Kevin Chung, PhD, is leading a transformation in the use of medical imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, developing quantitative models of dynamic imaging signals to map tissue and molecular processes in the body. His research program is developing new approaches for imaging brain-heart interactions using total-body positron emission tomography, or PET, an innovative technology that enables simultaneous molecular imaging of the entire body. The effects of brain and heart diseases on their respective organs are well characterized, but less understood is how disease in one organ affects another. Patients with heart failure often experience cognitive impairment, and neurological stress and disease can impair cardiovascular function.

Dr. Chung has introduced new ways of mapping blood flow across multiple organs from a single scan and measuring the molecular function of the blood-brain barrier.

This work may help illuminate how the brain regulates heart function, and, conversely, how heart disease contributes to brain dysfunction. These insights may reveal new opportunities for earlier diagnosis and more integrated, holistic treatment. Dr. Chung is an instructor in radiology at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, earned a PhD in medical biophysics from Western University in London, Canada, and was an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow at the UC Davis EXPLORER Molecular Imaging Center.