Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and MR Spectroscopy (MRS) enable noninvasive visualization and characterization of tissue structure, function, and metabolism. These techniques provide high spatial and spectral resolution, allowing detailed assessment of microstructural and pathological factors that drive MRI signal changes, particularly in central nervous system tissue. Advances in hardware, pulse sequences, and quantitative analysis continue to expand their capabilities, bridging laboratory discoveries to patient care. UBC researchers use MRI and MRS to advance understanding and treatment across oncology, neurology, cardiovascular disease, and prenatal care.
View our Magnetic Resonance Imaging and MR Spectroscopy publications
People
Rachel Eddy
Primary Location: St. Paul’s Hospital, BC Children’s Hospital
Dr. Rachel Eddy is an imaging scientist with expertise in quantitative CT and MRI of the lungs. Dr. Eddy is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Pediatrics at UBC, and an Investigator at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Eddy also serves as the Director of the MRI Core at HLI. Dr. Eddy’s research program is focused on developing and applying novel pulmonary imaging and data science tools to provide an in-depth understanding of chronic lung disease and novel inhalational lung exposures. It uses imaging to guide lung disease interventions, and her laboratory employs structural and functional 1H and 129Xe MRI methods in combination with quantitative CT to deeply characterize lung structure-function in health and disease across the lifespan.
Rebecca Feldman
Primary Location: UBC Okanagan
Rebecca Feldman’s research rests on a foundation of MR physics, engineering, and medical research to focus on both technical innovation and translational research. Her goal is to develop, implement, and integrate novel MRI tools and techniques and translate the techniques to clinical research to facilitate better in vivo imaging of human disorders and diseases.
Darren Klass
Primary Location: Vancouver General Hospital, UBC Hospital
Dr. Darren Klass is an established radiologist with extensive expertise in interventional radiology. He currently serves as an Interventional Radiologist at Vancouver Coastal Health, a position he embraced in 2011. He also acts as the Medical Head of the MRI division and specializes in interventional oncology, aortic intervention, PVD, venous disease, and venous access. His subspecialties are locoregional tumor therapy, MR angiography, and treatment of venous disease. Dr. Klass is also an Interventional Radiologist with Vancouver Imaging, a physician-led private practice. The practice provides teleradiology, subspecialist image interpretation, interventional radiology and CT/MR protocol consulting. To complement the hands-on aspects of his work, he also dedicated to his role as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.
Shannon Kolind
Primary Location: Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Dr. Kolind completed her PhD in Physics at UBC and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford and King’s College London, developing ways to measure myelin, the insulating layer that surrounds nerves in the brain and spinal cord, using MRI. As an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Neurology) with associate appointments in the Departments of Radiology and Physics at UBC, Dr. Kolind’s lab is focused on developing a toolbox of tissue-specific imaging techniques and making them available to everyone, everywhere. This includes use of high magnetic field and ultra-low magnetic field MRI scanners, in settings from state-of-the-art hospitals and research facilities to remote, low-resource settings. Her multi-disciplinary team employs these multi-modal tools to achieving greater sensitivity and specificity in clinical research; particularly for clinical trials of new therapies. She was recently appointed as the Associate Head (Research) for the Division of Neurology, with the goal of promoting and fostering translational medicine.
Donna Lang
Primary Location: Vancouver General Hospital, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Dr. Lang completed her PhD in Neuroscience at UBC (2002) in the Dept. of Psychiatry, where she developed a career-long interest in biomarkers of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. She has been with the Dept of Radiology as for the last 21 years. Dr. Lang is a strong supporter of junior researchers and learners at all levels.
Corree Laule
Primary Location: ICORD, Vancouver General Hospital
Dr. Cornelia (Corree) Laule is a physicist and has been involved with nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research for over 25 years. She is a Professor, Vice Chair of Research, Radiology, Associate Director of Education & Training, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, and Director of the UBC MRI Research Centre. Dr. Laule leads an interdisciplinary research program focused on in vivo and post-mortem MRI in multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury which spans MRI technical innovations, validation, and clinical translation. She is interested in understanding the microstructural and pathological determinants which contribute to MRI signal changes in central nervous system tissue. She is particularly interested in myelin and how variations in myelin composition/structure may influence MRI measures. Dr. Laule is also passionate about education, science communication and leads initiatives to increase equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM, emphasizing women and Indigenous peoples. She is the co-founder of seed2STEM, which provides Indigenous high school students paid internships in UBC, SFU, and hospital-affiliated research labs.
David Li
Primary Location: Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Dr. Li was formerly Head of Radiology at the UBC Hospital and Interim Head, Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia. After obtaining his medical degree and radiology residency at UBC, which included additional training in nuclear medicine at Harvard Medical School and body CT at University of California (San Francisco), he did postgraduate studies in MRI at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (London). His primary research interest is the application of MR techniques in the study and care of patients living with multiple sclerosis.
Karen Lyons
Primary Location: BC Children’s Hospital
Erin MacMillan
Primary Location: Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Dr. MacMillan is an MRI physicist and MRI Clinical Scientist for the UBC MRI Research Centre in the Dept. of Radiology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. MacMillan leads and supports advanced technical development across a wide range of MRI paradigms including multi-nuclear imaging, MR spectroscopy, myelin water imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, concurrent MRI and non-invasive therapies like transcranial magnetic stimulation and low intensity focused ultrasound, and more. Her passion is to innovate and optimize MRI data acquisition to be able to reveal insights about underlying pathophysiology of disease and mechanisms of actions of therapies to improve care for neurological and psychiatric diseases, disorders, and injuries.
Denise Pugash
Primary Location: Vancouver General Hospital
Dr Denise Pugash is a radiologist and specialist in fetal imaging at BC Women’s Hospital. She is a graduate of UBC and the McGill University medical school, and she completed residency training at the University of British Columbia. She is a Clinical Professor and in the Department of Radiology at UBC. Dr Pugash is also an Associate Member of the Dept of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. She completed a fellowship in Fetal MRI with Professor Daniela Prayer at the Medical University of Vienna. As well as devoting her time to clinical practice in the Ultrasound Department at BC Women’s Hospital, she was awarded funding in 2015 from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Development Fund, to build PRIME (Perinatal Research Imaging Evaluation Centre), at BC Women’s Hospital.
Alexander Rauscher
Primary Location: UBC
Dr Alexander Rauscher obtained his MSc in Engineering Physics and PhD in Physics from the Vienna University of Technology, and after post-doctoral training at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany, he joined the UBC MRI Research Centre at the University of British Columbia in 2007. He became Assistant Professor at the Department of Radiology at UBC in 2010. In 2015 he joined the Department of Pediatrics at UBC as a Canada Research Chair in Developmental Neuroimaging. Dr. Rauscher’s work focuses on the development and utilization of new quantitative magnetic resonance imaging methods for brain research. The overarching goal of this work is to develop markers for tissue damage and repair in the central nervous system. Research interests: MRI engineering, biophysical basis of MRI signal, magnetic susceptibility mapping, neuroimaging.
Roger Tam
Primary Location: UBC
Dr. Tam is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology at UBC and a member of the MS/MRI Research Group in the Division of Neurology. Dr. Tam’s research interests are centered on the application of computer vision and machine learning methods to the quantitative analysis of medical images. The Tam laboratory’s current primary research direction is the use of magnetic resonance images to improve the understanding of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis. In general, the projects in the Tam laboratory relate to the following topics in medical imaging: in vivo imaging, imaging biomarkers, machine learning (big data analytics for medical images and personalized medicine), imaging artifacts and their impact on quantitative analysis, computational shape modelling & morphometrics, and medical informatics & distributed medical imaging systems.
Irene Vavasour
Primary Location: Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Dr. Vavasour is a Senior Imaging Scientist and has a wide breadth of experience with human MRI imaging studies across many diseases and MRI techniques. She has been a leader in the field of MRI for over 30 years with expertise in advanced MRI analysis, study coordination, team management.