# TRD3: Intelligent Physics-Driven Technologies for Inverse Problems in UHF Applications > **NIH NIH P41** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2024 · $197,451 ## Abstract Project Summary/Abstract Image reconstruction has been an integral part of MRI technology development over the past decades, spanning techniques such as parallel imaging, compressed sensing, low-rank matrix models, methods for novel encoding strategies/k-space trajectories, and more recently deep learning (DL) approaches. Our TRD in the first phase has been at the forefront of these developments, introducing multiple new technologies for improved DL reconstruction and training, interpretable image denoising, and fast iterative algorithms, which were applied to Cartesian, non-Cartesian and novel encoding strategies beyond Fourier encoding. These new MRI reconstruction methods have also pushed the imaging technologies in other TRDs, CPs and SPs forward to target higher resolutions and acceleration rates at lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), as well as to combine information across multiple nuclei or even modalities. Consequently, these targets necessitate newer technologies for image reconstruction and denoising, an interplay with image acquisition, and new approaches for multi-nuclei and multi-modal computational imaging. Each of these directions correspond to a specific inverse problem with its own distinct forward operator dictated by the underlying imaging physics. Our goal in this TRD is to link these inverse problems through the lens of intelligent physics-driven technologies that synergistically utilize imaging physics and advances in DL methods. For accelerated high- resolution imaging, which remains a focal point for our TRD, we will develop a new computational imaging pipeline that explicitly combines interpretable denoising methods and physics-driven DL reconstruction. These will be complemented by new technologies for improved denoising of MR image series, and for self-supervised training of physics-driven DL reconstruction from few examples without ground-truth data. On the acquisition side, we will concentrate on parallel transmit technology for UHF imaging. We will tackle issues related to the high computational complexity and sub-optimality of existing methods by proposing an unsupervised DL approach. We will then augment this strategy by incorporating hard constraints on maximum voltage, power and specific-absorption-rate into DL optimization. We will further investigate new classification-type strategies for pulse selection towards calibration-free parallel transmit. Finally, we will also pursue developments for multi-nuclei MRI and multi-modal neuroimaging. For the former, we will develop a physics-driven DL framework for joint reconstruction of simultaneous/interleaved multi-nuclei acquisitions, using signal intensity informed multi-coil encoding operators and an additional cyclic loss term to ensure consistency across the different proton and x-nuclei resolutions. For the latter, we will adapt our interpretable motion-insensitive denoising strategies to optical imaging, incorporating new forward operators and noise models, whi... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 10769041 - **Project number:** 2P41EB027061-06 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - **Principal Investigator:** Mehmet Akcakaya - **Activity code:** P41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2024 - **Award amount:** $197,451 - **Award type:** 2 - **Project period:** 2019-02-01 → 2029-01-31 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10769041 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10769041, TRD3: Intelligent Physics-Driven Technologies for Inverse Problems in UHF Applications (2P41EB027061-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10769041. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*