Rachelle Crescenzi, Ph.D.

Rachelle
Crenscenzi
Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering

The overarching goal of my lab is to improve the lives of patients with understudied vascular diseases, with an emphasis on those that impact women's health, through imaging sciences and multidisciplinary collaborations. Current research projects focus on developing advanced imaging tools to address clinical needs for 1) objective diagnostic criteria for lipedema, 2) risk assessment for lymphedema and fibrosis secondary to lymph node removal, and 3) radiologic markers of salt sensitive blood pressure. The relevance of lymphatic networks to obesity and salt sensitive hypertension are also being explored in pre-clinical and clinical studies.
We build strong collaborations with scientists and physicians at VUIIS, VUMC Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt Dayani Center for Health and Wellness, Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute, Vanderbilt Translational and Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center, VUMC Departments of Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology, as well as extramural collaborators.
For more information regarding available position in the lab please contact me by email.
For patients who may be interested in learning more about our research studies please contact us at salt@vumc.org.
A complete list of Dr. Crescenzi's publications can be found here

Petersen KJ, Garza M, Donahue PMC, Harkins KD, Marton A, Titze J, Donahue MJ, Crescenzi R. Neuroimaging of Cerebral Blood Flow and Sodium in Women with Lipedema. Obesity (Silver Spring). Jul 2020;28(7):1292-1300. doi:10.1002/oby.22837

Crescenzi R, Donahue PMC, Petersen KJ, Garza M, Patel N, Lee C, Beckman JA, Donahue MJ. Upper and Lower Extremity Measurement of Tissue Sodium and Fat Content in Patients with Lipedema. Obesity (Silver Spring). May 2020;28(5):907-915. doi:10.1002/oby.22778

Crescenzi R, Donahue PMC, Braxton VG, Scott AO, Donahue MJ. 3.0T relaxation time measurements of human lymph nodes in adults with and without lymphatic insufficiency: implications for magnetic resonance lymphatic imaging. NMR in Biomedicine. 2018; e4009. https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.4009.

Crescenzi R, Marton A, Donahue PM, Mahany HB, Lants SK, Wang P, Beckman JA, Donahue MJ, Titze J. Tissue Sodium Content is Elevated in the Skin and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue in Women with Lipedema. Obesity. 2018 Feb;26(2):310-317. doi: 10.1002/oby.22090. PMID: 29280322.

Crescenzi R, Donahue PM, Hartley KG, Desai AA, Scott AO, Braxton V, Mahany HB, Lants SK, Donahue MJ. Lymphedema Evaluation Using Noninvasive 3T MR Lymphangiography. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 2017 Nov;46(5):1349-1360. doi: 10.1002/jmri.25670. PMID: 28245075.

rachelle.crenscenzi@vumc.org

My research interests revolve around understanding how lymphatic circulation is involved in regulating tissue sodium, protein, and fat accumulation in health and disease. To this end, my lab focuses on standardizing and optimizing multi-nuclear proton and sodium 1H/23Na magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies for measuring tissue sodium and vascular function noninvasively across a range of field strengths (3T, 7T, 9.4T, 15T). I'm also interested in the biological basis of sodium MRI signal and related MR relaxometry (T2 and T1rho).

Li Min Chen, MD, Ph.D.

Li Min
Chen
Ph.D
Professor
Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Psychology and Biomedical Engineering
Phone
(615)936-7069

Chaplin V, Phipps MA, Jonathan SV, Grissom WA, Yang PF, Chen LM, Caskey CF. On the accuracy of optically tracked transducers for image-guided transcranial ultrasound. Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg [print-electronic]. 2019 Aug; 14(8): 1317-27. PMID: 31069643, PII: 10.1007/s11548-019-01988-0, DOI: 10.1007/s11548-019-01988-0, ISSN: 1861-6429.

Shi Z, Wilkes DM, Yang PF, Wang F, Wu R, Wu TL, Chen LM, Gore JC. On the Relationship between MRI and Local Field Potential Measurements of Spatial and Temporal Variations in Functional Connectivity. Sci Rep. 2019 Jun 6/20/2019; 9(1): 8871. PMID: 31222020, PMCID: PMC6586888, PII: 10.1038/s41598-019-45404-8, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45404-8, ISSN: 2045-2322.

Wu TL, Yang PF, Wang F, Shi Z, Mishra A, Wu R, Chen LM, Gore JC. Intrinsic functional architecture of the non-human primate spinal cord derived from fMRI and electrophysiology. Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 3/29/2019; 10(1): 1416. PMID: 30926817, PMCID: PMC6440970, PII: 10.1038/s41467-019-09485-3, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09485-3, ISSN: 2041-1723.

Mishra A, Majumdar S, Wang F, Wilson GH, Gore JC, Chen LM. Functional connectivity with cortical depth assessed by resting state fMRI of subregions of S1 in squirrel monkeys. Hum Brain Mapp [print-electronic]. 2019 Jan; 40(1): 329-39. PMID: 30251760, PMCID: PMC6289644, DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24375, ISSN: 1097-0193.

Yang PF, Phipps MA, Newton AT, Chaplin V, Gore JC, Caskey CF, Chen LM. Neuromodulation of sensory networks in monkey brain by focused ultrasound with MRI guidance and detection. Sci Rep. 2018 May 5/22/2018; 8(1): 7993. PMID: 29789605, PMCID: PMC5964220, PII: 10.1038/s41598-018-26287-7, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26287-7, ISSN: 2045-2322.

limin.chen@vumc.org

Dr. Chen's research centers on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying pain and touch, and the role of plasticity in mediating functional and behavioral recovery after spinal cord injury. She is also actively engaged in developing a Focused Ultrasound neuromodulation method for dissecting pain and touch circuits in non-human primates. Dr. Chen takes a multi-model approach in her research. Her lab routinely uses functional MRI, advanced multiparametric MRI, electrical and focused ultrasound neuromodulation, in vivo electrophysiology, tract tracing histology, and behavioral assessments in rodents and nonhuman primates.

Charles Caskey, Ph.D.

Charles
Caskey
Ph.D
Associate Professor
Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering
Director of Ultrasound
Phone
(615)322-1264

Manuel TJ, Kusunose J, Zhan X, Lv X, Kang E, Yang A, Xiang Z, Caskey CF. Ultrasound neuromodulation depends on pulse repetition frequency and can modulate inhibitory effects of TTX. Scientific Reports. 2020 Sep 18;10(1):15347..

 

Phipps, M.A., Jonathan, S.V., Yang, P.F., Chaplin, V., Chen, L.M., Grissom, W.A. and Caskey, C.F., 2019. Considerations for ultrasound exposure during transcranial MR acoustic radiation force imaging. Scientific reports, 9(1), p.16235.

 

Yang PF, Phipps MA, Newton AT, Chaplin V, Gore JC, Caskey CF, Chen LM. Neuromodulation of sensory networks in monkey brain by focused ultrasound with MRI guidance and detection. Scientific reports. 2018 May 22;8(1):7993.

 

Manuel TJ, Sigona MK, Phipps MA, Kusunose J, Luo H, Yang PF, Newton AT, Gore JC, Grissom W, Chen LM, Caskey CF. Small volume blood-brain barrier opening in macaques with a 1 MHz ultrasound phased array. Journal of Controlled Release. 2023 Nov 1;363:707-20.

charles.f.caskey@vumc.org

Charles Caskey’s research focuses on diagnostic and therapeutic uses of ultrasound, particularly in image-guided therapy applications. He received his doctoral degree for studies about the bioeffects of ultrasound during microbubble-enhanced drug delivery under Dr. Katherine Ferrara at the University of California at Davis in 2008, and in 2018, he received the Fred Lizzi Early Career Award from the International Society of Therapeutic ultrasound. He currently leads the Laboratory of Acoustic Therapy and Imaging at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science where his laboratory focuses on developing new uses for ultrasound, spanning neuromodulation, drug delivery, and functional imaging.

Amanda Buck, Ph.D.

Amanda
Buck
Ph.D
Instructor in Radiology
Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering
(615)343-0467

AK Wake, JN Oshinski, AR Tannenbaum, DP Giddens. "Choice of in vivo versus idealized velocity boundary conditions influences physiologically relevant flow patterns in a subject-specific simulation of flow in the human carotid bifurcation," Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. 131(2):021013, 2009.

BM Damon, AKW Buck, Z Ding. "Diffusion-tensor MRI-based skeletal muscle fiber tracking," Imaging Medicine 3(6):675-687, 2011.

BM Damon, T Towse, AKW Buck, K Li, N Bryant, Z Ding, JH Park. "Quantitative Structural and Functional MRI of Skeletal Muscle," In: Muftuler T (Ed.) Quantitative Morphology and Physiology of the Human Body using MRI. London: Taylor and Francis Press, in press

amanda.buck@vumc.org

My research uses MR imaging-based approaches to non-invasively study biomechanical systems and to extract biomechanical information for understanding the systems and related pathologies.

Calum Avison, Ph.D.

Calum
Avison
Ph.D
Professor
Radiology & Radiological Sciences
Phone
(615)343-0522
calum.avison@vumc.org

Adam Anderson, Ph.D.

Adam
Anderson
Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Biomedical Engineering, Radiology & Radiological Sciences
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Biomedical Engineering
Phone
(615)322-8174

Schilling KG, Janve V, Gao Y, Stepniewska I, Landman BA, Anderson AW. Histological validation of diffusion MRI fiber orientation distributions and dispersion. Neuroimage. 2018 Jan 15;165:200-221.

Schilling K, Gao Y, Janve V, Stepniewska I, Landman BA, Anderson AW. Can increased spatial resolution solve the crossing fiber problem for diffusion MRI? NMR Biomed. 2017 Dec;30(12).

Anderson AW. ?Traveling Internal Plane-wave Synthesis (TIPS) for uniform B1 in high field MRI.? Magn Reson Imaging 36: 187-209 (2017).

Jeong HK, Gore JC, Anderson AW. ?High-resolution human diffusion tensor imaging using 2-D navigated multishot SENSE EPI at 7 T?, Magn Reson Med 69(3): 793-802 (2013).

Davis N, Fan Q, Compton DL, Fuchs D, Fuchs LS, Cutting LE, Gore JC and Anderson AW. ?Influences of neural pathway integrity in children?s response to reading instruction.? Front. Syst. Neurosci. 4:150 (2010).

adam.anderson@vanderbilt.edu

Phase 2 | VUIIS Guidelines

Phase 2 | VUIIS Guidelines June 26th, 2020 | 1:37pm   Guidelines for VUIIS Facilities and Cores Reopening - Phase 2

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