Research Interests

My primary research interest focuses on developing non-invasive diagnostic technologies to address regional and global healthcare challenges, with an emphasis on ensuring their robustness and reliability for routine clinical application. A key focus of our research is advancing imaging technologies capable of probing molecular environment and detecting biochemical symptoms in diseased tissues using standard clinical MRI scanners without the need of injecting any contrast agent. These advancements offer great opportunities for early detection of diseases and improved monitoring of treatment effectiveness.

To achieve these objectives, we employ an interdisciplinary approach that integrates physics, artificial intelligence, engineering, and clinical medicine. We collaborate closely with clinical colleagues and industry partners to assess the diagnostic value of our innovations and translate them into routine clinical practice.

Education Profile

• PhD. University of Virginia, Biomedical Engineering, 2008
• MSc. Stanford University, Geophysics, 2004
• BSc. Peking University, Geophysics, 1998

Since 2016, Prof. Chen has been committed to supervising MPhil and PhD students. Under his supervision, seven PhD and one MPhil student successfully completed their degrees by 2025. In addition, he has been mentoring undergraduate students in the Department of Biomedical Engineering for their Final Year Projects since 2018. Prof. Chen has also supervised six postdoctoral fellows and eight research assistants in scientific research and technological innovation.

Prof. Chen has been teaching the course Biomedical Imaging (BMEG 3320) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering since 2017. In 2024, he also began teaching AI in Radiology to medical school students.

• Annual Meeting Program committee (AMPC), the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2024-2027
• Education Committee, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2023-2024
• Publication Committee, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2018-2021
• Grant review, Israel Science Foundation (ISF)
• Grant review, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• PhD thesis Examiners, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, City University of Hong Kong
• Supervisor, Selected Study Modules (SSM) for Medicine Year 4 Students, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Guest Editor, Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery
• Reviewer for > 33 journals

MR Physics, pulse sequence, and Quantitative Imaging

Prof. Chen’s research delves into the physics of nuclear magnetic resonance to provide tissue signals at the molecular level. A key focus area is leveraging versatile MR physics to develop novel contrast mechanisms and quantify tissue parameters, enabling early disease diagnosis and effective treatment monitoring. His team has developed innovative methods to probe macromolecules and metabolites in tissues using non-invasive spin-lock radiofrequency approaches in clinical MRI systems. These quantitative imaging techniques are designed to be signal-to-noise efficient, robust, and reliable under complex conditions in clinical human MRI. Their work has been featured as a cover article in NMR in Biomedicine and published in journals, including Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery, and Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The team’s inventions have earned gold medals at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva and the 13th International Invention Fair of the Middle East. Additionally, the contributions from his team have frequently been recognized with Summa Cum Laude and Magna Cum Laude awards at ISMRM annual conferences.

Artificial Intelligence

Prof. Chen’s team is actively involved in artificial intelligence research for clinical radiology. They have developed cutting-edge techniques for MRI denoising, uncertainty analysis in quantitative MRI, fast MRI, and domain adaptation for unsupervised tissue segmentation. Their fast MRI work earned them third place among over 200 teams at the CMRxRecon Challenge during MICCAI 2023. Specific disease-focused applications include automatic grading and quantification of knee osteoarthritis and imaging of liver fibrosis. The team also works on data-centric AI challenges related to medical imaging data, including patient privacy, data sharing, and clinical data labeling. Their research appears in journals such as Medical Image Analysis, Applied Soft Computing, Knowledge-Based Systems, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, Computers in Biology and Medicine, and Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine.

Clinical Translation

Prof. Chen and his team collaborate closely with clinical doctors and industry partners to translate their technologies into routine clinical practice. These technologies can be applied across various diseases, with a particular focus on abdomen, musculoskeletal, and neuro diseases. Their work has been featured as a cover article in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and has been reported by news media in Hong Kong.

Selected Publications

1. Quantitative macromolecular proton fraction imaging using pulsed spin-lock. Shan Q, Yu Z, Jiang B, Hou J, Shen Q, Chu W, Wong V, Chen W*. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Aug, 2025

2. Utilizing 3D fast spin echo anatomical imaging to reduce the number of contrast preparations in quantification of knee cartilage using learning-based methods. Zhong J, Huang C, Yu Z, Xiao F, Blu T, Li S, Ong M, Ho K, Chan Q, Griffith J, Chen W*. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Aug, 2025

3. Gao Z, Yu Z, Zhou Z, Hou J, Jiang B, Ong M, Chen W*. Orientation‐independent quantification of macromolecular proton fraction in tissues with suppression of residual dipolar coupling. NMR in Biomedicine. 2025 Jan;38(1):e5293. (Featured as Cover Article)

4. Zhang L, Li X, Chen W*. Camp-net: consistency-aware multi-prior network for accelerated MRI reconstruction. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. 2024 Dec.

5. Li S, Zhao S, Zhang Y, Hong J*, Chen W*. Source-free unsupervised adaptive segmentation for knee joint MRI. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control. 2024 Jun 1;92:106028.

6. Yao Y, Zhong J, Zhang L, Khan S, Chen W*. CartiMorph: A framework for automated knee articular cartilage morphometrics. Medical Image Analysis. 2024 Jan 1;91:103035.

7. Hou J, Wong VW*, Qian Y, Jiang B, Chan AW, Leung HH, Wong GL, Yu SC, Chu WC, Chen W*. Detecting Early‐Stage Liver Fibrosis Using Macromolecular Proton Fraction Mapping Based on Spin‐Lock MRI: Preliminary Observations. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 2023 Feb;57(2):485-92. (Featured as Cover Article)

8. Huang C, Qian Y, Yu SC, Hou J, Jiang B, Chan Q, Wong VW, Chu WC, Chen W*. Uncertainty-aware self-supervised neural network for liver T1ρ mapping with relaxation constraint. Physics in Medicine & Biology. 2022 Nov 18;67(22):225019.

9. Hong J, Zhang YD, Chen W*. Source-free unsupervised domain adaptation for cross-modality abdominal multi-organ segmentation. Knowledge-Based Systems. 2022 Jun 2:109155.

10. Hou J, Wong VW, Jiang B, Wang YX, Wong GL, Chan AW, Chu WC, Chen W*. Macromolecular proton fraction mapping based on spin‐lock magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2020 Dec;84(6):3157-71.

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Patents

1. W Chen, CH Meyer, Fast automatic linear off-resonance correction method for spiral imaging, US Patent 7,642,777, Filed 21/08/2007, Date of Patent 05/01/2010

2. W Chen, CH Meyer, CT Sica, System, Method and Computer Program Product for Fast Conjugate Phase Reconstruction Based on Polynomial Approximation, US Patent 8,094,907, Filed 02/05/2008, Date of Patent 10/01/2012

3. W Chen, P Hu, CH Meyer, Method and System for Off-Resonance Correction for Non-Cartesian Parallel Imaging Reconstruction, US Patent 8,306,289, Filed 25/02/2008, Date of Patent 06/11/2012

4. W Chen, CH Meyer, Efficient Off-Resonance Correction Method and System for Spiral Imaging with Improved Accuracy, US Patent 8,238,634, Filed 25/02/2008, Date of Patent 07/08/2012

5. W Chen, P Hu, CH Meyer, Rapid Auto-Calibrated Parallel Reconstruction Using Synthetic Target Coil, US Patent 8,026,720, Filed 25/03/2009, Date of Patent 27/09/2011

6. W Chen, ACS Brau, PJ Beatty, System and Method of Parallel Imaging for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Near Metallic Implants, US Patent 8,482,279, Filed 31/03/2010, Date of Patent 09/07/2013

7. W Chen, E Han, Composite Spin Locking Pulse Sequence and Method of Using the Same, US Patent 8,618,797, Filed 23/07/2010, Date of Patent 31/12/2013

8. P Lai, W Chen, Accelerated Multispectral Data Magnetic Resonance Imaging System and Method, US Patent 9,018,951, Filed 18/04/2011, Date of Patent 28/04/2015

9. W Chen, RD Peters, ZW Slavens, KM Koch, Method and apparatus for ring artifact repair of magnetic resonance images, US Patent 9,727,953, Filed 30/06/2015, Date of Patent 08/08/2017

10. W Chen, B Jiang, Y Wang, Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Relaxometry with Suppression of Blood Signal, US Patent 10,557,906, Filed 27/04/2017, Date of Patent 11/02/2020

11. W Chen. System and Method for Separation of Water and Fat Signals During Spin-lock Magnetic Resonance Imaging, US Patent 10,598,751, Filed 04/02/2019, Date of Patent 24/03/2020

12. K Gan, W Chen. System and Method for Patient Privacy Protection in Medical Images, US Patent 10,679,740, Filed 12/06/2018, Date of Patent 09/06/2020

13. W Chen, B Jiang. System and Method for Continuous Wave Constant Amplitude On-Resonance and Off-resonance Spin-Lock for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, US 11,137,463, USA patent, Filed 28/07/2017, Date of Patent 05/10/2021

14. W Chen, J Hou, B Jiang. System and Method for Quantitative Magnetization Transfer Imaging Based on Spin-Lock. US 11,280,867 B2, USA patent, Filed 13/05/2020, Date of Patent 22/03/2022

15. W Chen, B Jiang, Z Yu, Method and Apparatus for Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using Spin-Lock Radio Frequency Trains, US 12,386,000 B2, USA patent, Filed 31/05/2023, Date of Patent 12/08/2025

16. J Hou, W Chen, System and Method for Tissue Characterization Using Fast Quantitative Spin-lock Magnetic Transfer Imaging, US 12,392,853 B2, USA patent, Filed 24/01/2023, Date of Patent 19/08/2025

17. Y Yao, W Chen, System and Method for Articular Cartilage thickness Mapping and Lesion Quantification, US patent Application No. 18/095,474, Filed 10/01/2023

18. S Zhao, W Chen, System and Method for Denoising in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, US patent Application No. 18/128,193, Filed 29/03/2023

19. L Zhang, W Chen, System and Method for Consistency-Awae Learnable Multi-Prior Reconstruction for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, US patent Application No. 18/604,294, Filed 13/03/2024

20. H Kang, W Chen, Deep Learning Based Accelerated MRI Reconstruction Using Mixed CNN and Vision Transformer, US patent Application No. 18/628,342, Filed 05/04/2024