John Gore, Ph.D.

By mapping brain activity in three dimensions, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have achieved a more detailed picture of how the brain changes with age.

Their findings, described in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Science Advances, may help advance the understanding, early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder and other disruptions of normal brain function.

Half of the human brain is made up of gray matter, nerve cells that process sensation, control voluntary movement, and enable speech, learning and cognition. The other half is white matter, the axons that connect areas of gray matter to each other and project to the rest of the body… Continue reading.

The human brain is made up of two kinds of matter: the nerve cell bodies (gray matter), which process sensation, control voluntary movement, and enable speech, learning and cognition, and the axons (white matter), which connect cells to each other and project to the rest of the body.

Historically, scientists have concentrated on the gray matter of the cortex, figuring that’s where the action is, while ignoring white matter, even though it makes up half the brain. Researchers at Vanderbilt University are out to change that.

For several years, John Gore, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, and his colleagues have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signals, a key marker of brain activity, in white matter… Continue reading.

Magnetic resonance imaging can detect changes in resting-state spinal cord function in patients with multiple sclerosis, a new study by a Vanderbilt University Medical Center-led research team has shown.

This first application of these measures in patients living with MS, reported recently in the journal Brain, could lead to new ways to monitor the effectiveness of drug treatment and physical therapy in slowing or stopping the progression of this chronic and often debilitating disease.

The paper, in effect, has opened the scientific conversation about spinal cord function in disease, said Seth Smith, director of the Human Imaging Core in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS) and the paper’s senior author. He also is an associate professor of radiology and radiological sciences, biomedical engineering, and ophthalmology… Continue reading.

A commonly used brain scanning technique can map electrical activity under the skull as precisely as more invasive methods that rely on probes or electrodes, according to a research team led by John Gore, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science and professor of biomedical engineering.

The study supports the potential usefulness of the technique, a version of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), for diagnosing and monitoring treatment of brain injuries, tumors and conditions ranging from epilepsy to psychiatric disorders, the researchers said.

The study in animals, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “validates the use of high-field, high-resolution fMRI as a mapping tool to tell where things are happening,” said Gore, who is senior author of the paper.

The scanning technique detects blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes related to oxygen levels in the blood. These changes had been thought to be indirect measures of neuronal activity in the brain… Continue reading.

John Gore, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Fellowship is granted to “academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society,” according to the academy.

The 168 fellows elected this year will be recognized in the Jan. 22 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, and they will be inducted during the academy’s fifth annual conference on April 15, 2016, at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia.

Gore was recognized for his contributions to the early development of magnetic resonance imaging as well as to the invention of polymer gel radiation dosimetry and optical tomography, new ways of measuring complex distributions of radiation doses using special gels and mapping optical properties of materials in three dimensions.

Researchers in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS) have achieved the first conclusive non-invasive measurement of neural signaling in the spinal cords of healthy human volunteers.

Their technique, described today in the journal eLife, may aid efforts to help patients recover from spinal cord injuries and other disorders affecting spinal cord function, including multiple sclerosis.

“We definitely hope that this work can be translated to address many neurological disorders,” said the paper’s first author, Robert Barry, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow in the institute directed by senior author John Gore, Ph.D.

The researchers used ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect for the first time “resting state” signals between neural circuits in the human spinal column. These signals are continuously active, not in response to external stimuli.

“We see these background resting circuits as being inherent measures of function,” said Gore, the Hertha Ramsey Cress Professor of Medicine, University Professor and vice chair of Research in the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.

The Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research was presented to John Gore by Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos during the Fall Faculty Assembly Sept. 22.

Gore holds the Hertha Ramsey Cress Chair in Medicine and he is the director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science. Gore also is a professor of radiology and radiological sciences, biomedical engineering, physics, and molecular physiology and biophysics.

The Sutherland Prize, the most prestigious honor that Vanderbilt bestows on a faculty member, is given annually to a member of the faculty whose achievements in research, scholarship or creative expression have received significant critical acclaim and are recognized nationally or internationally.

Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking.

You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world has become the focus of considerable research in recent years. One of the potential benefits of these studies could be definitive diagnoses of mental health disorders ranging from bipolar to post-traumatic stress disorders.

A team of psychologists and imaging scientists at Vanderbilt has collaborated on a study that provides important corroboration of the validity of recent research examining the relationship of functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI maps of the brain’s resting state networks with its underlying anatomical and neurological structure. The study is published in the June 19 issue of the journal Neuron.

John C. Gore, Hertha Ramsey Cress University Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University and professor of biomedical engineering, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to the development and applications of magnetic resonance and other imaging techniques in medicine.

Gore is the director of the Center for Imaging Science at Vanderbilt and leads the institute by connecting discoveries in the basic sciences and engineering to applications in biology and medicine. Gore holds additional professorships in physics and molecular physiology and biophysics.

“In addition to his work as an outstanding scientist, John Gore at the same time has established a world-class center that is advancing the state-of-the-art in imaging science, providing engineers and scientists working at Vanderbilt with the tools they need to conduct breakthrough studies in a wide variety of areas, ranging from neuroscience to biomedical engineering. It is very satisfying to see his contributions recognized at the national level like this,” said Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos.

John Gore and John Wikswo are among seven Vanderbilt University faculty members elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed upon them by their AAAS peers.

They are among 503 AAAS members from around the country who achieved this honor because of their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Gore, Hertha Ramsey Cress University Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering and Physics, was cited for his contributions to the development and application of imaging methods for biomedical science and as director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science. Gore’s research focuses especially on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy techniques in clinical and basic science. He and his colleagues are working to devise non-invasive imaging methods that provide new types of information and to develop methods for studying human brain structure and function.

John C. Gore, the Hertha Ramsey Cress University Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Physics, has accepted an invitation to join the Committee on Molecular Imaging of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science has received a $3.45 million federal stimulus grant to purchase one of the world’s strongest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

The 15 Tesla scanner will be used in studies of genetically engineered mice and other small animal models to further understanding of cancer, diabetes and brain disorders in humans.

One Tesla is roughly 20,000 times the strength of the magnetic field of the earth. Because the 15 Tesla scanner is so mighty, it can generate exquisitely detailed images of the brain and other body structures, and measure minute levels of key compounds, including cancer “biomarkers.”

Since these imaging methods are non-invasive, they can be conducted repeatedly in living animals.

For these reasons, “magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have become very powerful tools for studying … animal models of disease and effects of genetic manipulations,” said institute director John Gore, professor of biomedical engineering.

The one-year stimulus grant to purchase the scanner was awarded through the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).