Dr. Balchandani’s primary research goal is to develop anatomic, spectroscopic and functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging tools to elucidate changes in brain structure, metabolism and function in the presence of disease. Her work is focused on the application of signal processing principles to the development of novel radio frequency (RF) pulses and pulse sequences that maximize the information imparted by MR images. She has developed several techniques to harness the power of high-field MR magnets by overcoming physical and hardware limitations in order to visualize the human brain in unprecedented structural and metabolic detail. In addition, she is interested in obtaining a direct window into neuronal activation and function by improving current functional imaging techniques and exploiting the MR signal of nuclei other than hydrogen. Together, these techniques are applied to improve diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of neurological diseases and disorders as well as advance our understanding of the brain in the normal state.