Kamil Ugurbil, Ph.D.

Professor, Departments of Biochemistry, Radiology and Medicine

E-MAIL: [email protected]

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:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Vizioli L, Moeller S, Dowdle L, Akçakaya M, De Martino F, Yacoub E, Uğurbil K. Lowering the thermal noise barrier in functional brain mapping with magnetic resonance imaging. Nat Commun. 2021 Aug 30;12(1):5181.
  • Uğurbil K. Ultrahigh field and ultrahigh resolution fMRI. Curr Opin Biomed Eng. 2021;Jun;18:100288.
  • Tkáč I, Benneyworth MA, Nichols-Meade T, Steuer EL, Larson SN, Metzger GJ, Uğurbil K. Long-term behavioral effects observed in mice chronically exposed to static ultra-high magnetic fields. Magn Reson Med. 2021 Sep;86(3):1544-1559.
  • Moeller S, Pisharady Kumar P, Andersson J, Akcakaya M, Harel N, Ma RE, Wu X, Yacoub E, Lenglet C, Ugurbil K. Diffusion Imaging in the Post-HCPEra. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2021 Jul;54(1):36-57.
  • Vizioli L, De Martino F, Petro LS, Kersten D, Ugurbil K, Yacoub E, Muckli L. Multivoxel pattern of blood oxygen level dependent activity can be sensitive to stimulus specific fine scale responses. Sci Rep. 2020 May 5;10(1):7565.
  • Moeller S, Ramanna S, Lenglet C, Pisharady PK, Auerbach EJ, Delabarre L, Wu X, Akcakaya M, Ugurbil K. Self-navigation for 3D multishot EPI with data-reference. Magn Reson Med. 2020 Mar 2. doi: 10.1002/mrm.28231.
  • Kay K, Jamison KW, Vizioli L, Zhang R, Margalit E, Ugurbil K. A critical assessment of data quality and venous effects in sub-millimeter fMRI. Neuroimage. 2019;189:847-869.
  • Wu X, Auerbach EJ, Vu AT, Moeller S, Lenglet C, Schmitter S, Van de Moortele PF, Yacoub E, Uğurbil K. High-resolution whole-brain diffusion MRI at 7T using radiofrequency parallel transmission. Magn Reson Med. 2018 Mar 30;.
  • Howell BR, Styner MA, Gao W, Yap PT, Wang L, Baluyot K, Yacoub E, Chen G, Potts T, Salzwedel A, Li G, Gilmore JH, Piven J, Smith JK, Shen D, Ugurbil K, Zhu H, Lin W, Elison JT. The UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project (BCP): An overview of the study design and protocol development. Neuroimage. 2018 Mar 22;.
  • Li X, Auerbach EJ, Van de Moortele PF, Ugurbil K, Metzger GJ. Quantitative single breath-hold renal arterial spin labeling imaging at 7T. Magn Reson Med. 2018;79(2):815-825.
  • Eryaman Y, Zhang P, Utecht L, Kose K, Lagore RL, DelaBarre L, Kulesa J, Eberly LE, Adriany G, Iles TL, Iaizzo PA, Vaughan JT, Ugurbil K. Investigating the physiological effects of 10.5 Tesla static field exposure on anesthetized swine. Magn Reson Med. 2018;79(1):511-514.
  • Chaimow D, Yacoub E, Uğurbil K, Shmuel A. Spatial specificity of the functional MRI blood oxygenation response relative to neuronal activity. Neuroimage. 2018;164:32-47.
  • Chaimow D, Uğurbil K, Shmuel A. Optimization of functional MRI for detection, decoding and high-resolution imaging of the response patterns of cortical columns. Neuroimage. 2018;164:67-99.
  • Uğurbil K. Imaging at ultrahigh magnetic fields: History, challenges, and solutions. Neuroimage. 2017 Jul 8. pii: S1053-8119(17)30575-X
  • T Vu A, Jamison K, Glasser MF, Smith SM, Coalson T, Moeller S, Auerbach EJ, Uğurbil K, Yacoub E. Tradeoffs in pushing the spatial resolution of fMRI for the 7T Human Connectome Project.Neuroimage. 2017;154:23-32.
  • Cui M, Zhou Y, Wei B, Zhu XH, Zhu W, Sanders MA, Ugurbil K, Chen W. A proof-of-concept study for developing integrated two-photon microscopic and magnetic resonance imaging modality at ultrahigh field of 16.4 tesla. Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 2;7(1):2733.
  • Schmitter S, Moeller S, Wu X, Auerbach EJ, Metzger GJ, Van de Moortele PF, Uğurbil K. Simultaneous multislice imaging in dynamic cardiac MRI at 7T using parallel transmission. Magn Reson Med. 2017;77(3):1010-1020
  • Ertürk MA, Raaijmakers AJ, Adriany G, Uğurbil K, Metzger GJ. A 16-channel combined loop-dipole transceiver array for 7 Tesla body MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2017;77(2):884-894.
  • Schmitter S, Schnell S, Uğurbil K, Markl M, Van de Moortele PF. Towards high-resolution 4D flow MRI in the human aorta using kt-GRAPPA and B1+ shimming at 7T. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2016;44:486-99.
  • Sotiropoulos SN, Hernández-Fernández M, Vu AT, Andersson JL, Moeller S, Yacoub E, Lenglet C, Ugurbil K, Behrens TE, Jbabdi S. Fusion in diffusion MRI for improved fibre orientation estimation: An application to the 3T and 7T data of the Human Connectome Project. Neuroimage. 2016;134:396-409.
  • Wiesner HM, Balla DZ, Shajan G, Scheffler K, Ugurbil K, Chen W, Uludağ K, Pohmann R. 17 O relaxation times in the rat brain at 16.4 tesla. Magn Reson Med. 2016;75(5):1886-93.
  • Wu X, Schmitter S, Auerbach EJ, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. A generalized slab-wise framework for parallel transmit multiband RF pulse design. Magn Reson Med. 2016;75:1444-56.
  • Hodge MR, Horton W, Brown T, Herrick R, Olsen T, Hileman ME, McKay M, Archie KA, Cler E, Harms MP, Burgess GC, Glasser MF, Elam JS, Curtiss SW, Barch DM, Oostenveld R, Larson-Prior LJ, Ugurbil K, Van Essen DC, Marcus DS. ConnectomeDB-Sharing human brain connectivity data. Neuroimage. 2016;124(Pt B):1102-7.
  • Wang Y, Moeller S, Li X, Vu AT, Krasileva K, Ugurbil K, Yacoub E, Wang DJ. Simultaneous multi-slice Turbo-FLASH imaging with CAIPIRINHA for whole brain distortion-free pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling at 3 and 7T. Neuroimage. 2015;113:279-288.
  • De Martino F, Moerel M, Ugurbil K, Goebel R, Yacoub E, Formisano E. Frequency preference and attention effects across cortical depths in the human primary auditory cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112(52):16036-41.
  • Wu X, Zhang X, Tian J, Schmitter S, Hanna B, Strupp J, Pfeuffer J, Hamm M, Wang D, Nistler J, He B, Vaughan TJ, Ugurbil K, de Moortele PF. Comparison of RF body coils for MRI at 3 T: a simulation study using parallel transmission on various anatomical targets. NMR Biomed. 2015;28(10):1332-44.
  • Vu AT, Auerbach E, Lenglet C, Moeller S, Sotiropoulos SN, Jbabdi S, Andersson J, Yacoub E, Ugurbil K. High resolution whole brain diffusion imaging at 7T for the Human Connectome Project. Neuroimage. 2015;122:318-331.
  • Zhu XH, Lu M, Lee BY, Ugurbil K, Chen W. In vivo NAD assay reveals the intracellular NAD contents and redox state in healthy human brain and their age dependences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112(9):2876-81.
  • Kochunov P, Jahanshad N, Marcus D, Winkler A, Sprooten E, Nichols TE, Wright SN, Hong LE, Patel B, Behrens T, Jbabdi S, Andersson J, Lenglet C, Yacoub E, Moeller S, Auerbach E, Ugurbil K, Sotiropoulos SN, Brouwer RM, Landman B, Lemaitre H, den Braber A, Zwiers MP, Ritchie S, van Hulzen K, Almasy L, Curran J, deZubicaray GI, Duggirala R, Fox P, Martin NG, McMahon KL, Mitchell B, Olvera RL, Peterson C, Starr J, Sussmann J, Wardlaw J, Wright M, Boomsma DI, Kahn R, de Geus EJ, Williamson DE, Hariri A, van 't Ent D, Bastin ME, McIntosh A, Deary IJ, Hulshoff Pol HE, Blangero J, Thompson PM, Glahn DC, Van Essen DC. Heritability of fractional anisotropy in human white matter: A comparison of Human Connectome Project and ENIGMA-DTI data. Neuroimage. 2015;111:300-311.
  • Schmitter S, Wu X, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. Design of parallel transmission radiofrequency pulses robust against respiration in cardiac MRI at 7 Tesla.Magn Reson Med. 2015;74(5):1291-305.
  • Naselaris T, Olman CA, Stansbury DE, Ugurbil K, Gallant JL. A voxel-wise encoding model for early visual areas decodes mental images of remembered scenes. Neuroimage. 2015;105:215-28.
  • Li X, Wang D, Auerbach EJ, Moeller S, Ugurbil K, Metzger GJ. Theoretical and experimental evaluation of multi-band EPI for high-resolution whole brain pCASL imaging. Neuroimage. 2015;106:170-81.
  • Chen L, Vu A, Xu J, Moeller S, Ugurbil K, Yacoub E, Feinberg DA. Evaluation of highly accelerated simultaneous multi-slice EPI for fMRI. Neuroimage. 2015;104:452-9.
  • De Martino F, Moerel M, Ugurbil K, Formisano E, Yacoub E. Less noise, more activation: Multiband acquisition schemes for auditory functional MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2015;74:462-7.
  • De Martino F, Moerel M, Xu J, van de Moortele PF, Ugurbil K, Goebel R, Yacoub E, Formisano E. High-resolution mapping of myeloarchitecture in vivo: Localization of auditory areas in the human brain. Cereb Cortex. 2015;25(10):3394-405.
  • Griffanti L, Salimi-Khorshidi G, Beckmann CF, Auerbach EJ, Douaud G, Sexton CE, Zsoldos E, Ebmeier KP, Filippini N, Mackay CE, Moeller S, Xu J, Yacoub E, Baselli G, Ugurbil K, Miller KL, Smith SM. ICA-based artefact removal and accelerated fMRI acquisition for improved resting state network imaging. Neuroimage. 2014;95:232-47.
  • Duarte-Carvajalino JM, Lenglet C, Xu J, Yacoub E, Ugurbil K, Moeller S, Carin L, Sapiro G. Estimation of the CSA-ODF using Bayesian compressed sensing of multi-shell HARDI. Magn Reson Med. 2014;72(5):1471-85.

Former Graduate Students:

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

Kamil Ugurbil