Bang-Bon Koo

Assistant Professor neuroimaging data analyses, aging, Gulf War Illness (GWI)

  • Title Assistant Professor

    neuroimaging data analyses, aging, Gulf War Illness (GWI)
  • Phone R-919

Dr.Koo’s research interests span the areas of neuroimaging, particularly the development of multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and analysis methods. Neuroimaging commonly aims to identify differences between healthy and unhealthy brains in a quantitative way. However, due to the complexity of the human brain, it is extremely difficult to analyze early stage or slow disease progressions from visually inspecting the image. Dr.Koo’s work focuses on developing novel imaging protocols and imaging features with better sensitivities on monitoring neurological and functional changes in the brain.  

Dr.Koo has expertise in developing image processing and computational methods for analyzing neuroimaging data. Cortical grey matter diffusivity mapping, (Koo et al., 2009, 2010) has brought a novel perspective on diffusion MRI as a sensitive measure on in the grey matter microstructure and served as the foundation of numerous studies. Recently, he continued to work on this topic and showed that grey matter diffusivity mapping under a certain imaging parameter setup can be a highly sensitive measure on the early stage neuro-inflammation process and treatment effects (Koo et al., 20181, 20182). Some of his other imaging works have been applied to numerous studies – Archievesof Neurology (2012), Epilepsia (2010), Hippocampus (2013) and Neurobiology of Aging (2012). 

Dr.Koo directs bioimaging and informatics laboratory. The laboratory currently focuses on imaging feature mining and combining with non-imaging biomarkers to study neurodegenerative diseases. Recent work on developing computer-aided decoding system based on machine learning technique was recommended from the DoD advisory board for the gulf war illness (GWI) consortium to more clearly identify the interactions of brain-immune pathways by mixing imaging, immune and cognitive data into one complex model for GWI. This cutting-edge technology also has a potential to provide diagnostic markers at the individual level. It is expected that this approach can also be valuable to find a cure for other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and related dementia.  

 

Lab: Bio-imaging Informatics Lab

CV: Bang-Bon Koo, Ph.D. — CV

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