,938 grant to upgrade the 11.7T scanner. Learn more.
February 2024: Dr. Andreia Faria is one of the finalists for the Johns Hopkins Presidents frontier awards. Learn more.
January 31, 2024: Dr. Andreia Faria receives Examplary Achievement Award of the NIH-FASEB Dataworks competition between 106 teams from more than 26 countries. Learn more.
Dec. 14, 2023: BME and Radiology investigators develop a new algorithm called DeepSTI that achieves a highly detailed 3D-map of magnetic susceptibility properties and connections in the human brain. Learn more.
November 16, 2023: Dr. Hanzhang Lu received the Elias A. Zerhouni Professorship
September 1, 2023: Dr. Helge Zoellner is recipient of an NIH K99/R00 Career Transition award. Learn more.
July 1, 2023: Dr. Peter Barker becomes Director of the MRI Division of the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.
Monday June 05, 2023: Dr. Richard Edden honored as senior Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) at its annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.
June 1, 2023: Dr. Ipek Özdemir is recipient of an NIH K99/R00 Career Transition award. Learn more.
March, 2023: Dr. Brian Caffo named the director of academic programs and education for the new JHU Data Science and AI Institute. Learn more.
Thursday April 6, 2023: Dr. Brian Caffo will receive the L. Adrienne Cupples Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service in Biostatistics. Learn more
Wednesday, March 14, 2023: Dr. Peter van Zijl received the ESMI Award, the highest honor of the European Society for molecular imaging. The award was presented at the 18th European Molecular Imaging Meeting in Salzburg, Austria.
January 31, 2023: Dr. Jeremias Sulam receives NSF career award. Learn more.
December 2022: NIBIB announces it will be starting a National Technology Centers (NCBIB) Webinar Series to highlight the different P41 Centers. Learn more
December 2022: Holiday party. After 3 years, we finally had our combined Kirby Center and MRI Division of Radiology Holiday party again.
November 2022: From November 14th to 20th 2022, we organized the 7th International Symposium on Advanced MRS and GABA joint with the 4th EDITINGSCHOOL workshop in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, which was attended in person by 42 people. The lectures offered during the workshop cover all aspects of advanced MRS from background MRS theory, to details on quantification and practical recommendations on acquisition and data review. It is also a great opportunity to get new users set up with our Osprey software and give them hands-on experience analyzing data. The symposium is a perfect platform for junior researchers to present advanced MRS studies to receive critical feedback from a broad audience of world-experts in the field. It offers a unique chance to foster new collaborations with clinical MRS researchers that apply our advanced MRS methods and analysis tools. Unsolicited feedback from one attendee:
“I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned throughout the week to my future experiments… I really enjoyed getting to meet other people in the field as well and see other ways that MRS is being used. It was the most engaging research conference experience I have had, so thank you for all your efforts.”
August 2022: We were part of organizing the 9th International Workshop on Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST 2022), which was held at Emory University Conference from August 7-10, 2022. The conference chair was Dr. Philip Sun. The workshop was in hybrid format and had 70 attendees in person and 83 virtual. In addition to a teaching program on Sunday, the latest research in the CEST field was presented on Monday to Wednesday. Several KKI and JHU faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students presented their research and the atmosphere was interactive, leading to excellent discussion. For program and abstracts, see our workshop page.
July 2022: Our team member Qin Qin led the publication of a guideline paper on velocity-selective arterial spin labeling (VSASL): Qin et al. Magn Reson Med, 88:1528-1547, 2022. “Velocity-selective arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI: A review of the state of the art and recommendations for clinical implementation”.
July 2022: Georg Oeltzschner and Jeremias Sulam were awarded a R21 grant entitled: “General Linear Modeling For Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy”
June 2022: Zhenghan Fang, student of Dr. Jeremias Sulam, was awarded the Kavli NDI Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship.
March 2022: From March 4 to 7 2022, we were part of organizing an ISMRM Workshop in Perfusion MRI in Los Angeles, California. This is one of the first in-person ISMRM events in the post-COVID era. We had 104 in-person attendees and another 90 participated online. This Workshop also received an NIBIB R13 conference grant (1R13EB032728-01) which was used to support the attendance of trainees.
February 26, 2022: Dr. Tilak Ratnanather was elected to the 2022 College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Learn more
January 2022: Don’t forget to register for the upcoming ISMRM perfusion workshop in March 2022 and the CEST MRI workshop in August 2022 (See Training-workshops).
November 2021: From November 16th to 20th 2021, we organized the 6th International Symposium on Advanced MRS and GABA joint with the 3rd EDITINGSCHOOL workshop in Playa Del Carmen Mexico, which was attended in person by 21 participants. The lectures offered during the workshop cover all aspects of advanced MRS from background MRS theory, to details on quantification and practical recommendations on acquisition and data review. The symposium is a perfect platform for junior researchers to present advanced MRS studies to receive critical feedback from a broad audience of world-experts in the field. It offers a unique chance to foster new collaborations with clinical MRS researchers that apply our advanced MRS methods and analysis tools.
June 2021: Some first 1.5x1.5x1.5 mm3 diffusion data from the new gradients, acquired using the multi-shell human connectome project acquisition parameters; courtesy of Dr. Xu Li.
March 2021: New whole-body gradients (95 mT/m and 220 T/m/s) installed and cleared for use on MR scanner 2. Bore on this first Elition RX system is 60 cm to accommodate the gradient cooling.
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February 22, 2021: Whole-body (95 mT/m) gradients still in customs in New York, expected to arrive at the Kirby Center on March 1, 2020.
February 10, 2021: After two years of testing and optimization Philips Healthcare in Best, the Netherlands, ships the first set of whole-body (95 mT/m) gradients to the F.M. Kirby Research Center for installation in the 3T Elition. It will be the first Elition RX system in the world.
November, 2020: Research collaboration between the F.M. Kirby Center and the Alzheimer’s Research Center at Johns Hopkins shows that quantitative susceptibility mapping in MRI and PET indicates that elevated cerebral iron load is related to lower cognitive performance independent of β-amyloid among cognitively normal older adults.