Fatemeh Adelnia, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Radiology and Radiological Sciences
(615) 875-8621

Fatemeh Adelnia, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS). She earned her Ph.D. in Physics with a focus on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at the University of Milan. Dr. Adelnia completed her postdoctoral training in VUIIS under the mentorship of John Gore, Ph.D. She was awarded a four-year K25 Mentored Research Scientist Career Development grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and an Alzheimer's Disease Administrative Supplements grant and was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in 2022. 

Dr. Adelnia's research interest focuses on developing and validating novel noninvasive in vivo MRI and MRS biomarkers and their application in clinical studies to quantify the progression of diseases and characterize their underlying pathophysiology. Her current projects are i) Development and application of R1ρ dispersion imaging and 31P MR spectroscopy to quantify degenerative changes in skeletal muscle with aging. ii) Identify and validate the biological correlates of extracted R1ρ dispersion MR biomarkers in AD and normal aging brains, using animal models.

Research Information

F. Adelnia, T. Davis, L. Acosta, A. Puckett, F. Wang, Z. Zu, K. Harkins, J. Gore, "R1ρ Dispersion in White Matter Correlates with Quantitative Metrics of Cognitive Impairment" NeuroImage: Clinical 37 (2023) 103366

F. Adelnia, Z. Zu, J. T. Spear, K. D. Harkins, and J. C. Gore, "Tissue Characterization Using R1rho Dispersion at Low Locking Fields", Magn Reson Imaging, 2021; 84, 1-11

F. Adelnia, C. Ubaida-Mohien, R. Moaddel, M. Shardell, A. Lyashkov, K. W. Fishbein, M. Aon, R. G. Spencer, and L. Ferrucci, "Proteomic signatures of in vivo muscle oxidative capacity in healthy adults", Aging Cell. 2020;19: e13124

F. Adelnia, M. Shardell, C. M. Bergeron, K. W. Fishbein, R. G. Spencer, L. Ferrucci, and D. A. Reiter, "Diffusion weighed MRI with intravoxel incoherent motion modeling for assessment of muscle perfusion in the thigh during post-exercise hyperemia in younger and older adults" NMR in biomedicine, 2019, 32: e4072


F. Adelnia, D. Cameron, C. M. Bergeron, K. W. Fishbein, R. G. Spencer, D. A. Reiter, and L. Ferrucci, "The role of muscle perfusion in the age-associated decline of mitochondrial function in healthy individual", Front. Physiol. 2019, 10:427.