Hui Mao, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Radiology

Dr. Hui Mao received BS and MS in chemistry from Nanjing University and PhD in biophysical chemistry from Georgia State University, followed by post-doctoral training at Vanderbilt University and Emory University.

The research in Dr. Mao's lab is centered around developing and utilizing imaging technologies, especially magnetic resonance methods, to address biological questions and solve medical problems with a strong emphasis on translational research and developing potential clinical applications. His lab is particularly focused on developing imaging and analytical methods that are capable of revealing physiological, biological or disease processes at the molecular and cellular level in the living systems. By linking the molecular, cell biology and biomarker discovery to non-invasive imaging of biological and disease events and activities in vivo, and eventually in humans, they want to use such molecular and cellular imaging approaches to the clinical management of three major diseases: cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. With magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS or NMR) methods and technologies as the fabrics, their research projects are focused on the following areas: 1) Developing novel target specific contrast agents for MRI based molecular and cellular imaging; 2) Developing NMR and MRS based metabolomics approach to profile cell or tissue metabolites in vivo and ex vivo; 3) Developing clinical applications of functional and physiological MRI methods, such as fMRI for brain mapping and perfusion MRI for tumor imaging. Their research are supported by grants from federal agencies, such as NCI (P50: Emory Molecular and Translational Imaging Center and U54: Emory-GT CCNE), NIMH and NIDDS, as well as organizations, including: American Cancer Society, GE and EmTech Bio, Inc. Within the CCNE, Dr. Mao's group is collaborating with Drs. Shuming Nie and Lily Yang in the Project 1 to develop a novel class of biomarker targeted magnetic iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles as MRI contrast agents for imaging of tumor as well as for tumor specific drug delivery.

Dr. Mao holds joint appointments in the Emory Center for System Imaging and Yerkes National Primate Research Center. He is also a member of brain tumor and prostate cancer research programs at Winship Cancer Institute. As a clinical scientist at Department of Radiology of Emory Hospital and Clinic, he participates in the clinical management of cancer patients, especially providing advance neuroimaging methods, such as functional MRI and MR Spectroscopy, in the clinical care of brain tumor patients.

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