Noted MRI scientist joins Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute

Dr. Mitchell Albert has joined Lakehead University and the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute as a professor and research chair. Recruited to Thunder Bay from the University of Massachusetts, Mitchell spent 11 years at Harvard Medical School.

Co-inventor of hyperpolarized gas MRI, Albert pioneered the first hyperpolarized noble gas images of xenon in mouse lungs. 

He received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Stony Brook University in 1993, and joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1995. While at Harvard, he continued his research on HP gas MRI while simultaneously holding a research appointment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. 

In 2006, he became professor and director of MRI research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he led a multidisciplinary team of scientists in advanced MRI research.

Dr. Albert’s research group in Thunder Bay focuses on developing HP 3He and 129Xe MRI to image ventilation in the airways and alveoli of the lungs. In addition, his group has been developing the use of HP 129Xe MRI to image stroke, to probe for brain injury using xenon biosensors that permit imaging of the distribution of peripheral benzodiazepine receptors (PBR) in the brains of living animals, and to image breast tumours using specific anti-tumour antibodies.