Dr. Koo received 2023 Marion and Henri Gendron, DSc, Faculty Award for studying blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability with non-invasive MRI techniques

We are pleased to announce that our principal investigator (PI), Dr. Bang-Bon Koo, is the recipient of the 2023 Marion and Henri Gendron, DSc, Faculty Award. This study, working alongside with Assistant Professor of Radiology, Ning Hua, PhD, and Assistant Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Farzad Mortazavi, PhD, will focus on testing novel in vivo MRI-based blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability imaging. The technique will be applied to an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to trace BBB breakdown. The new methods will be compared with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and ex-vivo tissue assessments for testing their validity for studying BBB. This study also will determine whether the BBB integrity measurements are associated with white matter integrity and immune profiles in the AD animal model.