SCMR-ISMRM Joint Workshop: New Horizons in Highfield Cardiovascular MR: Promise and Progress

  

  

Dear all,

On behalf of the organizing committee, the Society of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) and the Cardiac MR and Highfield MR study groups of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) we would like to draw your attention to the upcoming SCMR-ISMRM Joint Workshop on

New Horizons in Highfield (B₀≥3.0 Tesla) Cardiovascular MR: Promise and Progress

which will be held on January 30^th/31^st 2013 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco, USA.

Opportunities for presenting your work during the scientific sessions!The workshops program balances invited talks with numerous oral abstract presentations as outlined in the attached agenda. For further details please see the PDF attachment or please visitwww.scmr.org.

Abstract submission site still open!Please be advised that the abstract submission site (http://scmr2013.abstractcentral.com/)

will be open throughout November 21^st 11.59 p.m. EST.

Bridging Clinical Science and Basic ResearchThe purpose of the workshop is to connect cardiologists, radiologists, physicians, clinical scientists, basic researchers, MR engineers or physicists, cardiac MR applications specialists and MR technicians, bioengineers, physiologists and all fields related to theses disciplines with a focus on highfield MR techniques and methodology and their capabilities for advancing cardiac MR. The workshop is designed to provide a forum for disseminating information related to state-of-the-art highfield and ultrahigh field MR techniques regarding cardiovascular function, myocardial perfusion, MR angiography and flow in humans and small animals. The interdisciplinary and international faculty and audience will ensure that technologies and methodologies are communicated and shared for the purpose of advancing science and improving patient care while balancing technology developments with clinical applications and future directions.

Educational ObjectivesUpon completing this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Explain the basics of highfield cardiac MR; and identify, discuss and compare novel developments of highfield cardiac MR
• Examine and select methods used for assessment of myocardial perfusion and viability, for functional and microstructural imaging of the heart, for myocardial tissue characterization and for MR angiography and vessel wall imaging together with new dimensions in flow imaging flow at high fields
• Describe and explain challenges and differences of methods used for CMR at higher fields versus the counterparts used a lower magnetic field strengths
• Identify and summarize progress and promises of highfield CMR in small animals
• Recognize, describe and select opportunities of emerging highfield CMR technologies including early explorations into ultrahigh field CMR and real time imaging of the heart
• Discuss, practice and disseminate clinical applications of highfield CMR

We are looking forward to meet you in San Francisco,

Thoralf Niendorf, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular in Medicine, Berlin. GermanyDebiao Li, University of California Los Angeles and Cedars Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, USAPeter Kellman, Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics, NHLBI, Bethesda, USA

SOLAR-Eclipse Computational Tools for Imaging Genetics

   

   

PhD Studentship Available for October 2012

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in Statistics at the University of Warwick, funded by a NIH RO1 grant, joint with University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Title: SOLAR-Eclipse Computational Tools for Imaging Genetics

Supervisors: Dr. Thomas Nichols (Warwick) and Dr. Peter Kochunov (U. Maryland Baltimore)

Funding: Tuition fees (at UK/EU level) and tax-free stipend for a 3.5 year PhD. Stipend rises annually as per the UK Research Councils minimum rate (£13,590 for 2011/11).

Start Date: October 2012

Project Description: Imaging genetics is an exciting merger of neuroscience and genomics, looking to discover and understand the genetic variation in brain imaging phenotypes. The over-all goal of this project is to create a new imaging genetic tool, that will allow the use of imaging data with classical genetic and epigenetic epidemiological analyses such as heritability, pleiotropy, quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genome-wide association (GWAS), gene expression, and methylation analyses. The project will extend the the widely used genetics SOLAR software, creating the "SOLAR-Eclipse" toolkit.

This studentship specifically concerns the development of inference methods that account for the genomic and spatial structure in the data analyzed. In particular, multiple testing methods that account for both the spatial nature of the signal and correlated noise structure. The methods must work with both independent samples (unrelated individuals) and pedigrees (related subjects). The methods developed will be ultimately be released as a standalone application and integrated into the existing neuroscience eScience networks. Such an integrate analysis package will greatly enhance and speed up the search for genes that influence brain's neuroanatomic and functional traits and provide comprehensive tools to illustrate pathways from genes to brain structure/function. It is expected that a combination of permutation and random field theory based methods will be developed to meet these goals. Grant pending final approval; studentship conditional on grant award.

Requirements: The studentship is available to candidates with the equivalent of a first class or upper second class degree in a relevant discipline, and who meet University entry requirements (see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/academicoffice/gsp/prospective ).

Eligibility: UK or EU nationals. Non-EU nationals can apply, but would be responsible for the difference between UK/EU fees and international fees.

To Apply: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/statistics/postgrad/research/apply (and please notify Dr. Nichols t.e.nichols@warwick.ac.uk when application is submitted)

Deadline: Applications are considered on rolling basis, up until 31 July 2012, but priority given to applications received before 15 April.

Inquires: Specific questions on this project should be directed to Thomas Nicholst.e.nichols@warwick.ac.uk; questions on the postgraduate application process at Warwick should be directed to stats.pg.support@warwick.ac.uk

Links:

• Warwick Statistics

• Thomas Nichols

• Peter Kochunov recently moved to University of Maryland Baltimore. For more on his work see his lab's profile from U. Texas Health Science Center.