Vanderbilt Eye Institute and Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science Present

“Oxidative Stress and its Functional Consequences Measured In Vivo by MRI”

Bruce Berkowitz, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Small Animal MRI Facility
Wayne State University School of Medicine

12:00 PM, Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Elliott Conference Room at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute

In 1992, it was not obvious that MRI, a relatively insensitive and still developing imaging method, would be useful for examining the retina, one of the thinnest organs in the body. Since then, Dr. Berkowitz has established a body of work that highlights MRI as a surprisingly useful discovery tool in vision research. These methods have been successful transitioned into cancer and brain research areas, and are used by drug companies and other investigators world-wide. Improvements in resolution and methodology have even allowed us to measure the physiology of sub-compartments within rod cells in vivo. These data are spatially grounded based on optical coherence tomography images and compared to visual performance using optokinetic tracking. His current pioneering efforts uses MRI to measure neuronal oxidative stress without a contrast agent in untreatable neurodegenerative disease to o\ptimize antioxidant treatment in vivo.