Erin MacMillan

My personal research goals are to advance magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques to improve detection of metabolites in the central nervous system (CNS), as well as to demonstrate the clinical utility of this unique non-invasive metabolic measurement technique in a variety of neurologic and psychiatric diseases/conditions. MRS is a unique non-invasive method available on MRI scanners to sample the chemistry of the CNS in people actually living with a certain disease or condition. Using state of the art MRS methodology we can detect 16 to 20 different metabolites (depending on region of interest) that can serve as biomarkers of neuron-myelin coupling, mitochondrial function, neurotransmission, and inflammation.

I have previously applied MRS to demonstrate changes in neurotransmission in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as improvements in inflammatory markers in MS patients enrolled in a clinical trial of a novel treatment. I have also used MRS to investigate changes in the brain with age, in bipolar disorder, and in cases of progressive solitary sclerosis. My current research projects include tracking changes in more MRS metabolites over time in a cohort of MS patients receiving a new treatment, measuring neurotransmitter levels during treatment in the MRI bore with transcranial magnetic stimulation, and measuring neurotransmitter levels during functional activation in healthy controls.