Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Biomedical Physics, Bioengineering, and Radiology
Dr. Nguyen earned her MD from UCLA, trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins, completed a general cardiology fellowship at UCLA, and obtained post-doctoral research training in advanced cardiovascular imaging at the National Institutes of Health. She is a fellow of the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR). Her research focuses on the development and translation of cardiovascular imaging techniques. Novel cardiovascular magnetic resonance, ultrasound, nuclear, and computed tomographic methods are developed and used for multiscale and multidimensional modeling of cardiovascular disease. Her lab's federally-funded research includes pre-clinical and clinical development of iron oxide enhanced MRI methods for ischemic, vascular, and congenital heart disease. Through the FeraSafe consortium, she and colleagues have developed and standardize methods to enable safe and effective use of iron-based, contrast-enhanced MRI for patients with kidney impairment and cardiorenal complications. Her lab also explores methods to integrate wireless technology with traditional models of healthcare delivery and collaborates with bioengineers to develop image-guided theranostics. She collaborates with data scientists on the application of human-aided artificial intelligence for advancement of precision medicine. Her scientific work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and her lab is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the Veterans Health Administration.
Distinguished Professor of Radiology, Medicine, and Biomedical Physics
For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Finn has been involved in the development, validation, and application of MRI techniques for cardiovascular imaging, many of which have made their way into mainstream clinical practice. He is Past-President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). As PI or co-investigator on university, industrial and NIH-funded grants, Dr. Finn has provided leadership and supervision for multi-disciplinary academic and industrial research initiatives and have fostered collaboration and communication among imaging physicians and technical scientists at multiple institutions. He has led the development of broad-based cardiovascular advanced imaging programs at two academic medical centers and have interacted continuously with imaging physicians, referring clinicians and technical scientists. In recent years, his research has focused on the applications of ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI for cardiovascular diagnosis and on the development of novel approaches to exploit the unique properties of the agent. His group has shown that ferumoxytol is particularly powerful for imaging of complex congenital heart disease and vascular diseases.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Sharma is a nephrologist and her research focuses on two main areas: cardiovascular complications of kidney disease and mineral bone disorders of kidney disease. She is supported by a VA Career Development Award entitled "Dynamic Changes in Erythrocyte 2,3 DPG as a Driver of Cardiac Dysfunction in End Stage Kidney Disease". She uses speckle-tracking cardiac ultrasound along with laboratory based methods to study cardiac dysfunction in patients with end-stage kidney disease. In her free time, she likes to try new foods and practice Indian classical dance.
Assistant Project Scientist
Dr. Yoshida obtained his M.B.B.S. from Norman Bethune School of Medicine at Jilin University, received fellowship training in Cardiovascular Surgery at ZhongShan Hospital, Fudan University. Through his early work as a clinical research associate, he also has experience in oversight and monitoring of phase I-III clinical trials. In recent years, his research has focused on advanced multidimensional and multi-modality image visualization, image segmentation and post-processing, medical 3D printing, and virtual surgical simulation and planning. He maintains the FeraSafe Registry and local databases for clinical research. In his free time, Dr. Yoshida practices Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, drives along the California Coast, and explores the diverse and exceptional cuisines throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
Dr. Pogosyan received his B.A. in History and Political Science from the University of California Santa Barbara, and his M.D. from St. George’s University School of Medicine. He is interested in pursuing a career that combines internal medicine and medical research. His current project focuses on using cardiovascular MRI techniques to detect and study intramyocardial hemorrhage in the setting of acute myocardial infarction. Aside from his research, he also assists with regulatory oversight of the cardiovascular research program. In his free time, Harry enjoys reading fiction, watching old reruns of Jeopardy!, and, as a true Angeleno would, running and hiking in the Griffith Park.
Dr. Dubovitskaya received her M.B.B.S. degree from the First Moscow State Medical University and worked as a sports medicine doctor before moving to the U.S. Her professional interests include internal medicine and rehabilitation. She is interested in gaining clinical research skills and furthering her knowledge about cardiovascular imaging techniques. She assists the lab with regulatory oversight and patient subject recruitment.
Ms. Chen completed her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees at University College London (UCL) in the UK, majoring in mathematics and economics (First Class Honor). During her last year at UCL, she conducted research on artificial neural network modeling. Prior to joining the cardiovascular MRI lab, she completed a Master of Science in biostatistics at UCLA where she worked on statistical genetics with Dr. Sinsheimer. She is excited to have an opportunity to apply her skills towards building cardiovascular disease models by linking cardiovascular imaging data with other markers of disease.
Dr. Mahmoudi received his Ph.D. degree in bioengineering from Northern Arizona University, where he was a presidential fellow. His research interests have include utilization of modern computational tools for simulation and prediction of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the US. His research has focused on developing novel solutions in CVD diagnostics using numerical modeling and machine learning algorithms. These solutions and algorithms can be used to uncover the role of hemodynamics in the progression of atherosclerosis, to study the effect of atherosclerotic plaques on the distribution of blood and oxygen in the heart tissue, or to develop novel calibration and quality enhancement models for medical imaging techniques. His current work is dedicated to computational modeling of the microvascular tree and examination of network density using imaging data as targets.
Mr. Ali is a Ph.D. student in the Physics and Biology in Medicine Program at UCLA. He received his B.S. in physics (with Honors) with minors in mathematics and biomedical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. His research has focused on how signal decay impacts the signal readout for spectral analysis, motion artifacts in MR-imaging, and other phenomena that corrupt the MRI signal.
Ms. Gao graduated from Tsinghua University with a Bachelor of Science in engineering physics. She is a current PhD student in the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program. Her research focuses on deep learning-aided magnetic resonance image reconstruction and motion compensation for cardiac and abdominal imaging. She enjoys swimming, lifting weights and playing with her cat in her free time.
Mr. Ming is a Ph.D. student in the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program at UCLA. He received his Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Tsinghua University. His expertise is in pulse sequence programming, clustering-algorithm-based motion binning and optimization. His project focuses on developing image reconstruction methods to handle cardiac motion, specifically for irregular motion in arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. He research also incorporates deep-learning to image reconstruction for real-time imaging and image denoising.
Ms. Li is a Ph.D. student in the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program at UCLA. She received her B.S. in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University where her interest in imaging research was piqued as a student working in the cardiac MRI lab at Allegheny General Hospital. As a member of the cardiovascular imaging lab, she focuses her research on developing MR imaging biomarkers for cardiovascular disease. Currently, her work is centered on refining image registration and noise modeling techniques to improve the robustness of a diagnostic MR imaging method for ischemic heart disease. In the future, she hopes to bring together her interest in imaging technology and her passion for patient care as a clinical medical physicist specializing in image-guided radiotherapy. Outside of lab, Mimi enjoys exploring LA by trying out new restaurants and riding her bike along the beach.
Mr. Zhao is a Ph.D. student in the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program. He received his Master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. His previous research was focused on the intersection of deep learning and computer vision, with applications ranging from vehicular perception systems to healthcare systems. While working on projects centered on artificial intelligence-assisted dementia diagnosis, he became inspired by the swift and meaningful impact that deep learning can have in medicine. As a result, he is committed to medical imaging research through the application of deep learning methods to cardiovascular image reconstruction with the goal of decreased acquisition time and improved image quality.
Mr. Shao is a Ph.D. student in the Bioengineering Program at UCLA. He received his Master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Jilin University, China. Prior to joining UCLA, Mr. Shao focused on high-precision tag detection and pose estimation with image processing methods, and 3D scanner image calibration and registration. As a member of the cardiovascular imaging lab, he is interested in applying his electrical engineering skills to image processing. Outside of the lab, he enjoys traveling and experiencing various cultures and food.
Mr. Carol is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Bioengineering at UCLA. He hopes to gain research experience in cardiovascular disease and diagnostics and to develop skills that will assist him in his future medical endeavors. Outside of the lab, Jarod is involved in multiple on-campus organizations, including Enriching Community Health Outreach (ECHO), a non-profit organization that strives to achieve health equity for underserved populations in the Los Angeles area through community service, and UCLA Club Basketball.
