Changho Choi, Ph.D.

Dr. Changho Choi received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1987 from Korea University, South Korea.  He then earned a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Canada, where he used nuclear magnetic resonance for studying quantum tunneling of protons at low temperatures.  Following several years of researches in in-vivo MR spectroscopy, he joined the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2007.

Dr. Choi’s research has been focused on both technical and clinical developments of MR spectroscopy in brain tumors and neuropsychiatric disorders.  MRS methodology development is carried out to provide meaningful measurements of clinically-important hard-to-detect brain metabolites, including 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG), GABA, glycine, glutamate and glutamine, etc.  Specifically, 2HG appears to be an unprecedented biomarker in IDH mutated gliomas.  Researches are currently going on to accomplish a fast, high-precision 2HG imaging modality which can be readily translated into clinics.  Investigation of the clinical utility of 2HG in subjects with gliomas is undertaken in collaboration with neuro-oncologists.  Also, several MRS studies are conducted to obtain metabolic changes in neurological diseases, including schizophrenia and asthma, in collaboration with psychiatrists.

Undergraduate	Korea University (1987), Physics
Graduate School	Korea University (1989)
Graduate School	University of Waterloo (1996), Physics

• Applications of MRS in neurodegenerative and cancer diseases
• In vivo 1H and 13C MR spectroscopy
• Quantum mechanical simulations of spin dynamics
• RF pulse and MRS sequence design

Featured Publications

Measurement of glycine in gray and white matter in the human brain in vivo by 1H MRS at 7.0 T

Banerjee, A., Ganji, S., Hulsey, K., Dimitrov, I., Maher, E., Ghose, S., Tamminga, C. and Choi, C. Magnetic Resonance Medicine 2012 68 2 325 - 331

2-hydroxyglutarate detection by magnetic resonance spectroscopy in IDH-mutated patients with gliomas

Choi C, Ganji SK, DeBerardinis RJ, Hatanpaa KJ, Rakheja D, Kovacs Z, Yang XL, Mashimo T, Raisanen JM, Marin-Valencia I, Pascual JM, Madden CJ, Mickey BE, Malloy CM, Bachoo R, Maher EA Nature Medicine 2012 18 4 624-629

Improvement of resolution for brain coupled metabolites by optimized 1H-MRS at 7T

Choi C, Dimitrov IE, Douglas D, Patel A, Kaiser LG, Amezcua CA, Maher EA NMR in Biomedicine November 2010 23 (9) 1044-1052

Measurement of GABA and contaminants in grey and white matter in human brain in vivo

Choi C, Bhardwaj PP, Kalra S, Casault CA, Yasmin US, Allen PS, Coupland NJ Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2007 58 27-33

T2 measurement of J-coupled metabolites in the human brain in vivo at 3T

Ganji SK, Banerjee A, Patel AM, Zhao YD, Dimitrov IE, Browning JD, Brown ES, Maher EA, Choi C NMR in Biomedicine 2012 25

Measurement of N-acetylaspartylglutamate in the human frontal brain by 1H-MRS at 7T

Choi C, Ghose S, Uh J, Patel A, Dimitrov I, Lu H, Douglas D, Ganji S Magnetic Resonance in Medicine November 2010 64 (5) 1247-1251

Measurement of glycine in human prefrontal brain by point-resolved spectroscopy at 7.0 T in vivo

Choi C, Douglas D, Hawesa H, Jindal A, Storey C, Dimitrov I Magnetic Resonance in Medicine November 2009 62 (5) 1305?1310

T2 measurement and quantification of glutamate in human brain in vivo

Choi C, Coupland NJ, Bhardwaj PP, Kalra S, Casault CA, Reid K, Allen PS Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2006 56 971-977

Brain gamma-aminobutyric acid measurements by proton double quantum filtering with selective J rewinding

Choi C, Coupland NJ, Hanstock CC, Ogilvie CJ, Higgins ACM, Gheorghiu D, Allen PS Magnetic Resonance in Medicine August 2005 54 (2) 272-279

Observation of CH3 tunneling manifold by level-crossing NMR

Choi C, Pintar MM Physical Review Letters 1996 76 527-530