Wen lab is located in the Neuroscience building in downtown Indianapolis, IN. We apply multi-modal dynamic MR imaging to study neurofluid dynamics and investigate its changes in aging- and Alzheimer's diseases (AD)-related neurodegenerations.
May 2025
Congratulate to our lab members for their achievements at ISMRM 2025 in Honolulu:
SUMMA CUM LAUDE award for Jianing's abstract "Respiration is a driver for parenchyma hydrodynamics: insights from dynamic DWI". His abstract was also honored "BEST ORAL presnetation in application" by ISMRM diffusion study group.
MAGNA CUM LAUDE award for Adam's abstract "Age-related and sex-specific reduction in cerebral arterial-venous cardiac pulse delay in functional magnetic resonance imaging"
MAGNA CUM LAUDE award for Vidhya's abstract "Impact of drowsiness in low-frequency, respiration, and cardiac oscillations across neurofluid compartments"
April 2025
New paper achievements: Our two papers were top 10% most-viewed papers in JMRI and NMR in Biomedicine, respectively.
March 2025
New citation achievement: Our paper was top 10 most-cited papers in JMRI.
Feburary 2025
New publication: Our manuscript titled "Dynamic diffusion-weighted imaging of intracranial cardiac impulse propagation along arteries to arterioles in the aging brain" has been accepted for publication in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.
Janurary 2025
ISMRM abstracts: A great year on ISMRM abstracts for our group. Look foward to the May conference in Honolulu.
(Oral) Jianing Zhang et al., "Respiration is a driver for parenchyma hydrodynamics: insights from dynamic DWI". Session: Neurofluids: Techniques & Applications
(Oral) Qiuting Wen et al., "Reduced perivascular cerebrospinal fluid pulsation in patients with ischemic stroke". Session: Stroke & Blood Vessels
(Oral) Tianyin Xu et al., "A Hypersampling Method to Resolve All Physiological Pulsations in fMRI Signals, Revealing Age-related Differences". Session: fMRI: Acquisition & Contrasts
(Powerpitch) Adam Wright et al., "Age-related and sex-specific reduction in cerebral arterial-venous cardiac pulse delay in functional magnetic resonance imaging". Session: Imaging Neurofluids: From CSF to Lymphatics
(Poster) Vidhya Nair et al., "Impact of Drowsiness on Low-Frequency, Respiratory, and Cardiac Oscillations across Neurofluid Compartments". Session: Neurofluids: physiology
(Poster) Haoze Zhu et al., "Quantitative Evaluation of Low-Frequency Oscillation in Blood and CSF Flow and its Changes from Eye Open to Eye Closed". Session: Neurofluids: physiology
November 2024
New publication: Our manuscript titled "Robust data-driven segmentation of pulsatile cerebral vessels using functional magnetic resonance imaging" has been accepted for publication in Journal of the Royal Society Interface (Special issue: The pulsing brain). We've made the segmentation toolbox available as open-source on GitHub.
Sep 2024
New lab members: We extend a warm welcome to Drs. Vidhya Nair, Haoze Zhu, and Jianing Zhang joining our team as postdoctoral researchers! 🎉🎉🎉.
August 2024
New publication: Our manuscript titled "Coupled pulsatile vascular and paravascular fluid dynamics in the human brain" has been accepted for publication in Fluids and Barriers of the CNS.
June 2024
New role: Qiuting will serve as a standing reviewer for NIH study section CNTN.
April 2024
New abstract award: Congratulate Adam on receiving SUMMA CUM LAUDE award on the ISMRM abstract.
March 2024
New publication: Our review paper, titled "Diffusion MRI of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics: Current techniques and future advancements" has been accepted for publication in NMR in Biomedicine.
Jan 2024
Qiuting becomes Adjunct Assistant Professor at Purdue University in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.
Dec 2023
New publication: Our manuscript titled "Exploring radial asymmetry in MR diffusion tensor imaging and its impact on the interpretation of glymphatic mechanisms" has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
Oct 2023
New lab member: We extend a warm welcome to Dr. Joseph Muskat, joining our team as a Research Assistant 🎉🎉🎉.
Oct 2023
New publication: Our manuscript titled "Paravascular fluid dynamics reveal arterial stiffness assessed using dynamic diffusion‐weighted imaging" has been accepted for publication in NMR in Biomedicine.
Sep 2023
New grant: Qiuting and collaborators received NIH/NIA R01 award titled "Map Paravascular Fluid Dynamic Signatures of Key Aging and AD Processes Using Dynamics Diffusion-Weighted Imaging"
Aug 2023
Congratulations to Tianyin on completing a fruitful summer project and presenting her work at the Greater Indiana Chapter Society for Neuroscience!
Aug 2023
🎉🎉🎉 Big congratulations to Adam on being awarded the F30 grant on his first submission!
Feb 2023
Qiuting served as an ad hoc reviewer for the NIH study section: Clinical Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration Study Section (CNN)
Feb 2023
Congratulations to Adam on being invited to an oral presentation at ISMRM 2023 for his abstract "Multimodal MR imaging approach to evaluate the coupling between cardiac pulsation and perivascular CSF motion".
Dec 2022
Congratulations to Adam on submitting his first NIH F30 grant at only 6 months into his Ph.D. program! Good luck Adam.
Nov 2022
Qiuting served as an ad hoc reviewer for the Indiana CTSI Core Pilot grants study section.
July 2022
New publication: Our manuscript titled "Assessing pulsatile waveforms of paravascular cerebrospinal fluid dynamics within the glymphatic pathways using dynamic diffusion-weighted imaging (dDWI)" has been accepted for publication in Neuroimage.
June 2022
Qiuting served as an ad hoc reviewer for the NIH Fellowships study section meeting: Brain Disorders and Related Neurosciences – (F01A).
May 2022
Qiuting attended the 31th ISMRM conference held in London and gave an oral presentation in the "Neurofluid: from micro to macro" scientific session, titled "Assessing Pulsatile Waveforms of Paravascular Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics using dynamic Diffusion-weighted Imaging (dDWI)"
To measure the fluid dynamics of the paravascular cerebrospinal fluid (pCSF), we developed an in-vivo non-invasive imaging and post-processing technique, named dynamic Diffusion-Weighted Imaging (dynDWI). By measuring the temporal waveforms of pCSF movement in the paravasulcar space, dynDWI may provide relevant biomarkers for glymphatic function – failure of which can be a final common pathway to dementia.
Our follow-up work shows that dynDWI can map the traveling speed of pressure waveforms, reflecting vessel stiffness. Additionally, by combining dynDWI with fMRI, we demonstrated that pCSF pulsation is tightly coupled with vascular pulsation. These findings underscore the critical role of the vasculature in driving CSF dynamics.
We have discovered a series of interesting findings on the co-localization of white-matter vulnerability and the deposition of tau pathology in the older brain (>65 y/o) with or without cognitive impairment.
The first study using diffusion MRI alone identified focal white-matter alterations in the mild cognitive impaired brain. Interestingly, the white-matter alteration pattern features a temporal-posterior gradient. This gradient coincides with the spatial distribution of early tau pathology, which inspired our subsequent investigation – to evaluate whether there is indeed a testable relationship between white-matter degeneration and tau deposition using in vivo data.
Our follow-up study combining diffusion MRI and tau-PET imaging confimed the WM-tau association. Furthermore, it revealed a continuous association pattern (movie on the left) that resembles the well-known tau propagation pattern (i.e., Braak staging). These findings suggest that the two seemingly independent processes of the aging brain - white-matter degeneration and tauopathy - are related.
We continue to evaluate the interactive relationship between white-matter degeneration and tauopathy in the aging brain and along the spectrum of Alzheimer's Disease.
Acquired Reconstructed
ISMRM 2016 Oral Presentation (Summa Cum Laude Merit Award)
ISMRM 2017 Oral Presentation (Magna Cum Laude Merit Award)
We developed a series of novel diffusion acquisition and reconstruction techniques that enable fast high-resolution diffusion imaging. The method, termed RoSA, utilized a 'similarity' feature of high-angular resolution diffusion imaging, which others have not explored. RoSA can speed up high-resolution diffusion imaging by ~10 fold compared to state-of-the-art high-resolution diffusion imaging techniques, which can significantly facilitate the application of diffusion imaging to study grey matter disease such as Alzheimer's Disease in a clinical setting. A provisional patent has been filed for this acquisition technique. This project has led to a 3-year research contract with Siemens Healthineers. Afterward, we developed a turbo-spin-echo version of RoSA (TSE-RoSA) to achieve zero-distortion diffusion images. Rapid k-space acquisition and sparse reconstruction were incorporated to accelerate its acquisition speed. TSE-RoSA allows distortion-free fast intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI within three minutes.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Assistant Professor
Qiuting Wen, PhD
pronounced [chiu-ting]
wenq@iu.edu
Dr. Wen earned her Ph.D. from the UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Ph.D. Program in Bioengineering, specializing in the imaging of brain tumors. During her doctoral research, she cultivated a strong interest in MRI. Following graduation, she transitioned to Indiana University, where she pursued postdoctoral research with a specialized emphasis on advanced diffusion MRI. Her present research is centered on the application of dynamic diffusion-weighted imaging along with other dynamic imaging techniques to comprehensively investigate neurofluid dynamics, its physiological drivers, and its alterations in brain diseases.
Graduate student (MD/PhD)
Adam Wright
wrighad@iu.edu
Adam has a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. After graduation, he completed research at the Oregon National Primate Research Center focusing on assessing placental function with various functional MRI techniques (advisor: Matthias Schabel, PhD; PI: Antonio Frias, MD). In the summer of 2020, Adam enrolled in the MD/PhD program at Indiana School of Medicine where he will complete his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Adam is interested in researching dynamic imaging techniques to greater understand organ function in-vivo. He wants to research the application of these imaging techniques so they can be used to detect organ dysfunction and disease progression allowing him to combine his passion for both engineering and medicine to answer pertinent clinical questions.
Graduate student (PhD)
Hyunsup (William) Han
hanwil@iu.edu
Will completed his M.S. in Medical Physics at Purdue, with a focus on MRI physics and advanced signal processing methods. His previous work involved developing an automated approach for signal suppression to improve the detection of metabolic biomarkers (i.e. lactate and choline) in cancer research using chemical shift imaging. Currently, he is working on dynamic diffusion MRI as part of a broader effort to investigate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics and brain waste clearance. He is especially interested in how physiological drivers—such as cardiac pulsation, respiration, and low-frequency oscillations—contribute to CSF flow and glymphatic transport across different brain states. Outside of research, Will enjoy skiing, golfing, and exploring new cities.
Graduate student (MS)
Tianyin Xu
xu1456@purdue.edu
Tianyin is a master's student studying biomedical engineering at Purdue University. Her project involves developing data-driven algorithms for automatically identifying arterial regions in functional MRI.
Postdoctoral researcher
Vidhya Vijayakrishnan Nair, PhD
vvnair@iu.edu
Dr. Nair is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences. She was born and brought up in Kerala, India. She received her B. Tech in Electronics and Biomedical Engineering from Cochin University of Science and Technology, MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University. She is interested in investigating brain perfusion and dynamics of cerebrospinal fluid flow across different neuro-behavioral states. She is also interested in studying the changes in neurofluid dynamics across different cerebrovascular pathologies. Apart from research, she enjoys travel and music.
Postdoctoral researcher
Haoze Zhu, PhD
hz68@iu.edu
Dr. Zhu earned his Ph.D. from the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, majoring in speech and hearing science. During his doctoral study, his research projects focus on using the resting-state fMRI data to explore the neural mechanism in post-stroke aphasia and the possibility of predicting language deficiency. After graduation, he continued to pursue a research career at Wen lab. His present research projects involve using perfusion and dynamic imaging techniques to unveil the driving force of CSF circulation in the human brain.
Postdoctoral researcher
Jianing Zhang, PhD
jzh14@iu.edu
Dr. Zhang obtained his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His prior research focuses on neuroimaging, neurorehabilitation, and machine learning, with extensive work in the automatic diagnosis and evaluation of rehabilitation training effects for neurological disorders like conduct disorder and stroke. Currently, his research centers on developing novel algorithms to study cerebrospinal fluid flow patterns in the brain using dynamic diffusion MRI. Outside of academia, Jianing enjoys playing badminton and traveling.
Research assistant
Joseph Muskat
jcmuskat@iu.edu
Dr. Muskat obtained his Ph.D. from the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University where he developed an original line of research pertaining to translational computational models and applied physiology. His academic work involves the development of open-source tools for simulating the hemodynamic response to acute cardiovascular stress (i.e., fear and aerobic exercise) with an overall goal to explore emergent properties of the human circulation that modulate regional blood flow.
As a Research Assistant within the Wen lab, he supports work with cardiovascular mechanics and delivery of pulse waveforms with natural aging. Further, he is actively seeking his M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Butler University where he hopes to investigate the influence of psychedelics such as psilocybin and ketamine to treat resistant depression.
Wen Q*, Muskat J, Babbs CF, Wright AM, Zhao Y, Zhou X, Zhu C, Tong Y, Wu YC, Risacher SL, Saykin AJ. Dynamic diffusion-weighted imaging of intracranial cardiac impulse propagation along arteries to arterioles in the aging brain. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2025 Feb 13:271678X251320902. doi: 10.1177/0271678X251320902. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39947901; PMCID: PMC11826823.
Wright, A.M., Wu, YC., Yang, HC. Tong Y*., Wen Q*. Coupled pulsatile vascular and paravascular fluid dynamics in the human brain. Fluids Barriers CNS 21, 71 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12987-024-00572-2
Wright AM, Wu YC, Feng L, Wen Q*. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics: Current techniques and future advancements. NMR Biomed. 2024 May 7:e5162. doi: 10.1002/nbm.5162. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38715420.
Wright AM, Wu YC, Chen NK, Wen Q*. Exploring Radial Asymmetry in MR Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Its Impact on the Interpretation of Glymphatic Mechanisms. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2023 Dec 29. doi: 10.1002/jmri.29203. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38156600.
Wen Q*, Wright A, Tong Y, Zhao Y, Risacher SL, Saykin AJ, Wu YC, Limaye K, Riley K. Paravascular fluid dynamics reveal arterial stiffness assessed using dynamic diffusion-weighted imaging. NMR Biomed. 2023 Oct 5:e5048. doi: 10.1002/nbm.5048. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37798964.
Wen Q, Yu M, Shahid SS, Zhao Y, Risacher SL, Saykin AJ, Wu YC. Genetic and Structural Network Contributions to The Regional Vulnerability of Tauopathy. Alzheimer's & Dementia 18, e067455
Wen Q, Wang H, Haacke EM, Jiang Q, Hu J. Contribution of Direct Cerebral Vascular Transport in Brain Substance Clearance. Aging Dis. 2023 Aug 13. doi: 10.14336/AD.2023.0426. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37611901.
Wen Q*, Tong Y, Zhou X, Dzemidzic M, Ho CY, Wu YC, Assessing Pulsatile Waveforms of Paravascular Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics within the Glymphatic Pathways Using Dynamic Diffusion-Weighted Imaging (dDWI), NeuroImage, 2022.
Shahid SS, Wen Q, Risacher SL, Farlow MR, Unverzagt FW, Apostolova LG, Foroud TM, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Saykina AJ, Wu YC. Hippocampal-subfield microstructures and their relation to plasma biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease. Brain. 2022 Apr 12
Wen Q*, Risacher SL, Xie L, Li J, Harezlak J, Tallman E, Farlow MR, Unverzagt FW, Gao S, Apostolova LG, Saykin AJ, and Wu YC*. Tau-related white-matter alterations along spatially selective pathways. Neuroimage. 2021 Feb 1;226:117560.
Hall Z, Chien B, Zhao Y, Risacher SL, Saykin AJ, Wu YC*, Wen Q*. Tau deposition and structural connectivity demonstrate differential association patterns with neurocognitive tests. Brain Imaging and Behavior 2021 Sep 17 (Cover article).
Wen Q*, Feng L, Zhou K, Wu Y-C. Rapid golden-angle diffusion-weighted propeller MRI for simultaneous assessment of ADC and IVIM. Neuroimage. 2020 Dec;223:117327.
Wen Q, Mustafi SM, Harezlak J, Li J, Risacher SL, West JD, Tallman E, Farlow MR, Unverzagt FW, Apostolova LG, Saykin AJ, and Wu YC. White matter alterations in early-stage Alzheimer's disease: A tract-specific study. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2019 Aug 21;11:576-587.
Feng L, Wen Q, Huang C, Tong A, Liu F, Chandarana H. GRASP-Pro: imProving GRASP DCE-MRI through self-calibrating subspace-modeling and contrast phase automation. Magn Reson Med. 2020 Jan;83(1):94-108.
Fadnavis S, Endres S, Wen Q, Wu YC, Cheng H, Koudoro S, Rane S, Rokem A, Garyfallidis E. Bifurcated Topological Optimization for IVIM. Front Neurosci. 2021 Dec 15;15:779025.
Cluceru J, Nelson SJ, Wen Q, Phillips JJ, Shai A, Molinaro AM, Alcaide-Leon P, Olson MP, Nair D, LaFontaine M, Chunduru P, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Cha S, Chang SM, Berger MS, Lupo JM. Recurrent tumor and treatment-induced effects have different MR signatures in contrast enhancing and non-enhancing lesions of high-grade gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2020 Oct 14;22(10):1516-1526.
Wu YC, Harezlak J, Elsaid NMH, Lin Z, Wen Q, Mustafi SM, Riggen LD, Koch KM, Nencka AS, Meier TB, Mayer AR, Wang Y, Giza CC, DiFiori JP, Guskiewicz KM, Mihalik JP, LaConte SM, Duma SM, Broglio SP, Saykin AJ, McCrea MA, McAllister TW. Longitudinal white-matter abnormalities in sports-related concussion: A diffusion MRI study. Neurology. 2020 Aug 18;95(7):e781-e792
Wen Q, Kodiweera C, Dale BM, Shivraman G, Wu Y-C. Rotating single-shot acquisition (RoSA) with composite reconstruction for fast high-resolution diffusion imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2018 Jan;79(1):264-275
Wen Q, Stirling BD, Sha L, Shen L, Whalen PJ, Wu YC. Parcellation of Human Amygdala Subfields Using Orientation Distribution Function and Spectral K-means Clustering. Comput Diffus MRI (2016).
Wen Q, Kelley DA, Banerjee S, Lupo JM, Chang SM, Xu D, Hess CP, Nelson SJ. Clinically feasible NODDI characterization of glioma using multiband EPI at 7 T. Neuroimage Clin. 2015 Sep 3;9:291-9. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2015.08.017. PMID: 26509116; PMCID: PMC4579286.
Wen Q, Jalilian L, Lupo JM, Molinaro AM., Chang SM, Clarke J, Prados M, Nelson SJ. Comparison of ADC metrics and their association with outcome for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma being treated with radiation therapy, temozolomide, erlotinib and bevacizumab, J Neurooncol. 2015. Jan;121(2):331-9.
Wen Q, Jalilian L, Lupo JM, Li Y, Roy R, Molinaro AM, Chang SM, Prados M, Butowski N, Clarke J, Nelson SJ. Association of Diffusion and Anatomic Imaging Parameters with Survival for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Participating in Two Different Clinical Trials. Transl Oncol. 2015 Dec;8(6):446-55.