# TR&D 3: Revealing Microstructure: Biophysical Modeling and Validation for Discovery and Clinical Care

> **NIH NIH P41** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $317,104

## Abstract

TRD3 Project Summary
The broad mission of our Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R) is to bring together
collaborative translational research teams for the development of high-impact biomedical imaging
technologies, with the ultimate goal of changing day-to-day clinical practice. Technology Research and
Development (TRD) Project 3 addresses the fundamental question of what MRI signal means at the cellular
level. Unwilling to settle for the nominal resolution of clinical MRI, constrained to millimeter-sized voxels by
fundamental physical and physiological limits, we have been exploring ways to quantify tissue microstructure at
the scale of ∼ 1 − 10𝜇𝜇m, commensurate with water diffusion length. Incorporating diffusion MRI contrast into
our acquisitions opens an avenue to supplement the subjective interpretation of anatomic images with
objective parametric maps of cellular-scale biophysical parameters. Such maps, e.g., of cell sizes, water
fractions in various cell types, membrane permeability and exchange rate, even if averaged over millimeter-
scale voxels, would break new ground in clinical applications and basic research. In TRD3, we will integrate
tissue microstructure mapping into comprehensive image data acquisitions, to address an unmet clinical need:
achieving specificity to microstructural changes at the cellular level, to understand physiology and pathology, to
detect disease at the earliest opportunity, to monitor disease progression, and to quantify efficacy of treatment.
Building on our track record to date, we plan to develop and share acquisition, modeling, and validation tools,
and translate them to the clinic. Each of the other TRDs, along with a wide range of CPs and SPs, will benefit
from these tools. At the same time, microstructure research will also benefit from inclusion in the connective
context of the NCBIB, with its mix of expertise (in hardware, image acquisition and reconstruction, machine
learning, etc., complementing the TRD3 team’s expertise in biophysical modelling and validation), and with its
track record of day-to-day interaction between researchers and clinicians.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10939349
- **Project number:** 2P41EB017183-11
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Dmitry S Novikov
- **Activity code:** P41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $317,104
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2014-09-30 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10939349

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10939349, TR&D 3: Revealing Microstructure: Biophysical Modeling and Validation for Discovery and Clinical Care (2P41EB017183-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10939349. Licensed CC0.

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