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Rik Khot BSc (Hons)

Rik Khot

(she/they)

BSc (Hons)

Teams and roles for Rik Khot

Overview

I am a PhD student within Prof Kevin Murphy's Cerebrovascular lab group, where my thesis focuses on the optimization of an ultra-fast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique known as DIMaC (Dyanmic Inflow MAgnitude Contrast) to measure pulsatile blood flow and arterial stiffness in the brain.

My work covers:

  • Open source pulse sequence design using Pulseq
  • Offline MR image reconstruction
  • Non-cartesian k-space trajectories
  • Undersampled k-space

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

Thesis

The Beat Goes On: Developing Ultra-Fast MRI Techniques To Measure Pulsatile Blood Flow And Arterial Stiffness In The Brain

Why? - Cerebral arteries stiffen with age, meaning that these vessels loose the ability to dampen pressure waves orginating from heart beats. This can cause damage to the protective layer surrounding nerves (known as myelin), increasing the risk of dementia. Currently there is no clinical scanning technique for measuring arterial stiffness in the brain. This emphasises a clear need for the development of cerebral arterial stiffness imaging techniques suitable for clinical settings.

What?- DIMaC ("Dynamic Inflow MAgnitude Contrast") is an ultra-fast MRI technique that can measure blood flow velocity in large vessels in the brain over time, recording the beat-to-beat variations of blood flow. It resolves both on-beat (systolic) and between-beat (diastolic) blood velocity information over time.

How could it apply to clinical settings? - The ultra-fast nature of DIMaC means that it is suitable for patients who would experience difficulties lying still in an MRI scanner. In addition, the simplicity of the pulse sequence design means that it can comply with clincial 3T MRI scanner hardware specifications. For the thesis, it is currently run on the Siemens 3T MAGNETOM Prisma.

Current thesis aims:

  • Optimize DIMaC to image small blood vessels in the brain
  • Optimize DIMaC to measure changes in arterial stiffness across large arteries in the brain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funding sources

EPSRC Funded Studentship

Biography

  • PhD Student, Cardiff University School of Physics & Astronomy (2025 - present)
  • Research & Development Graduate Engineer at Siemens Mobility (2023 - 2024)

Developed simulations using Amazon Web Services, Data visualisations from SQL databases in PowerBI, Tested in-house railway track scheme data generation tools

  • BSc Physics, University of Manchester (2020 - 2023)

Dissertation: "Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and its Application to Explosives Detection"

Honours and awards

  • University of Manchester Physics & Astronomy Entrance Scholarship (2020)

Supervisors

Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy

Professor of Cerebrovascular Neuroimaging
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
Head of Brain Imaging Group

Ian Driver

Ian Driver

Research Fellow

Contact Details

Email KhotRU@cardiff.ac.uk

Campuses Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ

Research themes

Specialisms

  • MRI