Signals in Time: Advancing Longitudinal Magnetic Resonance Across Biological Scales
Abstract: How much physiological information can be encoded in, and recovered from, the magnetic resonance signal? That question drives my laboratory's work at the intersection of magnetic resonance physics and microphysiology, where we combine MR physics, statistical and computational methods, and controlled biological or biomimetic systems to better understand instrument design, improve or identify the limits of phenomenological theories, and identify fingerprints of biological state. In this talk, I will introduce several directions from our group that reflect this approach. We use statistical methods to extract weak MR signals from noise. We interrogate the use single-sided magnet to ask a specific question: i.e. can myofascial thickness be determined non-invasively? We engineer (design, model, and fabricate) model MPS systems acting as phantoms that let us independently control restriction, exchange, and permeability. And we develop theoretical approaches connecting spin dynamics with transport in open systems, linking measurable coherence and correlation signals to the physical transport processes that produce them. I will conclude with an outlook toward using magnetic resonance not simply to form images, but as a quantitative, engineerable probe of the organization and dynamics of complex biological systems, a direction where defining the right design specifications is the necessary first step toward developing the technology toward translational applications of (magnet and sensor) for interrogating biological state.
Witherspoon, V. J., Komlosh, M. E., Benjamini, D., Özarslan, E., Lavrik, N. V., & Basser, P. J. “Novel pore size-controlled, susceptibility matched, 3D-printed MRI phantoms.” Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.30029
Fricke, S. N., Mao, H., Sajjan, M., Demarteau, J., Helms, B. A., Ajoy, A., Witherspoon, V., Kais, S., & Reimer, J. A. “Out-of-time-order correlators bridge classical transport and quantum dynamics.” Journal of Chemical Physics 164, 134201 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0323131
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Velencia
Biography:
Dr. Velencia J. Witherspoon is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University, where she leads research at the intersection of magnetic resonance, transport phenomena, biomaterials, and microphysiological systems. Her work develops quantitative and low-field magnetic resonance methods to probe how water motion reflects the structure, composition, and dynamics of complex biological and material systems. Her research spans diffusion MRI and NMR, magnetic resonance microscopy, engineered MRI phantoms, extracellular matrix characterization, and emerging applications of low-field MRI for accessible biomedical sensing. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied solid state NMR, magnetic resonance microscopy, and subsequently completed postdoctoral research at NIST and the National Institutes of Health. Her publications include work on molecular dynamics in metal-organic frameworks, water transport in polymer membranes, low-field diffusion measurements, and susceptibility-matched 3D-printed MRI phantoms. She was an inaugural NIH MOSAIC K99/R00 Fellow and a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at NIST. Through her research program, Dr. Witherspoon seeks to expand magnetic resonance from a conventional imaging modality into an accessible, quantitative sensor of biological and material state. Her current funding resources include NIGMS-NIH, Louisiana Cancer Research Center, and the NSF.