Wei Chen, Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota

Education

Dr. Wei Chen is a Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received his B.S. degree at Fudan University in China. In 1985, he joined Professor Ackerman's lab as a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis and received his PhD in 1990. He spent three years as a postdoctoral associate in Professor Shulman's lab at Yale University Medical School. He moved to the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at the University of Minnesota in 1994 and became a professor in 2002. His research interests focus on development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/spectroscopy (MRS) methodologies and the utilization of these methodologies for studying metabolism, bioenergetics and function of brain and other organs noninvasively.

Current Ongoing Research Projects

1. To quantitatively determine the dynamic relationships of metabolic and homodynamic changes in response to neuronal activity in the human brain using functional MRI (fMRI) and functional MRS (fMRS).
2. To explore and improve the capability of fMRI for mapping functional organizations and sub-organizations covering the entire brain, consequently, to achieve functional mapping neural networks in the human brain.
3. To develop and establish the 17O magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) imaging methodology at high/ultrahigh magnetic fields for imaging regional cerebral oxygen consumption rate (CMRO2) in animals and humans non-invasively.
4. To develop in vivo 31P MRS approaches for studying high-energy phosphate metabolism, in particular, related to ATP production and utilization for supporting brain function.
5. To establish and improve the dynamic fMRI approach for probing fast neuronal interactions during brain activation.
6. To study brain at both normal and pathological conditions.

Selected Publications

• Chen W, Zhu XH, Thulborn KR, Ugurbil K. Retinotopic mapping of lateral geniculate nucleus in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 1999; 96: 2430-2434.
• Ogawa S, Lee TM, Stepnoski R, Chen W, Zhu XH, Ugurbil K. An approach to probe some neural systems interaction by functional MRI at neural time scale down to milliseconds. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2000; 97: 11026-11031.
• Zhu XH, Zhang Y, Tian RX, Lei H, Zhang N, Zhang X, Merkle H, Ugurbil K, Chen W. Development of 17O NMR approach for fast imaging of cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen in rat brain at high field. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2002; 99: 13194-13199.
• Lei H, Ugurbil K, Chen W. Measurement of unidirectional Pi to ATP flux in human visual cortex at 7 T by using in vivo 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2003; 100: 14409-14414.
• Zhang NY, Zhu XH, Lei H, Ugurbil K, Chen W. Simplified Methods for Calculating Cerebral Metabolic Rate of Oxygen Based On 17O MRS Imaging Measurement Following A Short 17O2 Inhalation. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 2004; 24: 840-848.
• Zhu XH, Zhang N, Zhang Y, Zhang X, Ugurbil K, Chen W. In vivo 17O NMR approaches for brain study at high field. NMR Biomed 2005; 18: 83-103.