Lijing XinLijing Xin is a research staff scientist and 7T MR Operational Manager at the Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Her research interests focus on developing cutting-edge magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging methods for better understanding the brain function and the pathophysiology of neurological diseases. Her journey on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) started from her master project during 2002-2005, where she developed a gradient unit with eddy current compensation and a pulse sequence generator for MRI spectrometer, which enhanced her knowledge in MR instrumentation. Later, she obtained her PhD in physics from Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2010, where she focused on developing various novel 1H and 13C magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) acquisition and quantification methods as well as RF coils on high field preclinical MR scanners. Afterwards, she started working on the clinical MR platforms including both 3 and 7T and continued to improve and develop novel acquisition and quantification methods for 1H, 13C and 31P nuclei. She carries on interdisciplinary collaborations with different partners, particularly with clinical partners where translational strategies are performed to explore the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders and disease biomarkers for early diagnose and intervention.
Cristina Ramona CudalbuCristina Cudalbu obtained her Bachelors of Science degree in Medical Physics in 2002 and Masters of Science degree in Biophysics and Medical Physics in 2003, both from University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In 2006 she obtained her PhD degree in Localized Proton MRS and time domain quantification of cerebral metabolites at 7T and 4.7T at University Lyon 1, RMN Laboratory, Villeurbanne, France.In 2007, she joined, as a Scientist, the Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging at EPFL, where she implemented new acquisition and quantification techniques for in vivo nitrogen, proton and carbon MRS for preclinical studies. Starting 2012, Cristina Cudalbu was appointed as Research Staff Scientist and 9.4T MRI Operational Manager at Centre d’Imagerie Biomédicale (CIBM) at EPFL. She is now developing new research lines at CIBM, being oriented towards new acquisition and quantification techniques for in vivo proton, phosphorous, carbon, nitrogen MRS and fast MRSI, diffusion weighted spectroscopy and brain macromolecules quantification. She is now applying these developments on chronic hepatic encephalopathy, a research area that she developed at CIBM (https://actu.epfl.ch/news/when-liver-disease-affects-the-brain/), and on different collaborative projects with researchers from the five partner institutions of CIBM. Katarzyna PierzchalaKatarzyna Pierzchala completed professional studies at the Faculty of Physics at University of Silesia and at the Medical University of Silesia, Poland. She obtained her BSc degree (2003) and MSc degree (2005) in Medical Physics from the University of Silesia, Poland. In 2010 she obtained her PhD degree in physics (biomedical physics) “Oxidative Stress on Human Cells in the Presence of Nano-Sized Titanium Dioxide” from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Physics of Complex Matter, Switzerland. In 2013, she joined, as a Scientist, the Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging at EPFL, where she implemented the electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) and optical and fluorescence microscopy to study the brain redox and antioxidant state in rodent models of human diseases ie. hepatic encephalopathy and the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of intact living cancerous cells to characterize their metabolic profile and metastatic potential and observe changes of MRS signals intensity associated to cells metabolism after in vitro chemotherapy to provide better understanding of the mechanisms of drug-cell interaction, with a view to offer appropriate treatment.
Pina MarzilianoPina Marziliano obtained her Bachelors of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and Masters of Science degree in Computer Science in 1994 and 1996, respectively, from the Universite de Montreal. She completed the pioneering Doctoral School program in the Communications Systems Department at the EPFL in 1997 and obtained her PhD degree in 2001. Her professional career began as a Senior Research Engineer in a start-up company called Genimedia SA in Lausanne, Switzerland where she developed perceptual quality metrics for multimedia applications which led her to two highly cited (>100) journal and conference papers, as well as, the filing of a patent. In 2003, she became an Assistant Professor for the Division of Information Engineering in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore focusing her research in biomedical signal and image processing. In 2006, she was seconded to NTU’s International Relations Office for one year where she co-strategized the university international partnerships and conceptualised the Global Partnership Management and Analysis Tool. She received the IEEE Signal Processing Society 2006 Best Paper Award for the article entitled "Sampling Signals with Finite Rate of Innovation" co-authored with Martin Vetterli and Thierry Blu. Later that year patents on the same topic were acquired by Qualcomm Inc., USA, followed by consultancy work which led to obtaining US200KindustryresearchgrantfromQualcomm. In2009,aworkshopco−organisedbyNTU’sCollegeofEngineeringandTanTockSengHospitalandpartneroftheNTU−ImperialCollegeMedicalSchoolsparkedseveralresearchcollaborationswithdoctorsfromtheOphthalmologyDepartmentandDiagnosticRadiologyDepartmentwhichhaveledtojointinternationalconferenceandjournalpublications,significant(>SGD3M) joint research funding and a granted US patent. Apart from her research achievements, she has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Signal Processing Letters, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, a technical reviewer for more than a dozen international conference and Tier-1 journal publications, as well as, a Technical Program Committee member of international conferences and voted in as member of the highly selective Signal Processing Theory and Methods Technical Committee in the IEEE Signal Processing Society. She has served as the Chair of the IEEE Singapore Section Women In Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group where she spearheaded and co-organized monthly technical and social activities, thus increasing the group’s visibility in the IEEE Singapore Section. With her leadership and initiatives, the group received the 2009 Honourable Mention Women in Engineering Affinity Group of the Year Award from the IEEE WIE Committee in the USA. In 2011, she was the General Chair of the 9th International Conference on Sampling Theory and Applications, co-organised by the School of EEE and School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, NTU. This interdisciplinary conference and flagship event of her research community was held for the first time in Asia on the NTU campus. It gathered 132 participants comprising of mathematicians, engineers and applied scientists from 26 countries around the globe. In 2012, she was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Besides pursuing her academic career, she has been actively involved in technology transfer and entrepreneurship co-founding a design company (PABensen) and a biotechnology spin-off BIORITHM. In 2019, Pina Marziliano was appointed Executive Director of the Centre for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), a centre composed of five partner institutions HUG, UNIGE, EPFL, UNIL and CHUV located in a 50km radius of the Lemans region in Switzerland. The unique union of reputable clinicians, academics and researchers combined with the capabilities of developing cutting edge technology and housing the latest state-of-the art equipment, is her source of inspiration and drive in leading CIBM, a world reknowned Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Imaging. Valerio ZerbiDr. Valerio Zerbi is a pioneer of preclinical magnetic resonance functional neuroimaging. At his lab at EPFL, Valerio and his team use functional MRI recordings in rodents in combination with neural modulation and computational approaches to study the mechanisms that link cellular activity to large-scale network (dys)function. His long-term ambition is to advance the development of personalised strategies based on imaging and artificial intelligence, for the diagnosis and prognosis of developmental brain disorders. Valerio is the recipient of the ETH Postdoctoral (2014), the Swiss National Science Foundation AMBIZIONE
(2017) and ECCELLENZA (2021) fellowships.
