Imaging Pilot Awardees

The Imaging Pilot Award provides funding for junior investigators in the following areas: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT), and ultrasound.

2021 Imaging Pilot Awardees

A Pilot Study of the Serotonin System in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD)

  • Edward Huey, MD, Neurology - Aging and Dementia (Principal Investigator)
  • John Mann, MD, Psychiatry - Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology

Investigation Of Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Therapeutics Within The Cochlea Using MRI

  • Anil Lalwani, MD, Otolaryngology (Principal Investigator)
  • Jeffrey Kysar, PhD, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Mechanical Engineering
  • Jia Guo. PhD, Psychiatry - Research

The Role of Dopamine in the Persistence Versus Remission of Anorexia Nervosa During Adolescence

  • Blair Uniacke, MD, Psychiatry - Cognitive Neurosciences (Principal Investigator)
  • Karin Foerde, PhD, Psychiatry - Cognitive Neurosciences

2019 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Natalie Bello, MD, MPH, Medicine - Cardiology, Manifestations of Preeclampsia in the Heart and Vasculature
  • Mikhail Doubrovin, MD, PhD, Radiology, Quantitative Pet Monitoring of LymphocytesiIn Anti-Cancer Immune Cell Therapy Using 89Zr-Oxine and 68Ga-GranZ Imaging Probes
  • Adam Gerber, MD, PhD, Anesthesiology, Development of a PET tracer for pulmonary MMP activity
  • Emerson Lim, MD, Medicine - Hematology and Oncology, 89-Zr-labeled Ipilimumab for CTLA-4 ImmunoPET Imaging
  • Andrei Molotkov, PhD, Radiology, 18F-FSPG PET genetic profiling of glioblastoma for a prevalence of Idh1 mutation
  • Tony Wong, MD, Radiology, MRI Biomarker Assessment of Osteoarthritis Prevention In Femoroacetabular Impingement

2018 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Patrick Carberry, PhD, Radiology, In Vivo µ-PET Tumor Imaging of Cancers that Overexpressed Peptide Transporters with the Use of a New [F-18]-Dipeptide Radioligand
  • Shifali Dumeer, MD, Radiology, Agreement of Manual and Visual Estimation of Coronary Artery Calcium Score from Low-Dose CT in Oncologic PET/CT with Standard Agatston Score
  • William Kreisl, MD, Neurology - Aging and Dementia, Validation of next-generation PET Ligands for TSPO in Mouse Models of Neuroinflammatory Diseases
  • Martin Lan, MD, PhD, Psychiatry - Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology, [18F]DOPA PET Imaging to Elucidate the Role of Dopamine Signaling in the Antidepressant Mechanism of a Second Generation Antipsychotic
  • Ray Lee, PhD, Psychiatry - Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology, Using Dyadic fMRI for Quantifying Parent-Child Brain-to-Brain Interaction in Austism Therapy

2017 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Joshua Kantrowitz, MD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry,  Reduced Predictive Coding as a Biomarker of Response to tDCS for Auditory Hallucinations
  • Amit Lazarov, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Psychiatry, Neural Correlates of Visual Attention Bias in PTSD
  • Jasnit Makkar, MD, Assistant Professor, Radiology, MR Elastography of the Pancreas: Assessment of Pancreatic Fibrosis in Chronic Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer
  • Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Psychiatry, Neural Correlates of Location-specific Threat Memory in Trauma
  • Xi Zhu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Improved Individualized Diagnosis of PTSD Using Data-Driven Multimodal MRI Approach

2016 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Patrick Brown, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Depressed Elders: A Pilot Investigation using 31P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Royce Chen, MD, Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology, Advanced Imaging in Sickle Cell Retinopathy and Correlation with Central Nervous System Vasculopathy
  • Simon Cheng, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology, Focused Ultrasound-Induced Blood Brain Barrier Disruption in Checkpoint Blockade Immunotherapy
  • Remi Creusot, PhD, Assistant Professor, Medical Sciences, Targeting Tissues of Relevance for Antigen-specific Immunotherapy of Type 1 Diabetes
  • Joanna Dragich, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Neurology, Investigating the Effects of a Genetic Risk Factor for Neuropsychiatric Disease on White Matter Connectivity Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
  • Jack Grinband, PhD, Assistant Professor, Radiology, Using Hypercapnia and BOLD fMRI to Detect Non-enhancing Glioblastoma

2015 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Xiaofu He, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, A Pilot Multimodal Imaging Study of Youth with Depression
  • Hyun Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor, Radiology, Spatial-Temporal Constraints Guided Dynamic Fluorescence Molecular Tomographic Model for In-vivo Three Dimensional Simultaneous Imaging of Fluorescent Biomarkers and Anatomical Structure of Major Organs in Mouse
  • Elizabeth Oelsner, MD, MPH, Instructor, Medicine, Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) on Pulmonary Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA)
  • Wei Shen, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Medicine: Endocrinology, MRI Protocol Characterizing Brown White Fat Dynamic Conversion for Brown Fat Autograft Therapy
  • Tony Wang, MD, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology, Highly Diffusion-Weighted Imaging: A Predictive Marker in Glioblastoma

2014 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Monica Goldklang, MD, Instructor, Anesthesiology, Functional Imaging of Acute Lung Injury
  • Timothy Ryntz, MD, Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Can Dynamic MRI Offer Insight Into Underlying Pathophysiology of Idiopathic Menorrhagia?
  • Gregory M. Sullivan, MD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Regional Brain Binding of Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Type 2 (VMAT2) in Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot PET Study with [F‐18]‐FP‐(+)‐DTBZ.
  • Qi Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, In-Vivo Characterization of Abnormal Cortical Sensory Processing Resulted from Mutation in Autism-Associated Genes using Voltage Sensitive Dye Imaging

2013 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Cheryl Corcoran, MD, MS, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Simultaneous TMS/fMRI in Healthy Young Adults to Characterize the Circuitry of Facial Emotion Processing: A Model of Deficits in Schizophrenia
  • Donna Mancini, MD, Professor, Medicine, Non-invasive Assessment for Right Ventricular Failure following Left Ventricular Assist Device
  • Kristin Myers, PhD, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Human Cervix
  • Julie Ann Spicer, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Psychiatry, Neural Mechanisms of Maternal Stress in Early Postpartum Women: A Pilot Study
  • Marcella Walker, MD, MS, Irving Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Medicine: Endocrinology, Primary Hyperparathyroidism: Cognitive Abnormalities and their Reversibility with Parathyroidectomy

2012 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Christine Delorenzo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Uncovering Biomarkers of Major Depressive Disorder Using Multimodal Imaging
  • David O. Kessler, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical, Pediatrics, Sonographic Features that Predict Success or Failure with Infant Lumbar Puncture
  • Alexander D. Klose, PhD, Assistant Professor, Radiology, Pilot Study: Optical Imaging of Radionuclides
  • Mette Skinbjerg, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Psychiatry, Probing Dopamine D2 Receptor Internalization in Schizophrenia
  • Yared Tekabe, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Medicine, VEGF-directed Imaging of the Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaque

2010 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Chi-Ming Chen, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Psychiatry, GABA, Neuronal Synchrony, and Neurocognitive Efficiency in Schizophrenia
  • Derek Chong, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology, Neurology: Epilepsy, Identification of P-glycoprotein Upregulation Using PET Imaging in an Animal Model of Epilepsy: a Novel Approach Towards Pharmacoresistance in Epilepsy
  • Ragy R. Girgis, MD, Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow, Psychiatry: Neuroscience, Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of the Effects of Antipsychotics on the Dopamine-3 Receptor in Schizophrenia
  • David Hardesty, MD, Instructor in Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Geriatrics, Comparison of Two PET Ligands in Baboons; Role of Microglial Activation in Neurology and Psychiatry
  • Jonathan T. Lu, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Medicine: Cardiology, Pulmonary Vein Muscle Sleeve Morphology in Atrial Fibrillation
  • Melvyn B. Ooi, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Radiology, Real-Time Motion Correction for MRI at 3 Tesla Using Active Markers
  • Jaya Prabhakaran, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Psychiatry: Neuroscience, Development of PET Tracers for VEGF Receptors
  • Arun Swaminath, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Medicine, Positron Emission Tomography as a Tool to Predict Response to Treatment of Small Bowel Crohn’s Disease With Biologic Therapy: A Pilot Study

2009 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • R. Graham Barr, MD, DrPH, Irving Assistant Professor Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine Department of Epidemiology, Pulmonary Blood Flow Measures for COPD Randomized Clinical Trials
  • Peter D. Canoll, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology, Pathology and Cell Biology, Monitoring Tumor Growth and Progression in a Mouse Model of Glioblastoma Using MRI and Luciferase Imaging
  • Mitchell Elkind, MD, Associate Professor, Neurology: Neurological Intensive Care Unit, USPIO-Contrast Enhanced Carotid Plaque MR Imaging in the Northern Manhattan Study
  • Caroline Hwang, MD, Assistant Attending, NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Positron Emission Tomography with 2-Deoxy-2-[18F] Fluoro-D-Glucose in the Detection of Malignancy in Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms (IPMN) of the Pancreas
  • David J. Lederer, MD, MS, Irving Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in Pediatrics, Medicine: Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care, A Pilot Study to Measure Pulmonary Endothelial Dysfunction Using Positron Emission Tomography in Humans With Obstructive Sleep Apnea
  • Paula S. Mckinley, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Behavioral Medicine, The Effects of Chemotherapy on Neurogenesis in Early Stage Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study
  • Stefan Rowny, MD, Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow, Psychiatry: Psychiatric Education, Functional Neuroanatomy Changes During ECT vs. MST in Geriatric Depression

2008 Cohort 2 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Fernando Arias-Mendoza, MD, PhD, Research Scientist, Radiology, Use of 31P-MRS and FDG-PET to Predict Treatment Response in Lymphomas
  • Sabahat Bokhari, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Medicine: Cardiology, 13N-NH3 PET-MPI Will Correlate Significantly With the Current Invasive Gold Standard Method (Coronary Angiography With Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS))
  • Tiziano Colibazzi, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Scott Schobel, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Analytical Psychopharmacology, Multimodal Imaging of the Hippocampus in Schizophrenia
  • Ningning Guo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Imaging the Effect of Acute Amphetamine Challenge on D1 Receptor Binding in the Brain
  • Erin L. Kinnally, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Psychiatry: Neuroscience, Early Life Stress and Serotonin Transporter Availability in Bonnet Macaques (Macaca radiata)
  • Fei Liu, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Psychiatry: Substance Abuse, Development of a Positron Emission Tomography Radiotracer to Label the Human Neurotensin Receptor
  • Jeffrey M. Miller, MD, Assistant Attending, NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, The Neurochemistry of Cognitive Therapy: Predicting Treatment Outcome with PET
  • Thomas L. Nickolas, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Medicine: Nephrology, Positron Emission Tomography as a Tool to Determine Bone Metabolic Activity in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
  • Gissette Reyes, MD, Instructor, Medicine: Preventive Medicine and Nutrition, Lipoprotein Metabolism: Relationship with Hepatic Fat, Muscle Fat and Body Composition
  • Bret Rutherford, MD, Assistant Attending, NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, The Neural Bases of Expectancy Effects in Depression: a Pilot Study
  • Robert J. Winchester, MD, Professor, Medicine: Rheumatology, Pathology and Cell Biology, Pediatrics: Autoimmune/Molecular Diseases, 18F - Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) Uptake on PET Scan is a Marker of Degree of Inflammatory activity in Calcific Aortic Stenosis (CAS)

2008 Cohort 1 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Adam M. Brickman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurolopsychology, Neurology, Refining the Assessment of White Matter Correlates of Cognitive Aging: A Pilot Study
  • Allan Geliebter, PhD (PI), Senior Research Scientist and Christopher Ochner, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Psychiatry, Changes in Brain Activation in Response to Appetitive Cues Pre to Post Bariatric Surgery
  • Aviva Bracha Sopher, MD, MS, Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow, Pediatrics: Endocrinology, Visceral Fat and Muscle Lipid in Premature Adrenarche
  • Elizabeth M. Sublette, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Neuroscience, Positron Emission Tomography with [18F]FDG: a Pilot Study of Effects of Essential Dietary Polyunsatured Fatty Acids on Brain Metabolism in Depression and Suicide
  • Ronald Tikofsky, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Radiology, Radiology and Jaclyn Spitzer, Professor Emerita of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Preliminary Exploration: Activated PET and FMRI to Predict Response to Cochlear Implants

2007 Imaging Pilot Awardees

  • Fernando Arias-Mendoza, MD, PhD, Research Scientist, Radiology, Advances in the Utilization of Magnetic Resonance Methodology in Prostate Cancer
  • Iris Asllani, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology, Radiology, Using Arterial Spin Labeling for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease
  • Peter D. Canoll, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology, Pathology and Cell Biology, Early and Enhanced Visualizations of Brain Tumor in Rat Glioma Model with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
  • Tiziano Colibazzi, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Multimodal Imaging in the Schizophrenia Prodrome
  • Dale C. Hesdorffer, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the Sergievsky Center, Epidemiology, Image Acquisition and Analysis in Epilepsy and Normal Aging
  • Alahyar Kangarlu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Detection of Neurodevelopmental Events in Non-human Primates with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
  • Kristen Klemenhagen, T32 Trainee, Neurobiology and Behavior, Neural Activity Underlying Contextual Fear Conditioning in Healthy Volunteers: Establishment of a Flexible fMRI Paradigm to Study Contextual Conditioning In Humans
  • Rajan Murthy, MD, House Staff, In Vivo Imaging of Monoamine Oxidase A
  • Ramin V. Parsey, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry: Neuroscience, Mechanism of Mood Stabilizer Action in the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder
  • Scott A. Small, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology in the Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute, Neurology: Aging and Dementia, Hatch MRI Center - 1.5T scan was awarded to 22 studies through the Hatch MRI Center