Tianyi Zeng, PhD
Associate Research ScientistAbout
Titles
Associate Research Scientist
Biography
Tianyi Zeng is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and a member of the Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute at Yale School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021 and subsequently joined the Yale PET Center as a postdoctoral researcher.
With over a decade of experience in molecular imaging, Dr. Zeng specializes in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. His research focuses on developing advanced motion correction, image reconstruction, and quantitative imaging methods for the NeuroEXPLORER, an ultra-high-performance brain PET scanner. His current work also explores direct reconstruction for parametric imaging, kinetic modeling, and quantitative methods for improving the accuracy and efficiency of PET analysis. His broader research interests include PET reconstruction and correction algorithms, quantitative image analysis, and the integration of deep learning methods for motion estimation, image reconstruction, and image quality enhancement.
Last Updated on September 22, 2026.
Appointments
Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
Associate Research ScientistPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
Education & Training
- Postdoc Associate
- Yale University (2024)
- PhD
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (2021)
- BE
- Xi'an Jiaotong University, School of life sciences and technology (2016)
Research
Publications
2026
Characterization and Initial Optimization of Reconstruction Performance for Detector Crosstalk of Ultra-high Performance Brain PET Imager
Zhang J, Fontaine K, Li T, Toyonaga T, Hu Y, Gallezot J, Zeng T, Volpi T, Lu Y, Marin T, Qi J, Carson R. Characterization and Initial Optimization of Reconstruction Performance for Detector Crosstalk of Ultra-high Performance Brain PET Imager. IEEE Transactions On Radiation And Plasma Medical Sciences 2026, PP: 1-1. DOI: 10.1109/trpms.2026.3698769.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchOptimization of brain PET markerless head motion correction in a large human cohort
Zeng T, Zhang J, Gallezot J, Fontaine K, Jiang W, Mulnix T, Naganawa M, Yang Z, Zhang X, Wang S, Sun X, Hu L, Carson R. Optimization of brain PET markerless head motion correction in a large human cohort. EJNMMI Physics 2026, 13: 76. PMID: 42213388, PMCID: PMC13433684, DOI: 10.1186/s40658-026-00885-1.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchIterative Reconstruction Performance on the NeuroEXPLORER: Evaluation with Static and Dynamic Human Imaging
Hu Y, Zhang J, Gallezot J, Volpi T, Zeng T, Toyonaga T, Carson R. Iterative Reconstruction Performance on the NeuroEXPLORER: Evaluation with Static and Dynamic Human Imaging. IEEE Transactions On Radiation And Plasma Medical Sciences 2026, PP: 1-1. DOI: 10.1109/trpms.2026.3693626.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2025
Cranberry: Combined Rigid and Nonrigid Event-by-Event Motion Correction at Yale
Zhang J, Fontaine K, Volpi T, Zeng T, Du Y, Sun C, Lu Y, Toyonaga T, Onofrey J, Carson R. Cranberry: Combined Rigid and Nonrigid Event-by-Event Motion Correction at Yale. 2025 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium (NSS), Medical Imaging Conference (MIC) And Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector Conference (RTSD) 2025, 1-1. DOI: 10.1109/nss/mic/rtsd57106.2025.11286359.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchImpact of Depth-of-Interaction and Spatially-Variant Point-Spread-Function Model on the Performance of Ultra-High Resolution Brain PET
Zeng T, Najmaoui Y, Zhang J, Fontaine K, Hu Y, Chemli Y, Gallezot J, Sun C, Lu Y, Fakhri G, Carson R, Marin T. Impact of Depth-of-Interaction and Spatially-Variant Point-Spread-Function Model on the Performance of Ultra-High Resolution Brain PET. 2025 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium (NSS), Medical Imaging Conference (MIC) And Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector Conference (RTSD) 2025, 1-2. DOI: 10.1109/nss/mic/rtsd57106.2025.11287015.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchYRT-PET-NX: Development of a Plugin for an Open-Source PET Reconstruction Platform to Support the NeuroEXPLORER
Najmaoui Y, Fontaine K, Fontaine D, Zhang J, Zeng T, Volpi T, Chemli Y, Gallezot J, Tétrault M, Carson R, Fakhri G, Marin T. YRT-PET-NX: Development of a Plugin for an Open-Source PET Reconstruction Platform to Support the NeuroEXPLORER. 2025, 00: 1-2. DOI: 10.1109/nss/mic/rtsd57106.2025.11287275.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchExceptional brain PET images from the NeuroEXPLORER: scans with targeted radiopharmaceuticals and comparison to HRRT
Volpi T, Toyonaga T, Khattar N, Gallezot J, Naganawa M, Vanderlinden G, Honhar P, Zeng T, Fontaine K, Mulnix T, Hu L, Sun X, Henry S, Matuskey D, Radhakrishnan R, Guo L, Hu Y, Zhang J, Zheng X, Nabulsi N, Huang Y, Badawi R, Cherry S, Hillmer A, Jones T, Liu C, Morris E, Qi J, Li H, Carson R. Exceptional brain PET images from the NeuroEXPLORER: scans with targeted radiopharmaceuticals and comparison to HRRT. European Journal Of Nuclear Medicine And Molecular Imaging 2025, 53: 2110-2121. PMID: 41177836, PMCID: PMC12860869, DOI: 10.1007/s00259-025-07605-4.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchPET Head Motion Estimation Using Supervised Deep Learning With Attention
Cai Z, Zeng T, Zhang J, Lieffrig E, Fontaine K, You C, Revilla E, Duncan J, Xin J, Lu Y, Onofrey J. PET Head Motion Estimation Using Supervised Deep Learning With Attention. IEEE Transactions On Medical Imaging 2025, 45: 1265-1278. PMID: 41082441, PMCID: PMC13097669, DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2025.3620714.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2024
Data-driven non-rigid motion detection and correction for NeuroEXPLORER
Zhang J, Sun C, Volpi T, Zeng T, Fontaine K, Du Y, Toyonaga T, Onofrey J, Lu Y, Carson R. Data-driven non-rigid motion detection and correction for NeuroEXPLORER. 2024, 00: 1-2. DOI: 10.1109/nss/mic/rtsd57108.2024.10658289.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMOLAR-NX: building a PET reconstruction framework for exploring the novel features provided by the NeuroEXPLORER
Fontaine K, Gallezot J, Zhang J, He L, Zeng T, Li T, Li Y, Leung E, Sun X, Guo L, Mulnix T, Toyonaga T, Lu Y, Li H, Badawi R, Qi J, Carson R. MOLAR-NX: building a PET reconstruction framework for exploring the novel features provided by the NeuroEXPLORER. 2024, 00: 1-2. DOI: 10.1109/nss/mic/rtsd57108.2024.10655187.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
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