Abstract
Diffusion-weighted MRI provides access to fibre pathways and structural integrity in fibrous tissues such as white matter in the brain. In order to enable better access to the sensitivity of the diffusion indices to the underlying microstructure, it is important to develop artificial model systems that exhibit a well-known structure, on the one hand, but benefit from a reduced complexity on the other hand. In this Seminar, an overview on the development and challenges in the construction of artificial, anisotropic diffusion phantoms will be presented.
Ezequiel Alejandro Farrher, Ph.D.
Research Scientist,
Institute of neuroscience and medicine, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany
Dr. Ezequiel Farrher obtained his Physics degree (NMR relaxometry in liposome systems) at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina) in 2008. From 2009 he worked on his PhD thesis at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine 4, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), under the supervision of Prof. N. Jon Shah and Dr. Farida Grinberg. In 2013 he defended his PhD thesis at the RWTH Aachen University. The title of his thesis was “Advanced diffusion MRI of brain tissue and applications in neurological research”. During this period, his research topics were focused on the development of advanced models for non-Gaussian diffusion in brain tissue and the design and construction of artificial, anisotropic fibre phantoms for diffusion MRI applications. Thereafter he continued his work at Forschungszentrum Jülich, in the design of optimisation strategies for diffusion MRI acquisitions and the development of advanced diffusion MRI phantoms. Since 2016 he became a research scientist at Forschungszentrum Jülich, continuing his work on diffusion MRI and focusing now part of his efforts in one- and two-dimensional 1H spectroscopy.