Kamil Ugurbil, Ph.D. Professor, Departments of Biochemistry, Radiology and Medicine E-mail: kamil@cmrr.umn.edu

Research Interests:

The primary focus of the ongoing research activity at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) is to develop techniques that will permit novel use of high field magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy and imaging, and apply these techniques to biomedical questions relevant to basic physiological research and clinical medicine. Among the areas targeted for human MR studies, the most important and prominent is neurophysiology based on non-invasive functional imaging in the brain, high-resolution and/or high contrast imaging of neuroanatomy, imaging of perfusion, and finally spectroscopic studies of metabolism. This laboratory has pioneered the development of non-invasive functional imaging in the human brain using magnetic resonance techniques and endogenous deoxyhemoglobin as an intrinsic contrast agent.

CMRR is equipped with state-of-the-art MR instruments. It has one of the three 4 Tesla systems in the world capable of accommodating humans, and has pioneered high field MR applications with humans. CMRR also housed in March 1993 a first of its kind 9.4 Tesla system which is large enough to work with medium-size animals. In addition, a 4.7 Tesla/40 cm bore system is routinely used for animal studies.

Selected Publications:

Mangia S, Tkác I, Logothetis NK, Gruetter R, Van de Moortele PF, Ugurbil K. Dynamics of lactate concentration and blood oxygen level-dependent effect in the human visual cortex during repeated identical stimuli.J Neurosci Res. 2007 Nov 15;85(15):3340-6.

Shestov AA, Valette J, Ugurbil K, Henry PG. On the reliability of (13)C metabolic modeling with two-compartment neuronal-glial models. J Neurosci Res. 2007 Nov 15;85(15):3294-303.

Valette J, Park JY, Gröhn O, Ugurbil K, Garwood M, Henry PG. Spectroscopic imaging with volume selection by unpaired adiabatic pi pulses: theory and application. J Magn Reson. 2007 Nov;189(1):1-12. Epub 2007 Aug 24.

Chamberlain R, Park JY, Corum C, Yacoub E, Ugurbil K, Jack CR Jr, Garwood M. RASER: a new ultrafast magnetic resonance imaging method. Magn Reson Med. 2007 Oct;58(4):794-9.

Goerke U, van de Moortele PF, Ugurbil K. Enhanced relative BOLD signal changes in T(2)-weighted stimulated echoes. Magn Reson Med. 2007 Oct;58(4):754-62.

Yacoub E, Shmuel A, Logothetis N, Ugurbil K. Robust detection of ocular dominance columns in humans using Hahn Spin Echo BOLD functional MRI at 7 Tesla. Neuroimage. 2007 Oct 1;37(4):1161-77.

Posse S, Otazo R, Caprihan A, Bustillo J, Chen H, Henry PG, Marjanska M, Gasparovic C, Zuo C, Magnotta V, Mueller B, Mullins P, Renshaw P, Ugurbil K, Lim KO, Alger JR. Proton echo-planar spectroscopic imaging of J-coupled resonances in human brain at 3 and 4 Tesla. Magn Reson Med. 2007 Aug;58(2):236-44.

Zhu XH, Zhang Y, Zhang N, Ugurbil K, Chen W. Noninvasive and three-dimensional imaging of CMRO(2) in rats at 9.4 T: reproducibility test and normothermia/hypothermia comparison study. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2007 Jun;27(6):1225-34.

Dobre MC, Ugurbil K, Marjanska M. Determination of blood longitudinal relaxation time (T1) at high magnetic field strengths. Magn Reson Imaging. 2007 Jun;25(5):733-5.

Mangia S, Tkác I, Gruetter R, Van de Moortele PF, Maraviglia B, Ugurbil K. Sustained neuronal activation raises oxidative metabolism to a new steady-state level: evidence from 1H NMR spectroscopy in the human visual cortex. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2007 May;27(5):1055-63.

Shmuel A, Yacoub E, Chaimow D, Logothetis NK, Ugurbil K. Spatio-temporal point-spread function of fMRI signal in human gray matter at 7 Tesla. Neuroimage. 2007 Apr 1;35(2):539-52.

Michaeli S, Oz G, Sorce DJ, Garwood M, Ugurbil K, Majestic S, Tuite P. Assessment of brain iron and neuronal integrity in patients with Parkinson's disease using novel MRI contrasts. Mov Disord. 2007 Feb 15;22(3):334-40.

Rooney WD, Johnson G, Li X, Cohen ER, Kim SG, Ugurbil K, Springer CS Jr. Magnetic field and tissue dependencies of human brain longitudinal 1H2O relaxation in vivo. Magn Reson Med. 2007 Feb;57(2):308-18.


Seaquist ER, Chen W, Benedict LE, Ugurbil K, Kwag JH, Zhu XH, Nelson CA. Insulin reduces the BOLD response but is without effect on the VEP during presentation of a visual task in humans. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2007 Jan;27(1):154-60.

Former Graduate Students:

Cheryl Olman (Ph.D. 2003, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).