Joseph Maldjian, M.D.

Biography

Joseph A. Maldjian, M.D., is a Professor of Radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and serves as Chief of the Neuroradiology Division and Director of the Advanced Neuroscience Imaging Research (ANSIR) Lab. His clinical interests involve bringing novel imaging methodologies and advanced analysis methods into the clinical setting.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Princeton University, Dr. Maldjian earned his medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. He completed his residency training in diagnostic radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, and then received advanced training in neuroradiology through a two-year fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Prior to joining the faculty at UT Southwestern, Dr. Maldjian served as a Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Prior to that, he held faculty appointments at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and at New Jersey Medical School.

Investigating Traumatic Brain Injuries

Dr. Maldjian’s research team has been instrumental in bringing arterial spin-labeling (ASL) into routine clinical practice. This noninvasive method “tags” arterial blood water through a process of magnetic inversion, making it possible for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to detect the “magnetized” blood flowing through brain tissue. He has also developed fully automated means for processing, archiving, and analyzing these images; as well as images obtained using functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, positron emission tomography, and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Dr. Maldjian’s research lab maintains a data processing resource that can handle large amounts of neuroimaging data and provide an interface to an array of commonly used software platforms.

The main focus of Dr. Maldjian’s research is sports-related, mild traumatic brain injury. He is currently one of only a few radiologists in the nation to serve as principal investigator on three active National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded R01 studies. Dr. Maldjian and his collaborators are studying the effects of sub-concussive impacts on youth and high school football players by obtaining MRI, MEG, cognitive measures, and detailed head impact data from sensors embedded in players’ helmets.

He is also investigating whether genetic and racial factors related to diabetes might lead to changes in the brain structure and function in African-Americans.

Dr. Maldjian is an active member of numerous national and international organizations, including the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the American Society of Neuroradiology, the American Society for Functional Neuroradiology, the American College of Radiology, the American Board of Radiology, and the Radiological Society of North America.

Robust Editorial Activity

In addition to authoring more than 125 peer-reviewed publications and over 15 additions to textbooks, Dr. Maldjian is a reviewer for multiple academic journals, including Radiology, Neuroradiology, Neurology, Neuroimage, Clinical Neuroradiology, American Journal of Neuroradiology, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Neuroinformatics, and Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography. He also serves as a charter member of the NIH Biomedical Imaging Technology Study Section A.

Personal Note

Dr. Maldjian is a trained classical pianist who spends much of his free time with his wife designing, testing, and optimizing novel reward systems to get their four young children to practice the instrument.