Santiago Coelho, PhD

Santiago Coelho, PhD

Postdoctoral fellow at NYU School of Medicine, interested in MRI biophysical modeling of brain tissue, inverse problems, and image processing

Main publications

You can find all my articles on my Google Scholar profile

In vivo human neurite exchange time imaging at 500 mT/m diffusion gradients

Published in Imaging Neuroscience, 2025

This paper performed diffusion MRI measurements in 15 healthy volunteers on the Connectome 2.0 scanner to estimate water exchange times in the human gray matter.

Recommended citation: Kwok-Shing Chan, Yixin Ma, Hansol Lee, José P. Marques, Jonas L. Olesen, Santiago Coelho, Dmitry S. Novikov, Sune N. Jespersen, Susie Y. Huang, Hong-Hsi Lee; In vivo human neurite exchange time imaging at 500 mT/m diffusion gradients. Imaging Neuroscience 2025; 3 imag_a_00544. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hbm.70142

Denoising Improves Cross-Scanner and Cross-Protocol Test–Retest Reproducibility of Diffusion Tensor and Kurtosis Imaging

Published in Human Brain Mapping, 2025

This paper performs a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of MPPCA based denoising strategies for both magnitude and complex data to mitigate noise-induced bias and variance, to improve dMRI parametric maps and reproducibility.

Recommended citation: Ades-Aron, B., Coelho, S., Lemberskiy, G., Veraart, J., Baete, S.H., Shepherd, T.M., Novikov, D.S. and Fieremans, E. (2025), Denoising Improves Cross-Scanner and Cross-Protocol Test–Retest Reproducibility of Diffusion Tensor and Kurtosis Imaging. Hum Brain Mapp, 46: e70142. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hbm.70142

Volume electron microscopy in injured rat brain validates white matter microstructure metrics from diffusion MRI

Published in Imaging Neuroscience, 2024

This paper performs a comprehensive histological validation of the parameters of the Standard Model of diffusion white matter.

Recommended citation: Ricardo Coronado-Leija, Ali Abdollahzadeh, Hong-Hsi Lee, Santiago Coelho, Benjamin Ades-Aron, Ying Liao, Raimo A Salo, Jussi Tohka, Alejandra Sierra, Dmitry S Novikov, Els Fieremans (2024). Volume electron microscopy in injured rat brain validates white matter microstructure metrics from diffusion MRI. Imaging Neuroscience, 2:1-20. https://direct.mit.edu/imag/article/doi/10.1162/imag_a_00212/122336

Assessment of precision and accuracy of brain white matter microstructure using combined diffusion MRI and relaxometry

Published in Human Brain Mapping, 2024

This paper performs a protocol optimization for the standard model of diffusion in white matter and assesses its reproducibility on two different scanners.

Recommended citation: Coelho et al. (2024) Assessment of precision and accuracy of brain white matter microstructure using combined diffusion MRI and relaxometry – Human Brain Mapping. http://santiagocoelho.github.io/files/paper5.pdf

Callosal Interhemispheric Communication in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Mediation Analysis on WM Microstructure Effects

Published in American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2024

This paper studied the effects of neighboring white matter microstructure on callosal interhemispheric communication in healthy controls and patients with mild traumatic brain injury.

Recommended citation: Sohae Chung, Tamar Bacon, Joseph F Rath, Alaleh Alivar, Santiago Coelho, Prin Amorapanth, Els Fieremans, Dmitry S Novikov, Steven R Flanagan, Joshua H Bacon, Yvonne W Lui (2024). Callosal Interhemispheric Communication in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Mediation Analysis on WM Microstructure Effects. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 45(6):788-794. https://www.ajnr.org/content/45/6/788.long

Mapping tissue microstructure of brain white matter in vivo in health and disease using diffusion MRI

Published in Imaging Neuroscience, 2024

This paper studies in vivo changes of the parameters of the Standard Model of diffusion white matter across lifespan in healthy and diseased tissue.

Recommended citation: Ying Liao, Santiago Coelho, Jenny Chen, Benjamin Ades-Aron, Michelle Pang, Valentin Stepanov, Ricardo Osorio, Timothy Shepherd, Yvonne W Lui, Dmitry S Novikov, Els Fieremans (2024). Mapping tissue microstructure of brain white matter in vivo in health and disease using diffusion MRI. Imaging Neuroscience, 2:1-17. https://direct.mit.edu/imag/article/doi/10.1162/imag_a_00102/119636/Mapping-tissue-microstructure-of-brain-white

Optimal Experimental Design for Biophysical Modelling in Multidimensional Diffusion MRI

Published in MICCAI, 2019

This paper shows that combining LTE and PTE maximizes precision in the estimation of the tensors in the cumulant expansion.

Recommended citation: Coelho et al. (2019) Optimal Experimental Design for Biophysical Modelling in Multidimensional Diffusion MRI. In: Shen D. et al. (eds) Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention – MICCAI 2019. http://santiagocoelho.github.io/files/paper3.pdf

Population-based Bayesian regularization for microstructural diffusion MRI with NODDIDA

Published in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2019

This paper proposed the use of a Bayesian population-based prior for robust estimation of NODDIDA parameters with limited acquisition protocols.

Recommended citation: Meghdoot Mozumder, Jose M Pozo, Santiago Coelho, Alejandro F Frangi (2019). Population-based Bayesian regularization for microstructural diffusion MRI with NODDIDA. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 82(4):1553-1565. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mrm.27831

Quantitative histomorphometry of capillary microstructure in deep white matter

Published in NeuroImage: Clinical, 2019

This paper reports microvascular characteristics from deep white matter tissue, obtained with a novel feature extraction method.

Recommended citation: Meghdoot Mozumder, Jose M Pozo, Santiago Coelho, Marina Costantini, Julie Simpson, J Robin Highley, Paul G Ince, Alejandro F Frangi (2019). Quantitative histomorphometry of capillary microstructure in deep white matter. NeuroImage: Clinical. (23):101839. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158219301895

Resolving degeneracy in diffusion MRI biophysical model parameter estimation using double diffusion encoding

Published in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2019

This paper shows that incorporating double diffusion encoding (DDE) measurements help resolve the degeneracy in the parameter estimation for the Standard Model of diffusion in white matter for a Watson fiber distribution function (ODF). This is also the case for an arbitrary ODF, as was later proved.

Recommended citation: Coelho et al. Resolving degeneracy in diffusion MRI biophysical model parameter estimation using double diffusion encoding. Magn Reson Med. 2019; 82: 395– 410. http://santiagocoelho.github.io/files/paper2.pdf

Iba-1-/CD68+ microglia are a prominent feature of age-associated deep subcortical white matter lesions

Published in PLoS One, 2019

This paper compares the detailed immunoreactive profile of three classic microglial markers, namely Iba-1, CD68 and MHCII.

Recommended citation: Rachel Waller, Lynne Baxter, Daniel J Fillingham, Santiago Coelho, Jose M Pozo, Meghdoot Mozumder, Alejandro F Frangi, Paul G Ince, Julie E Simpson, J Robin Highley (2019). Iba-1-/CD68+ microglia are a prominent feature of age-associated deep subcortical white matter lesions. PLoS One. 14(1):e0210888. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210888

Local volume fraction distributions of axons, astrocytes, and myelin in deep subcortical white matter

Published in NeuroImage, 2018

This paper aims to statistically describe histologically stained white matter brain sections to subsequently inform and validate diffusion MRI techniques.

Recommended citation: Coelho et al., Local volume fraction distributions of axons, astrocytes, and myelin in deep subcortical white matter, NeuroImage, Volume 179, 2018, Pages 275-287. http://santiagocoelho.github.io/files/paper1.pdf