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Principal Investigator: Erin Beck, MD, PhD 

The Beck lab studies how brain and spinal cord lesions form, grow, and repair in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune disorders that affect the central nervous system, and how those processes impact the course of disease.

MRI has been a key tool for diagnosis, prognostication, and monitoring disease activity and response to treatment in MS. However, standard clinical MRI measures still incompletely predict disability and are particularly ineffective at predicting who will transition from relapsing to progressive disease. Advanced MRI techniques and ultra-high field (7 tesla) MRI offer the opportunity to observe MS lesions in much greater detail and have led to important insights into lesion growth, repair, and chronic inflammation. Ultra-high field MRI has also allowed us to observe lesions in areas of the brain such as the cerebral cortex, which had been previously inaccessible.

We use advanced MRI techniques and ultra-high field MRI in combination with analysis of CSF and tissue specimens to understand how lesions form and repair, with the ultimate goal of developing new treatments for people with MS.