Dafna Ben Bashat. PhD.

Senior physicist, Deputy director.

Tel Aviv Center For Brain Functions, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

 

Dr. Ben Bashat's research group focuses on developing and refining advanced MRI methods, both acquisition and analysis, for use in several clinical domains. The main research range revolves around brain structure- functional issues: normal and abnormal brain development, brain lesions neurodegenerative disorders, and brain vascular pathology. Graduate and doctorate students from different scientific departments are employed as part of their curriculum . The research conducted in this group aims to improve both diagnosis and prognosis by facilitating the development of more accurate diagnostic tools using advanced MRI methods, and improving  choice of treatment strategy, thus helping to decide on the best strategies of treatment while better aware of expected responses, as part of personalized medicine. Image results are correlated against other clinical appraisals such as clinical, behavioral and neurocognitive evaluations and pathological findings.

    

Example for Research Areas and Projects

 

Brain development

Brain development is a complex process accompanied structural metabolic and functional changes (something like this). Using MRI, we can follow these changes already during in the fetus. Using structural MRI methods with volumetric analysis, we can follow volumetric changes of the varios brain structures; using DTI we can follow changes in WM integrity (and myelination process) and using fMRI and fcMRI we can follow changes in the development and integrity of major functional networks.

Several projects are currently running in our lab: