Skip to main content
Michael

Dr. Michael Noseworthy

Co-Director

McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering

Professor

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Expertise:
Assessment of normal and diseased tissue microstructure and the resultant modulation of tissue metabolism using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy ; Diseases of interest include cancer, musculoskeletal disorders and traumatic brain injury (TBI)
Areas of Specialization:
Research Clusters:
Email:
Office:
St. Joseph's Healthcare (SJH), Fontbonne Bldg Room 130A
Phone:
+1 905.525.9140 x 23727
Lab:
SJH-F126
 Visit Personal Website
Twitter

Overview

My work focuses on assessment of normal and diseased tissue microstructure and the resultant modulation of tissue metabolism using medical imaging technologies.  A great deal of my research involves MRI and in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.  However, more recently I have focused on applications of multimodal techniques, or the fusion of MRI with EEG, EMG, ultrasound and other imaging methods.  Overall I am interested in developing more comprehensive and diagnostically useful disease imaging protocols for evaluation of anatomic, metabolic and functional characteristics of healthy and abnormal tissues.

Education

B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. (Guelph, Canada)

Did you know…

Dr. Noseworthy has been the Co-Director of the McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering for the past 7 years.

He is also Special Professional Staff in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, and Director of Medical Imaging Physics and Engineering  at St. Joseph’s Healthcare

Biography

Dr. Noseworthy received a M.Sc. from the University of Guelph for work in the evaluation of anaesthetic hepatotoxicity using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and in vivo 31P-NMR.  Obtained a PhD from University of Guelph (1997) specializing in applications of MRI/NMR, biochemical assays and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) methods to assess free radical induced brain damage.  From 1997-1999 was a postdoctoral fellow in Imaging Physics, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre working on the evaluation of tissue microvasculature through development of correlative MRI and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDXS).  From January 2000 to August 2003 worked as a MRI physicist at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and Assistant Professor in Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging, University of Toronto.  Moved to St. Joseph’s Healthcare and Brain-Body Institute, McMaster University in August 2003. Following 3 years as an Assistant Professor in Radiology and Medical Physics at McMaster University, Dr. Noseworthy attained a tenure-track position in Electrical & Computer Engineering at McMaster University, where he currently resides as a full professor.  His research interests include the assessment of tissue microstructure and metabolism using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and multinuclear in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic techniques, and the application of complex systems mathematics and machine learning to medical image analysis.  Dr. Noseworthy is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB).

Publications

Selected

Weber AM, Soreni N, Noseworthy MD. (2014)

A Preliminary study on the effects of acute ethanol ingestion on default mode network and temporal fractal properties of the brain

Magn Reson Mater Phy (MAGMA). 27(4):291-301

This paper was key in showing how the brain temporal complexity can decrease with intoxication

Fortuna JJ, Elzibak A, Fan Z, MacGregor J, Noseworthy MD. (2012)

Liver Functional MRI analysis using a latent variables approach

J. Chemometrics 26:170-179

Paper won an international award. Because of the dual input function nature of the liver an appropriate model was difficult to elucidate. The multivariate approach was successful as we didn’t have to rely on an a priori model

Warsi MA, Molloy W, Noseworthy MD. (2012)

Correlating brain blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) fractal dimension mapping with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in Alzheimer's disease

Magn Reson Mater Phy (MAGMA). 25:335-344

The brain is a complex system. Here we showed how complexity decreases in a disease such as Alzheimer’s

Fatemi-Ardekani A, Boylan C, Noseworthy MD. (2009)

Identification of breast calcification using magnetic resonance imaging

Medical Physics 36:5429-5436

This important paper shows how breast calcium can be visualized using MRI

Wardlaw G, Wong R, Noseworthy MD. (2008)

Identification of intratumour low frequency microvascular components via BOLD signal fractal dimension mapping

Physica Medica 24:87-91

Here we showed a different type of contrast based on temporal complexity of blood oxygenation in tumours

Chevrier A, Noseworthy MD, Schachar R. (2007)

Dissociation of response inhibition and performance monitoring in the stop signal task using event-related fMRI

Human Brain Mapping 28:1347-1358

This work showed how locations of motor response, error and executive function could all be teased apart from one task

Bulte DP, Alfonsi J, Bells S, Noseworthy MD. (2006)

Vasomodulation of BOLD signal in skeletal muscle

J. Magn. Reson. Imag. 24:886-890

This work showed how caffeine and antihistamines affected fast and slow twitch muscles

Zaraiskaya T, Kumbhare D, Noseworthy MD. (2006)

Diffusion tensor imaging and fibre tractography of injured human skeletal muscles

J. Magn. Reson. Imag. 24:402-408

This was the first clinical musculoskeletal application of DTI

Oakden WK, Noseworthy MD. (2005)

Propylene glycol is essential in the LCModel basis set for pediatric 1H-MRS

J. Comp. Asst. Tomogr 29:136-139.

This work showed how propylene glycol, a pharmaceutical humectant, can be mistaken for lactate in the brain

Attenuation of brain BOLD response following lipid ingestion

Noseworthy MD, Alfonsi J, Bells S. (2003)

Human Brain Mapping 20:116-121

We showed how an acute high fat diet can reduce BOLD MRI contrast in a simple motor task

Noseworthy MD, Ackerley C, Qi X, Wright GA. (2002)

Correlating subcellular contrast agent location from dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) and analytical electron microscopy

Acad. Radiol. 9(Suppl. 2):S514-S518

This work showed how gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCAs) get inside microvascular endothelial cells. This has now become a key issue surrounding the safety of these agents.

Recent

  1. Dona O, Noseworthy MD, DeMatteo C, Connolly JF. (2017)  Regional fractal analysis of brain blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals from children with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).  PLoS One. 2017 Jan 10;12(1):e0169647. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169647

 

  1. Rockel C, Akbari A, Kumbhare DA, Noseworthy MD. (2017)  Dynamic DTI (dDTI) shows differing temporal activation patterns in post-exercise skeletal muscles.  Magn Reson Mater Phy (MAGMA).  30(2):127-138.  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10334-016-0587-7

 

  1. Akbari A, Rockel CP, Kumbhare DA, Noseworthy MD. (2016)  A Safe MRI-compatible electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) system for imaging muscle activation at 3T.  J. Magn. Reson. Imaging.  May 17. doi: 10.1002/jmri.25316. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:27185587.  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmri.25316/full

 

  1. Davis AD, Noseworthy MD. (2016)  Motion and distortion correction of skeletal muscle echo planar images.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging 34(6):832-838.  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0730725X16000254

 

  1. Rockel C, Noseworthy MD. (2016)  An exploration of diffusion tensor eigenvector variability within human calf muscles.   J. Magn. Reson. Imaging.  43(1):190-202.  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmri.24957/full

View more Publications

Achievements

P.Eng. (L.E.L)

President's Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision (McMaster University, 2013)