Iris Asllani Headshot

Iris Asllani

Research Associate Professor

Department of Biomedical Engineering
Kate Gleason College of Engineering
icabme@rit.edu
585-475-4924
Office Location
ENG-3641

Iris Asllani

Research Associate Professor

Department of Biomedical Engineering
Kate Gleason College of Engineering

Education

B.Sc., University of Tirana (Albania); M.Sc., Ph.D., University of Washington at Seattle

Bio

Dr. Asllani is a Fulbright scholar who received her Master’s in Near-field Microscopy and her Ph.D. in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy from the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from University of Tirana.

Following her graduate work, Dr. Asllani joined Columbia University’s then newly established MRI center where she spearheaded the arterial spin labeling (ASL) fMRI program and became a faculty member of the Department of Radiology.

Currently, Dr. Asllani is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Lead for the Healthcare Application Domain of the Ph.D. Engineering program at RIT. In addition to teaching, she heads the Integrated Neuro-Imaging (INI) Laboratory, which focuses on the development and implementation of multi-modal fMRI methods for applications in neuroscience and clinical research. She also holds research appointments with University of Rochester and Yale University and has research collaborations with imaging centers at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, and Leiden University Medical Center. For more information about Dr. Asllani’s research, teaching, and outreach activities visit INI’s website: (under development).

Dr. Asllani is a member of the editorial boards of World Journal for Translational Medicine and Healthy Aging Research. As a former Peace Corps Associate Director for Education and a faculty advisor for Engineering World Health (EWH) at RIT, Dr. Asllani’s interests include educating and empowering biomedical engineers to improve healthcare delivery in the developing world.

icabme@rit.edu
585-475-4924

Select Scholarship

Journal Paper
Mutsaerts, Henri J.M.M., et al. "Spatial Coefficient of Variation of Arterial Spin Labeling MRI as a Cerebrovascular Correlate of Carotid Occlusive Disease." Plos ONE. (2019): in press. Web.
Marshall, Randolph S., et al. "Altered Cerebral Hemodyamics and Cortical Thinning In Asymptomatic Carotid Artery Stenosis." PLOS One. (2017): 1-14. Print.
Petr, Jan, et al. "Photon vs. Proton Radiochemotherapy: Effects on Brain Tissue Volume and Perfusion." Radiotherapy and Oncology. (2017): 221-231. Print.
Asllani, Iris, et al. "Measurement of Cortical Thickness Asymmetry in Carotid Occlusive Disease." Neuroimage: Clinical. (2016): 640-644. Print.
RS, Marshall, et al. "Dissociation Among Hemodynamic Measures in Asymptomatic High Grade Carotid Artery Stenosis." Journal of Neurological Sciences 367. (2016): 143-147. Print.
N, Doorenweerd, et al. "Decreased Cerebral Perfusion in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Patients." Neuromuscular Disorders. (2016): 29-37. Print.
Invited Keynote/Presentation
Guzman-Moumtzis, Cristina. "Combining Perfusion with Diffusion MRI to Measure Cerebral bure Cerebral Blood Flow at the Microstructural Levellood Flow at the Microstructural Level." British Chapter - International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. ISMRM. Sheffield, United Kingdom. 18 Sep. 2019. Conference Presentation.
Peer Reviewed/Juried Poster Presentation or Conference Paper
Asllani, I, et al. "Extra-neurite Perfusion Measurement with Combined Arterial Spin Labeling and Diffusion Weighted M." Proceedings of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM). Ed. OHBM. Minneapolis, MN: OHBM.
Cercignani, M, et al. "Towards a Validation of R2’ as a Measure of Oxygen Extraction Fraction." Proceedings of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM). Ed. OHBM. Minneapolis, MN: OHBM.
Published Game, Application or Software
Mutsaerts, HJM, et al. ExploreASL: An Image Processing Pipeline for Multi-center ASL Perfusion MRI Studies. Software. bioRxiv. 2019.
Published Conference Proceedings
Mutsaerts, Henri J., et al. "Explore-ASL: Image Processing Toolbox For Multi-Center ASL Population Analyses." Proceedings of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology. Ed. Patrick Cozzone. Vienna, Austria: ESMRMB, 2017. Print.

Currently Teaching

BIME-346
Imaging the Human Brain in vivo with MRI: a theoretical and hands-on approach
3 Credits
This course will introduce students to tools and concepts of human brain imaging in vivo. The course has a lecture and a lab component. Lectures will cover the fundamental principles of neuroscience, including brain anatomy and physiology, and neuroimaging techniques, with a focus on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). During lab sessions, students will use a 3 Tesla MRI scanner to acquire brain images during rest and activation (fMRI). Part of the lab sessions will focus on assessment of image quality control and processing. The venue for the course will be at the Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre (CISC), University of Sussex, UK.
BIME-395
Biomed.Instr. Repair & Maintenance for Eng.World Health
0 - 2 Credits
This is a course that will prepare students for an international trip as part of Engineering World Health, they will be stationed in hospitals and assist with repairmen and maintenance of medical equipment and instrumentation. To this end, the course will cover both technical and cultural aspects of the trip, including language and cultural norms. From a technical standpoint, the course will cover the basics of the major types of medical equipment and their operation. The physiology underlying the measurement of each equipment will also be discussed. In addition, the course will focus on the major functional pieces for each instrument, and troubleshooting in the context of a developing country environment. A travel fee is required.
BIME-396
Biomedical Instr. Repair & Maintenance for EWH 2
1 - 3 Credits
This is the second part 2 of the Engineering World Healthy course and it follows the first part of the course that is taught during the Fall semester. Students participating in this course will have completed the international trip where they spent close to 3 weeks working in various hospitals in the developing country. During this course (part 2), we will focus on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the students’ preparation for the trip, review and record what they learned and experienced on the ground, develop ways on how to improve the experience for both students and hospital staff. Much of this is intended to increase students’ leadership skills and awareness of global engineering challenges. To this end, students will be required to come up with ways to disseminate to their fellow students and campus at large the knowledge they acquired during their experience.
BIME-660
Introduction to Medical Imaging: Acquisition and Biomedical Applications
3 Credits
The course is designed for graduate students and those who are interested in learning about how various medical imaging modalities ––X-Ray, CT, PET, SPECT, Ultrasound, MRI and fMRI–– are applied in basic and clinical research. The course is cross-listed with BIME 560, which covers the mathematical and physics foundations of medical imaging and principles of image formation and analyses. The graduate-level component of the course focuses on the research applications. Selected papers from literature will be used to learn and discuss aspects of medical imaging research such as experimental design, safety and cost considerations, difference between clinical and basic applications of medical imaging, and advantages and shortcomings of each modality in various contexts.

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