Team

Bastiaan Driehuys, Ph.D.  Professor of Radiology

Office Phone: (919) 684-7786

Email: bastiaan.driehuys@duke.edu

Bastiaan Driehuys directs the Xenon MRI Shared Resource at Duke. His ongoing research involves deploying and validating MR-based imaging biomarkers of pulmonary function and structure in a variety of disease areas. He helped introduce the field of hyperpolarized (HP) gas MRI, including the first animal and human studies using 3He and 129Xe. His research has turned towards exploiting solubility and chemical shifts of 129Xe to evaluate regional pulmonary gas exchange, and his team has applied that technology to patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, asthma, and pulmonary vascular disease. The group is active in developing methods to continue identifying unique spectroscopic and imaging signatures of pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology. With industry and academic experience, Dr. Driehuys’ interests span not only attacking the basic physics problems of these gases, but in their large-scale expansion and application to biomedical problems.

 

David Mummy, Ph.D  Assistant Professor of Radiology

Office Phone: (919) 684-7783

Email Address: david.mummy@duke.edu

David’s research focuses on applications of <sup>129</sup>Xe MRI in human lung disease, including asthma, COPD, and interstitial lung disease. He is especially interested in how biomarkers derived from ventilation and dissolved-phase 129Xe imaging can be used clinically to aid in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy selection and monitoring.

 

 

Yi Zheng, Visiting Undergraduate Scholar
Email Address: zheng.yi@duke.edu

Yi is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Biomedical Engineering at Tsinghua University. He possesses strong programming and data analysis skills and has hands-on experience in working with MRI technology. Currently, he is focused on optimizing calibration codes and evaluating various data processing methods. Additionally, he is actively involved in a project that involves integrating calibration codes into a sequence. He is passionate about leveraging technology to advance medical research and improve healthcare outcomes.

 

 

Kunyu (Kimi) Du, Undergraduate Student
Email Address: kimi.du@duke.edu

As an undergraduate studying biomedical engineering, Kimi is working on a project to create a healthy reference distribution. She is also working on a project involving the natural heterogeneity of ventilation and gravitational gradients in healthy subjects.

 

 

 

Junlan Lu, BS.  Medical Physics Ph.D Candidate

Email Address: junlan.lu@duke.edu

Junlan is a Medical Physics PhD student who is investigating bias field correction with 3D radial sequencing. He is a current NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

 

 

 

Suphachart Leewiwatwong, Graduate Student
Email Address: suphachart.leewiwatwong@duke.edu

Suphachart is a Biomedical Engineering Graduate student.

 

 

 

 

 

Anna Costelle, Graduate Student
Email Address: anna.costelle@duke.edu

Anna is a Graduate student who is currently seeking to establish normal reference values for the dynamic spectra of Xe-129 absorbed in red blood cells of the lung.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doreen Dai, Research Intern
Email Address: haoran.dai@duke.edu

Doreen is a research intern.

 

 

 

 

Ari Bechtel, Data Manger
Email Address: aryil.bechtel@duke.edu

Ari is a data manager that helps operate the 129Xe polarizers and assists with data and image analysis studies to improve and explore the utility of hyperpolarized gas MRI.

 

 

Drew Clements,  Research and Development Engineer
Office Phone: (919) 684-7839
Email Address: drew.clements@duke.edu

Drew is tasked with primary operation of 129Xe polarizers. Most technical problems associated with 129Xe polarizers or their equipment are handled by Alex. He is particularly savvy with hands-on work; manufacturing techniques involving CAD, CNC machining, and programming are among his primary skill set.

 

 

Shuo Zhang, Data Manager
Office Phone: (919) 684-7783
Email Address: shuo.zhang@duke.edu

Shuo is a data manager who helps with MRI image data analysis. She also performs data management and statistical analysis in support of research projects and clinical studies.

 

 

 

 

Sakib Kabir, Analyst Programmer
Office Phone: (919) 681-7362
Email Address: sakib.kabir@duke.edu

Sakib is an Analyst Programmer who is responsible for developing and maintaining image processing pipelines. He is also optimizing and automating MRI image processing algorithms to facilitate the analysis process.

 

 

Jennifer Korzekwinski, CRC, RT(N), CNMT
Office Phone: (919) 681-7362
Email Address: jennifer.korzekwinski@duke.edu

Jennifer’s Radiology career began as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist and has transitioned into her current roles as Clinical Research Coordinator and Regulatory Coordinator.  Jennifer is committed to providing the best experiences for her study participants as well as providing the accurate and precise documentation necessary for the management of clinical trials.

 

 

 

Cody Blanton, CRC
Office Phone: (919) 668-7575
Email Address: cody.blanton@duke.edu

Cody previously worked as an orthopedics inpatient nurse prior to transitioning into his current role as a Clinical Research Coordinator. His interpersonal and communicative skills allow him to effectively engage with study participants. Cody is dedicated to ensuring study participants safety while monitoring them in the MRI scanner, as well as through correct documentation. He looks forward to continued learning related to regulatory aspects of clinical trial management.