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Home > People > Academic Staff > Christian Beaulieu

Profile of Christian Beaulieu, PhD

Associate Professor

1064 Research Transition Facility
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2V2

Tel: 780.492.0908
Fax: 780.492.8259

Education

• Fellow, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 1995-1999
• PhD Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, 1995
• BSc Chemistry, University of Manitoba, 1990

Research

Dr. Beaulieu's research focuses on the development of new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods and their application to numerous disorders of the human brain in both adults and children. Current brain imaging studies include stroke, epilepsy, autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, dyslexia and development with aging. The three main MRI methods developed in the lab:

1. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is a way of using measures of water diffusion to reflect the integrity of white matter tracts and structural connectivity in the brain.
   
   
   
   DTI movie
   
   An extension of DTI is diffusion tractography which can identify and virtually extract white matter tracts (i.e. wiring) in the human brain, as shown in the following movie by graduated PhD student Luis Concha and Daniel Torres: lconcha.googlepages.com/work.
   
   
2. A Sodium MRI measures sodium ions in tissue rather than hydrogen of water that is typical for standard MRI.
   
   
3. Diffusion spectroscopy measures the mobility of metabolites in brain.
   
   

The technical developments take place on three 100% research human MRI scanners at 3 different field strengths, a 1.5T Siemens Sonata, a 3T Varian, and a 4.7T Varian t hat happens to be the strongest human MRI scanner in Canada. Students learn how to use and often program the MRI scanners themselves and then apply their technical developments by imaging patients. Dr. Beaulieu is a core member of the In Vivo Nuclear Magnetic Resonance research team. His research is funded currently by AHFMR, CIHR, NSERC, CLLRNet, and the Heart and Stroke Foundations of Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.

Selected Awards

• AHFMR Senior Scholar, 2006-2010
• AHFMR Scholar & CIHR New Investigator, 2000-2005
• AHFMR PDF Fellowship, 1995-1998
• CIHR PhD Scholarships & AHFMR PhD Scholarship, 1990-1995

Selected Publications

• Beaulieu, C.  The basis of anisotropic water diffusion in the nervous system,  NMR in Biomedicine 15,  435-455 (2002).
• Bhagat, Y. and Beaulieu, C.  Diffusion anisotropy in subcortical white matter and cortical gray matter: changes with aging and the role of CSF-suppression.  J. Magn. Reson. Imaging   20, 216-227 (2004).
• Concha, L., Beaulieu, C., and Gross, D.W.  Bilateral limbic abnormalities in unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy.  Ann. Neurol. 57, 188-196 (2005).
• Ellegood, J., Hanstock, C., and, Beaulieu, C.  Trace apparent diffusion coefficients of metabolites in human brain using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Magn. Reson. Med. 53, 1025-1032 (2005).
• Beaulieu, C., Plewes, C., Paulson, L.A., Roy, D., Snook, L., Concha, L., and Phillips, L. Imaging brain connectivity in children with diverse reading ability.  Neuroimage  25, 1266-1271 (2005).
• Snook, L., Paulson, L.A., Roy, D., Phillips, L., and Beaulieu, C.  Diffusion tensor imaging of neurodevelopment in children and young adults. Neuroimage 26, 1164-1173 (2005).
• Concha, L., Gross, D.W., and Beaulieu, C.   Diffusion tensor tractography of the limbic system.  American Journal of Neuroradiology 26, 2267-2274 (2005)
• Stobbe, R. and Beaulieu C.  In-vivo sodium magnetic resonance imaging of the human brain using soft inversion recovery fluid attenuation (SIRFLA).  Magn. Reson. Med.  54, 1305-1310 (2005).
• Gross, D.W., Bastos, A., and Beaulieu, C.  Diffusion tensor imaging abnormalities in focal cortical dysplasia. Can. J. Neurosci. 32, 477-482 (2005).
• Ellegood, J., Hanstock, C., and Beaulieu, C.  Diffusion tensor spectroscopy (DTS) of human brain. Magn. Reson. Med. 55, 1-8 (2006).
• Campbell, A. and Beaulieu C.  Pulsed arterial spin labeling parameter optimization for an elderly population. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging  23, 398-403 (2006).
• Gross, D., Concha, L., and Beaulieu, C.  Extratemporal white matter abnormalities in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy demonstrated with diffusion tensor imaging.  Epilepsia  47, 1360-1363 (2006).
• Campbell, A. and Beaulieu C.  Comparison of multi-slice and single slice acquisitions for pulsed arterial spin labeling measurements of cerebral perfusion.  Magn. Reson. Imaging  24, 869-876 (2006).
• Concha, L., Gross, D.W., Wheatley, M., and Beaulieu, C.  Diffusion tensor imaging demonstrates the evolution of axonal degeneration after corpus callosotomy. Neuroimage  32, 1090-1099 (2006).
• Bhagat, Y., Emery, D.J., Shuaib, A., Sher, F., Rizvi, N., Akhtar, N., Clare, T., Leatherdale, T., and Beaulieu, C. The relationship between diffusion anisotropy and time of onset after stroke. J. Cereb. Blood Flow Met.   26, 1442-1450 (2006).
• Vander Pluym, J., Shan, W.W., Taher, Z., Beaulieu, C., Plewes, C., Peterson, A.E., Beattie, O.B. and Bamforth, J.S.  Use of magnetic resonance imaging to measure facial soft tissue depth. The Cleft Palate - Craniofacial Journal   44, 52-57 (2007).
• Snook, L., Plewes, C., Beaulieu, C.  Voxel based versus region-of-interest analysis in diffusion tensor imaging of neurodevelopment.   34, 243-252 (2007).
• Bhagat, Y. Emery, D.J., Naik, S., Yeo, T., Beaulieu, C.  Comparison of generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions and modified sensitivity encoding for diffusion tensor imaging. American Journal of Neuroradiology   28, 293-298 (2007).
• Bonnet, S., Archer, S.L., Turner, J., Haromy, A., Beaulieu, C., Thompson, R., Puttagunta, L., Bonnet, S., Harry, G., Hashimoto, K., Angrade, M., Michelakis, E.  An orally available small molecule (dichloroacetate) selectively targets cancer mitochondria and inhibits cancer development in vitro and in vivo.   Cell Cancer    11, 37-51 (2007) .
• Ellegood, J., McKay, R., Hanstock, C.C., Beaulieu, C.  Anisotropic diffusion of metabolites in peripheral nerve using diffusion weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy at ultra-high field.  J Magn Reson    184, 20-28 (2007).
• Concha, L., Beaulieu, C., Wheatley, B.M., Gross, D.  Bilateral white matter diffusion changes persist after epilepsy surgery. Epilepsia  48, 931-940 (2007).
• Wong, J.C.T., Concha, L., Beaulieu, C., Johnston, W., Allen, P.S., Kalra, S. Spatial profiling of the corticospinal tract in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using diffusion tensor imaging. J. Neuroimaging 17:234-240 (2007).  
• Stobbe, R., Beaulieu, C. Sodium Imaging Optimization Under Specific Absorption Rate Constraint MRM 59:345-355 (2008).
• Lebel, C, Walker, L., Leemans, A., Phillips, L. and Beaulieu C. Microstructural maturation of the human brain from childhood to adulthood. NeuroImage 40: 1044-1053 (2008).