Member Spotlight: Diana Rotaru

I was first introduced to MR in 2012 while I was a first-year undergraduate student at the Faculty of Medical Engineering, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania. Back then, my interaction with the MR field was purely superficial, being limited to the attendance of a couple of courses where MR physics and the state-of-the-art MR technology were briefly explained.

During my final undergraduate year, the idea of studying the brain became appealing enough to convince me to apply for Master of Science programs abroad, mainly focused on neuroscience, neurobiology, neurotechnology, and ultimately neuroimaging. As an ambitious but also lucky student, before finishing my final year exams, I was awarded the British Council IELTS Award as the only Romanian recipient so far. This meant that I secured financial support to cover the tuition fees of an M.Sc. program in the UK. I like to think that neuroimaging chose me because when I had to confirm the name of the university offering my M.Sc., the only option I had was the M.Sc. in neuroimaging at King’s College London—all other applications still being under review. In September 2016, I started studying at King’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN), learning about neuroimaging methods and research, with a special focus on MR. MR spectroscopy (MRS) was by far the most difficult course I took during my M.Sc. program, being heavily based on maths, physics, and organic chemistry, a module that I had mixed feelings about. For my dissertation project, I mentioned being interested in scanner programming, relying on my engineering background and programming skills. I chose to work with Dr. David Lythgoe, implementing a new MR spectroscopy pulse sequence (HERMES) for our GE 3T scanner, for simultaneous detection of two neurochemicals: the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and the antioxidant GSH. This was my first date with MR. After four months of stress, frustration, endless ambition, and little moments of joy combined with small, step-by-step achievements, the project was completed.

A year later, I won the IoPPN Prize Studentship which allowed me to carry on the M.Sc. project during a 3-year Ph.D. program. My Ph.D. research topics include the development of a new analysis method for simultaneous quantification of GABA and GSH from 3T GE human HERMES MRS data, the correction of chemical shift displacement error in 3T GE PRESS data, and the development and implementation of HERMES for GABA and GSH on a 9.4T Bruker preclinical scanner with corresponding preprocessing and analysis pipelines. I love learning about MR on clinical and preclinical scanners, as well as the depth and breadth of these projects. I truly value that my projects allow me to be part of every phase of the research experiment, from pulse sequence development and implementation to data acquisition, preprocessing, analysis, and quantification.

I love the versatility of MR. One can use the same scanner, the same programming environment, and simply change the pulse sequence program to use RF coils and magnetic field gradients in a slightly different configuration, ending up employing another MR method. I find it fascinating that one can use MR to get information on the same process, network, or organ, from so many different perspectives: anatomy with structural MRI, chemistry with MRS, molecular motion with diffusion MR, function with fMRI, and even blood flow with perfusion MR. I strongly believe we made great progress since the first human MR experiment in 1977, but we still have work to do and a lot of challenges to overcome in order to take full advantage of the information the MR techniques provide. I have no doubt there is plenty of work for me to do with MR until retirement.

A typical “day in the life,” now with the pandemic, is not typical anymore. On a normal day, before the pandemic, at the beginning of my Ph.D. program, I used to carefully try to focus all my attention on 1-2 tasks in order to make sure I complete them successfully. Such tasks could be optimization, debugging, and compilation of a pulse sequence; human, animal or phantom MR scanning; implementation of new preprocessing and analysis pipelines; data preprocessing and analysis; simulation of metabolite spectra; and even training on stats, graphic design for scientific figures, article publishing or animal handling and invasive procedures. Now, I am at the end of my Ph.D. project, and my day tends to include more diverse tasks, from pulse sequence alterations and optimization of acquisition parameters, to human data acquisition (on myself or a volunteer) and same-day preprocessing and analysis, followed by thesis writing. At the other end, I could spend my whole day acquiring 2-4 animal datasets, one dataset acquisition implying drug dosing of the animal, anesthetizing, MR scanning, animal brain dissection, and even same-day data analysis and preprocessing. I spend the 2-3 hours left in the day with my future husband and our families or doing volunteering work.

Occasionally, I also collaborate with a Romanian group of researchers from the Neuroscience lab within the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, studying the effects of anesthetics on the brain. Here I undertake voluntary activities on animal EEG data preprocessing and analysis (also the focus of my undergrad project). Since January 2021, I have been the vice-president of Biomentorhub, a Romanian NGO for bioscience researchers and enthusiasts, where I am responsible for projects and sponsorship.

At ISMRM, I love the feeling of a cohesive community, just like one big family scattered all around the world. I also like the wealth of resources one can get as a member or a trainee, from educational resources, access to study group or chapter meetings, to educational funds, career center, and the biggest MR researchers network. From all ISMRM study groups, I like the MR Spectroscopy Study Group the most, a fact probably implied given my research field. It is a great resource for anyone new to the field and is a friendly and welcoming group of people that believe in the power of collaboration—they know that more can be achieved as a group than alone.