Junzhong Xu, Ph.D.
My primary research interest is to develop, validate and evaluate cutting-the-edge diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging methods e.g. quantitative temporal diffusion spectroscopy (qTDS) as a non-invasive surrogate imaging biomarker to assess tumor early therapeutic response at an early stage of treatment. I am also interested in other MR molecular imaging methods, such as quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) and chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) to comprehensively investigate tumor microenvironments.
I am currently involved in a number of projects focused on advancing, optimizing, and validating advanced quantitative MRI methods for monitoring the response of tumors to treatment. The specific projects include 1) monitoring tumor response to chemo- and radiotherapy with diffusion, qMT and CEST methods; 2) investigating sensitivity and specificity of diffusion, qMT and CEST MRI methods on specific biological tissue pathophysiological status with mathematical modeling, computing simulation, ex vivo and in vivo models.
Research Information
Xu J, Li H, Harkins HD, Jiang X, Xie J, Kang H, Does MD, Gore JC. Mapping mean axon diameter and axonal volume fraction by MRI using temporal diffusion spectroscopy. Neuroimage. 2014 Dec;103:10-19.
Xu J, Zaiss M, Zu Z, Xie J, Gochberg DF, Bachert P, Gore JC. On the origins of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) contrast in tumors at 9.4T. NMR in Biomed. 2014 Apr;27(4):406-16.
Jiang X, Li H, Xie J, Zhao P, Gore JC, Xu J. Quantification of cell size using temporal diffusion spectroscopy. Magn Reson Med. 2015 Apr 4. doi: 10.1002/mrm.25684. [Epub ahead of print]
Li H, Jiang X, Xie J, McIntyre JO, Gore JC, Xu J. Time-dependent influence of cell membrane permeability on MR diffusion measurements. Magn Reson Med. 2015 Jun 11. doi: 10.1002/mrm.25724. [Epub ahead of print]
Li H, Li K, Zhang XY, Jiang X, Zu Z, Zaiss M, Gochberg DF, Gore JC, Xu J. R1 correction in amide proton transfer imaging: indication of the influence of transcytolemmal water exchange on CEST measurements. NMR in Biomed. 2015 Oct 14. doi: 10.1002/nbm.3428. [Epub ahead of print]