Yu-Chien Wu, MD, PhD

Bio

My appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at IU School of Medicine began in December 2013. I received a MD degree and license at Taiwan in 2000. Later, I earned my PhD in Medical Physics under Dr. Alexander (Magnetic Resonance Imaging Physicist) and Dr. Field (Neuroradiologist) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006.

While I am a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Physicist by training, my research focuses on diffusion physics in biologic system using diffusion MRI. I started to work on diffusion MRI extensively in my graduate education. I continued to advance in this field independently at Dartmouth College (2009-2013) and currently at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Titles & Appointments

Associate Professor of Radiology & Imaging Sciences
Scientific Director, In-Vivo Imaging Core--Indiana Institute for Biomedical Imaging Sciences

Education

2006 PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison

2001 RES Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan

2000 MD Kaohsiung Medical University

1994 BS National Taiwan University
Research

The goal of my research is to understand diffusion physics in biological systems and utilize diffusion MRI to elucidate disease mechanisms, facilitate early diagnoses, and identify optimal treatments. To achieve this goal, my research program focuses on developing quantitative microstructure imaging techniques, assessing the sensitivities of these microstructural measurements in neurologic disorders of the human brain, and validating their specificities with histological analysis of animal models and human post-mortem tissue. The significance of my research is applicable to any disorder in which alterations of diffusion play an important role in detecting the underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms.

My earlier work focused on developing advanced and efficient diffusion encoding with fixed diffusion time for clinical MRI scanners. In 2007, we proposed Hybrid Diffusion Imaging (HYDI) with 5 diffusion-weighting shells and high-angular-resolution diffusion encoding with 120 directions. Using the HYDI acquisition, I initially studied the microstructural changes of white matter inferred by the q-space analytic approach on a population of normal aging. Recently, my lab and I continued to investigate axonal density and orientation dispersion information of normal aging using diffusion compartmental modeling.

My other research direction is to break the barriers of diffusion imaging in medicine. To this end, I started developing affordable high-resolution diffusion imaging and optimizing time-varying diffusion MRI pulse sequences tailored for the human brain in clinical scanners. In 2016, we proposed a fast high-resolution diffusion MRI technique, rotating single-shot acquisition (RoSA).

In addition to Aging and Alzheimer’s disease, mild traumatic brain injury is also one of my research interests. We study microstructural changes of brain white matter in mild traumatic brain injury and sport related brain injury (i.e., concussion) in college athletes. My laboratory is also involved in studies to understand the underlying micro-mechanisms of multiple sclerosis and to identify its imaging biomarkers.
Professional Organizations

Alzheimer's Association

International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)

Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
Board Certifications

American Board of Radiology - Medical Physics*

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