Â鶹APP

Education

Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Medicine, The University of Â鶹APP
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston
Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, 2012
B.S.E. Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 2007
B.A. Mathematics, Duke University, 2007

Research Interests

Dr. Kawaji’s research interests focus on the engineering development of novel MR-based biomarkers to study tissue disease and deaths, using dedicated tissue models in a carefully controlled experimental setting, and novel BME instrumentation and clinical translation of new techniques for the MRI system in the hospital setting. He is also interested in BME education research, focused on both pedagogical methods and the development of new student-driven approaches inspired by mathematical problem-solving ideas and techniques.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

• Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
• Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS)
• Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
• Tau Beta Pi (NC Gamma 2007); Faculty Co-Advisor for IIT Chapter Illinois Beta.

Awards

• 2019 Inducted Fellow for the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (FSCMR)
• 2019 Recipient of NIH K25 Award (5-year research and career development award)
• 2019 Mentor and award referent for SCMR Regional Scholarship Award 
• 2018 Recipient of Illinois Tech Faculty Innovation Award
• 2016 Team Lead and Program Participant, National Science Foundation Innovations Corps (i-Corps) Program; Winter 2016 cohort (Polsky Center - Â鶹APP Booth
• 2015 Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance - Regional Scholarship Winner (USA region).
• 2014 Magna Cum Laude Best Abstract Award, Proc. ISMRM 2014, Milan, Italy.
• 2014-present Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM) Investigator, Regional Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Â鶹APP Consortium.
• 2013 NIH Young Investigator Stipend Award, Int. Workshop in MR Angiography (SMRA), New York, NY.

Publications

SELECT PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES

1. Kawaji K., Nazir N., Blair JA., Mor-Avi V., Besser S., Matsumoto K., Goes JP., Dabir D., Stoiber L., Kelle S., Zamani SM., Holzhauser L., Lang RM., and Patel AR. Quantitative detection of changes in regional wall motion using real time strain-encoded cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Magn Reson Img. 2020; 66:193-198. DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2019.08.033
2. He Y., Santana MF., Moucka M., Quirk J., Shuaibi A., Pimentel M., Wexler S., Rashid MM., Cinar A., Georgiadis JG., Kawaji, K., Vaicik MK., Venerus D., Papavasilious G. Immobilized RGD concentration and Proteolytic Degradation Synergistically Enhance Vascular Sprouting
   within Hydrogel Scaffolds of Varying Modulus. Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition. 2020 Feb;31(3):324-349. DOI: 10.1080/09205063.2019.1692640.
3. Singh A., Kawaji K., Goyal N., Nazir N., Beaser A., O’Keefe-Baker G., Addetia K., Lang RM., Tung R., Hu P., Mor-Avi V., and Patel AR. Feasibility of cardiac magnetic resonance wideband protocol in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators and its utility for defining scar. Am J Cardiol. 2019; 123(8):1329-1335. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2019.01.018.
4. Jeong Y., Christoforids GA., Saadat N., Kawaji K., Cantrell CG., Roth S., Niekrasz M., and Carroll TJ. Absolute Quantitative MR Perfusion and Validation against Stable-Isotope Microspheres. Magn Reson Med. 2019; 81(6):3567-3577. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.27669.
5. Deh K., Kawaji K., Bulk M., Van Der Weerd L., Lind E., Spincemaille P., McCabe-Gillen K., Wang Y., and Nguyen, TD. Multicenter reproducibility of quantitative susceptibility mapping in a gadolinium phantom using MEDI+0 automatic zero referencing. Magn Reson Med. 2019; 81(2):1229-1236 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.27410.
6. Suzuki Y., Kawaji K., Patel AR., Tamura S., and Hayamizu S. Toward effective noise reduction for sub-Nyquist high-frame-rate MRI techniques with deep learning. APSIPA 2017 Conference Paper Oral Presentation 210.
7. Kawaji, K.; Patel, MB; Cantrell, CG; Tanaka, A; Marino, M; Tamura, S; Wang, H; Wang, Y; Carroll, TJ; Ota, T; and Patel, AR. A fast, non-iterative approach for Accelerated High-Temporal Resolution cine-CMR using Dynamically Interleaved Streak removal in the Power-spectral Encoded domain with Low-pass-filtering (DISPEL) and Modulo-Prime Spokes (MoPS). Med Phys. 2017 Mar 24. DOI: 10.1002/mp.12234
8. Wang, SC., Patel, AR., Tanaka, A., Wang, H., Ota, T., Lang, RM., Carroll TJ., and Kawaji, K. A novel profile/view ordering with a non-convex star shutter for high-resolution 3D volumetric T1 mapping under multiple breath-holds. Magn Res Med 2016. In Press. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26303
9. Tanaka, A., Kawaji, K., Patel, AR., Tabata, Y., Burke, MC., Gupta, MP., and Ota T. Controlled Release of Growth Factor Enhances In-situ Reconstructive Remodeling of Tissue-Engineered Cardiac Patch. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Vol. 150, Issue 5. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2015.07.073.
10. Thimmappa, ND., Cooper, MA., Nguyen, TD., Dutruel, SP., Kawaji, K., and Weinsaft, JW. Electrocardiographic Pad for Efficient Cardiac MR Gating. Radiology, 2016. Feb;278(2):578-84. DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2015142318.
11. Kawaji, K., Foppa, M., Roujol, S., Akcakaya. M., Manning, WJ., and Nezafat, R. Whole Heart Coronary MRI with an Enlarged Acquisition Window. PLoS ONE 2015. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112020.
12. Kawaji, K., Spincemaille, P., Nguyen, TD., Thimmappa, ND., Cooper, MA., Prince, MR., and Wang, Y. Direct Coronary Motion Extraction from a 2D Fat Image Navigator for Prospectively Gated Coronary MR Angiography. MRM 2014. 71(2) 599-607. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.24698
13. Kawaji, K., Codella, NC., Prince, MR., Chu, CW., Shakoor, A., LaBounty, TM., Min, JK., Swaminathan, RV., Devereux, RB., Wang, Y., and Weinsaft, JW. Automated Segmentation of Routine Clinical Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Diagnosis of Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction. Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, 2009 Nov. 2(6) 476-84. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.109.879304

Patents

• Cantrell, CG., Kawaji, K., Patel, AR., and Carroll, TJ. Combined Oxygen Utilization, Strain, and Anatomical Imaging with Magnetic Resonance Imaging. US Patent Application 16/649,919. Filed 03/23/2020. Patent Pending.
• Kawaji, K., Manning, WJ., and Nezafat, R. MRI methods and apparatus for flexible visualization of any subset of an enlarged temporal window. US Patent 9,702,956. Filed 05/09/2014. Issued 07/11/2017.

Expertise

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), data acquisition, image reconstruction, clinical post-processing, cardiac MRI, neurovascular MRI, quantitative biomarkers, biomedical instrumentation, artificial intelligence in biomedicine, BME education pedagogy, mathematical problem-solving in BME.