Faculty Directory
Molly Bright

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences

Contact

645 N Michigan Ave
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60611

Email Molly Bright

Website

Bright Lab

Departments

Biomedical Engineering

Education

D.Phil. Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

B.S. Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

 


Research Interests

The Applied Neuro-Vascular Imaging Lab (ANVIL) focuses on developing advanced MRI techniques to assess the healthy function and interaction of neural activity and vascular physiology throughout the human central nervous system, with an emphasis on initial translation to patient populations. This involves the design and implementation of new tools and devices to stimulate, monitor, or enhance human physiology during MRI scanning, and the development of specialized MRI acquisition and modelling methods to characterize neurovascular signals in the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord. ANVIL aims to produce robust noninvasive imaging techniques to study individual patient pathophysiology in cohorts with impaired movement, including acute and chronic stroke, cerebral palsy, traumatic and degenerative spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis. Long term, we seek to use such personalized imaging approaches to study and optimize individual patient responses to rehabilitative interventions.


This research is in collaboration with Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Neurology, Radiology, the Center for Translational Imaging, the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience program, and the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab.


Selected Publications

  • Reddy, Neha A.; Clements, Rebecca G.; Brooks, Jonathan C.W.; Bright, Molly G., Simultaneous cortical, subcortical, and brainstem mapping of sensory activation, Cerebral Cortex (2024).
  • Hemmerling, Kimberly J.; Hoggarth, Mark A.; Sandhu, Milap S.; Parrish, Todd B.; Bright, Molly G., Spatial distribution of hand-grasp motor task activity in spinal cord functional magnetic resonance imaging, Human Brain Mapping (2023).
  • Gong, Jingxuan; Stickland, Rachael C.; Bright, Molly G., Hemodynamic timing in resting-state and breathing-task BOLD fMRI, Neuroimage (2023).
  • Zvolanek, Kristina M.; Moia, Stefano; Dean, Joshua N.; Stickland, Rachael C.; Caballero-Gaudes, César; Bright, Molly G., Comparing end-tidal CO2, respiration volume per time (RVT), and average gray matter signal for mapping cerebrovascular reactivity amplitude and delay with breath-hold task BOLD fMRI, Neuroimage (2023).
  • Hoggarth, Mark A.; Wang, Max C.; Hemmerling, Kimberly J.; Vigotsky, Andrew D.; Smith, Zachary Adam; Parrish, Todd B.; Weber, Kenneth A.; Bright, Molly G., Effects of variability in manually contoured spinal cord masks on fMRI co-registration and interpretation, Frontiers in Neurology (2022).
  • Stickland, Rachael C.; Zvolanek, Kristina M.; Moia, Stefano; Caballero-Gaudes, César; Bright, Molly G., Lag-Optimized Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent Cerebrovascular Reactivity Estimates Derived From Breathing Task Data Have a Stronger Relationship With Baseline Cerebral Blood Flow, Frontiers in Neuroscience (2022).
  • Stickland, Rachael C.; Zvolanek, Kristina M.; Moia, Stefano; Ayyagari, Apoorva; Caballero-Gaudes, César; Bright, Molly G., A practical modification to a resting state fMRI protocol for improved characterization of cerebrovascular function, Neuroimage (2021).
  • Vu, Jasmine; Nguyen, Bach T.; Bhusal, Bhumi; Baraboo, Justin; Rosenow, Joshua; Bagci, Ulas; Bright, Molly G.; Golestanirad, Laleh, Machine Learning-Based Prediction of MRI-Induced Power Absorption in the Tissue in Patients with Simplified Deep Brain Stimulation Lead Models, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility (2021).