In obstructive and restrictive pulmonary diseases alike, locally compromised function increases the regional heterogeneity in both large-scale and minuscule functional units of the lung, indicating reduced gas mixing efficiency in conducting and small airways, as well as alterations in the gas exchange rate and uptake in the parenchyma. The study of these disorders’ fundamental pathophysiology, as well as the ability to diagnose characteristic modifications, assess therapeutic response, and monitor disease progression, is strongly dependent on successfully pinpointing these subtle alterations. Although a degree of regional variability in ventilation and perfusion is typical in healthy subjects, regions, where ventilation is reduced or completely absent, are significantly more prevalent in subjects with obstructive lung diseases. One approach for assessing these disease-related alterations is static single-breath magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with hyperpolarized gas, which has been shown to outperform spirometry in both its sensitivity and predictive power. Yet imaging the lungs after a single breath cannot provide a complete picture of gas dynamics, and it does not give the inspired gas the opportunity to enter slow-filling lung regions, thus limiting the information that can be obtained with this approach. In this talk, I will discuss the advantages of multi- over single-breath imaging of lung function, and will present our methodology for monitoring response to late-stage treatments in severe lung disorders. 

Hooman is currently a PhD candidate in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, working on functional lung imaging using hyperpolarized gas MRI. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering (2000) from K.N.T. University of Tehran, where he was later a graduate student in Mechatronics with a focus on control engineering of industrial robots (2007-09). Hooman also spent several years in industry, working first in automation and instrumentation engineering (2000-2004), and later in the petrochemical field (2004-2009) with a focus on flow measurement and control valves. During this time, he also served as a control lab instructor at K.N.T and joined the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) in Tehran, where he worked on biological systems. His exposure there to the computational modeling of biological systems began his academic shift away from flow control and robotics to bioengineering, and specifically the respiratory system. His current research focuses on regional gas mixing efficiency and gas exchange in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung transplantation.