Klinik und Poliklinik für Radiologie
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Functional Neuroimaging

Group Leader

Sophia Stöcklein

Prof. Dr. med. Sophia Stöcklein

Senior physician, head of MRI, head of research organisation

Sophia has been involved in advanced neuroimaging, especially functional connectimocs ever since her doctoral thesis, where she worked on changes of the default network in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. She went on to gain profound expertise and skills in computational neuroscience and cognitive psychology during a 2-year, DFG-funded postdoctoral fellowship in computational neuroscience at the Martinos Center of Biomedical Imaging (MGH) and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University (Cambridge, USA). Her postdoctoral work focused on the assessment of the reliability and variability of fMRI-based functional connectivity measures and on the explorations of individual differences in the connectivity architecture of the human brain. During her residency training in radiology she went on to apply refined techniques of personalized fMRI analyses to patient cohorts including neuro-degenerative and neuro-oncologic diseases. The overarching aim of her research work is to develop and validate fMRI-based biomarkers that inform personalized diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the management of patients with neurological disorders.

+49 89 4400 76640

Clinical and Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. med. Gloria Biechele

Resident

Gloria received her awarded MD in the field of preclinical molecular brain imaging in mouse models of neurodegenerative disease. Building on this foundation, she is currently translating and expanding these methods to the clinical setting by implementing advanced quantitative MRI techniques on the individual patient level in Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on the interface of functional and quantitative neuroimaging. This approach aims to inform early diagnosis and support the stratification of personalized treatment strategies, particularly in light of emerging therapeutic options. In parallel, she maintains a strong clinical focus in fetal MRI, with postdoctoral research dedicated to the application and advancement of fetal cardiac MRI.

PD Dr. med. Sarah Schläger

Resident

Sarah is a resident and clinician scientist. Her research focuses on novel MRI techniques and integrating AI in the MRI workflow. Currently, she explores innovative MRI applications, such as quantitative imaging in neuromuscular diseases and advanced sequence techniques in fetal MRI.

Stefan Carl

Resident

Stefan is a radiology resident with a previous research focus and passion for neurofunctional imaging. As part of his doctoral thesis at the Klinikum rechts der Isar, he investigated the growth behavior of gliomas and the effects of radiotherapy on the functional status of patients in terms of motor or language deficits. Cortical functional imaging using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was combined with DTI via fiber tracking and correlated with radiotherapy.

Stephan Wunderlich

Dr. med. Stephan Wunderlich, M.Sc.

Postdoctoral researcher

With a multidisciplinary background in medicine and engineering from TUM, the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston, the Brain Science Center in Edinburgh, and the University of British Columbia, Stephan’s research passion lies at the intersection of technical methodologies and medicine. He specializes in health data analytics and functional neuroimaging using artificial intelligence methods.

Adyasha Tejaswi Khuntia

Dr. Adyasha Tejaswi Khuntia

Postdoctoral researcher

Adyasha’s work focuses on building a normative reference database of functional connectivity and on developing machine learning models that identify individual deviations from this healthy baseline. She completed her PhD at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, within the International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry. Her doctoral work investigated the biological signatures of somatic comorbidities in psychiatric disorders and developed tools for comorbidity-informed stratification of patients with mental illness.

Mahnaz Ashrafi Varnosfaderani

Dr. Mahnaz Ashrafi Varnosfaderani

Postdoctoral researcher

Mahnaz completed her academic degrees in Electrical Engineering and moved into the field of neuroimaging during her Ph.D., where she focused on computational modeling and functional connectivity analysis. She subsequently joined the Department of Neuroradiology at TUM as a postdoctoral researcher, where she worked with multimodal fMRI and PET data and developed a multilayer framework for constructing a metabolism-weighted brain connectome. She now continues to work with multimodal imaging data, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease.

PhD and MD students

Mariyana Cholakova

Mariyana Cholakova

Mariyana is a PhD student at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN) with a background in artificial intelligence and neuro-engineering. Her research focuses on applying machine learning and computational modeling to investigate large-scale brain dynamics using functional MRI, with a particular interest in how changes in brain dynamics relate to cognitive function and neurological disease.

Artur Toloknieiev

Artur Toloknieiev

A doctoral medical student and programmer autodidact, Artur brings to the table a profound understanding of the physiology behind the clinical pictures and a wealth of skill in software engineering with a focus on artificial intelligence. He works on machine learning and data operations, communicates with engineers on medical aspects of the technology and works on the optimization data acquisition, data enrichment and model training processes.

Junlin Jing

Junlin Jing

Junlin is a PhD student whose previous research focused on machine learning and the application of ICA-derived approaches to functional neuroimaging and structural connectivity. He is currently working on the use of machine learning to investigate abnormal functional connectomes of neurological and psychiatric disorders, particularly in personalized diagnosis.

Undergraduate students

Mohammad Saeed Motevali

A computer science student specializing in medical image processing and analysis. His research focuses on developing algorithms for processing and analyzing fMRI data, with a particular emphasis on machine learning applications in medical diagnostics. His work combines expertise in computational methods with practical applications in abnormality detection, aiming to improve diagnostic capabilities through automated analysis of neural imaging data. He is particularly interested in developing robust machine learning and deep learning frameworks for processing complex neurological data and identifying patterns that can aid in the early detection of neurological conditions through fMRI analysis.

Technicians

Boris Papazov

Boris received his Bachelor of Science in the field of Engineering Physics and his Master of Science in the field of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He currently organizes, optimizes, and performs clinical research MRI scans with a focus on fMRI and brain tumors.

Claudia Dietz

Claudia Dietz

Claudia is a radiology assistant with long-standing experience working with oncology patients in magnetic resonance imaging. Throughout her career, she has developed extensive expertise in MRI examinations and in supporting patients throughout their imaging journey.

Scientific Project Management

Ana Martins

Dr. Ana Martins

Ana has a background in molecular medicine and provides scientific and administrative support to the team. 

Alumni

Franziska Müller

Tobias Prester 

Hlib Kholodkov

Dmytro Voitsekhivskyi

Roman Lvovich