Research Interests
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), pulse sequence programming of clinical and preclinical scanners, development and optimization of preprocessing and analysis tools for MR spectroscopy data, detection of low-concentration neurochemicals using MRS, motion correction, fetal and infant MRS.
Biography
Diana Rotaru is a postdoctoral scientist whose research focuses primarily on Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.
Diana completed her B.Sc. at the Faculty of Medical Engineering (2012-2016), University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania with a final project focused on epileptic seizure detection using EEG and artificial intelligence. She earned her M.Sc. in Neuroimaging (2016-2017) at King’s College London (KCL), UK, where her work involved programming a 3T General Electric scanner for the implementation of the novel MRS method Hadamard Encoding and Reconstruction of MEGA-edited Spectroscopy (HERMES) for improved detection of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and the antioxidant GSH. Later, she continued with a Ph.D. in Neuroimaging Physics (2018-2023) at the same university. Here, her work included: (1) the development of a preprocessing and analysis pipeline for simultaneous quantification of GABA and GSH metabolites (from HERMES-edited data); (2) the assessment of the chemical shift displacement error in 3T General Electric PRESS data and its prospective and retrospective correction; and (3) the assessment of the GABA quantitation using conventional MRS and spectral editing (MEGAPRESS & HERMES vs. PRESS) on high-field (9.4T) Bruker preclinical MR scanners. During her doctoral training, Diana also worked on projects with Dr. Ashley Harris from University of Calgary, Canada and Prof. Richard Edden from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA. Following her Ph.D., Diana joined the Adaptive Brain Lab led by Prof. Kourtzi at University of Cambridge, UK as a visiting student and then as a postdoctoral research associate (2022-2023). Her work involved multi-modal imaging on 3T and 7T Siemens scanners, Multi-Parametric Mapping and hippocampus MRS.
Diana joined the MR SCIENCE lab in 2023 and is currently working on motion correction strategies for fetal MRS and optimization of preclinical MRS data acquisition and analysis.
Outside the lab Diana is involved in several Romanian NGOs focusing on the scientific training and personal development of high-school and university students.
Education & Training
PhD in Neuroimaging Physics, King’s College London, UK (2023)
MSc in Neuroimaging, King’s College London, UK (2017)
BSc in Medical Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (2016)
Honors & Recognition
Travel award, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy research group
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2023)
Research Exchange grant
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2020)
“Magna cum laude” award
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2020)
Global Research Grant
King’s College London, UK (2019, 2022)
Trainee Educational Stipend
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience PhD Prize Studentship
King’s College London, UK (2018)
Most Outstanding Master dissertation award
King’s College London, UK (2017)
British Council IELTS Award (2016)
Summa cum laude graduation award
University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (2016)
Erasmus+ mobility grant
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France (2015)
Excellency scholarship
University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania (2012-2016)