Chi Liu, PhD
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical ImagingCards
Appointments
Additional Titles
Associate Director of Biomedical Imaging Technology, Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute
Director for Research Faculty Affairs, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
Contact Info
Appointments
Additional Titles
Associate Director of Biomedical Imaging Technology, Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute
Director for Research Faculty Affairs, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
Contact Info
Appointments
Additional Titles
Associate Director of Biomedical Imaging Technology, Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute
Director for Research Faculty Affairs, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
Contact Info
About
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Titles
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging
Associate Director of Biomedical Imaging Technology, Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute; Director for Research Faculty Affairs, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
Biography
Chi Liu received his Ph.D. in 2008 from Johns Hopkins University with emphasis on quantitative SPECT/CT imaging. Following his graduate work, he was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Washington, specializing in oncological PET/CT studies with emphasis on compensation algorithms for respiratory motion. In 2010, he joined Yale University as a faculty member. He is board certified in Nuclear Medicine physics and instrumentation by the American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine. His current research focuses on quantitative cardiac and oncological PET/CT and SPECT/CT imaging, including deep learning algorithms, reconstruction algorithms, data correction, dynamic imaging, and translational imaging. The translational and clinical applications of these projects include early detection of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity, multimodality imaging of heart failure, and eliminating respiratory motion variability for assessing response to therapy. Many of the imaging technologies developed in his lab has been or is being implemented in clinical PET and SPECT scanners. In 2012, he was awarded with the Bruce Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award from the IEEE Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Council for “contributions to the imaging physics of SPECT/CT and PET/CT, with emphasis in quantitative imaging and motion correction”. He was the President of Physics, Instrumentation, and Data Sciences Council (PIDSC) of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) between 2022-2023.
Appointments
Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
ProfessorPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
Education & Training
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- University of Washington (2010)
- PhD
- Johns Hopkins University (2008)
- Board Certification
- Nuclear Medicine Physics and Instrumentation, American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine
Research
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Overview
Machine learning and deep learning in imaging applications
Radiation dose reduction methods in PET/SPECT/CT
Motion correction methods for PET/CT and SPECT/CT
ORCID
0000-0002-7007-1037
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Publications Timeline
Albert Sinusas, MD
Jean-Dominique Gallezot, PhD
Edward J Miller, MD, PhD
Stephanie Thorn, MSc, PhD
Yi-Hwa Liu, PhD
James Duncan, PhD
Publications
2025
Corrigendum to “Applying dual energy computed tomography to postmortem coronary computed tomographic angiography” [J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr (in press)]
Solomon N, Hoerner M, Vermillion B, Jang S, Sanchez H, Gosangi B, Staib L, Thorn S, Liu C, Sinusas A. Corrigendum to “Applying dual energy computed tomography to postmortem coronary computed tomographic angiography” [J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr (in press)]. Journal Of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography 2025 PMID: 41309332, DOI: 10.1016/j.jcct.2025.11.003.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchExperimental Evaluation of DE-SPECT: A Hyperspectral SPECT System for Region-Selective 3-D Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy
Jin Y, Zannoni E, Sankar P, Zhang F, Streicher M, Yang H, He Z, Metzler S, Liu C, Sinusas A, Meng L. Experimental Evaluation of DE-SPECT: A Hyperspectral SPECT System for Region-Selective 3-D Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy. IEEE Transactions On Radiation And Plasma Medical Sciences 2025, PP: 1-1. DOI: 10.1109/trpms.2025.3630554.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsDepth of interactionGamma-ray spectroscopyDepth-of-interaction resolutionPeak-to-valley ratioMulti-tracer imagingSpatial resolutionCZT detectorsPeak-to-valleyResolution phantomSPECT systemWide-FOVImaging SpectrometerImaging capabilitiesPhantomScout imagesAperture systemSystem sensitivityPeripheral vascular diseaseHigh-resolutionCollimatorResolutionDual-field-of-viewCZTDetectorSpectroscopyOn Hallucinations in Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content for Nuclear Medicine Imaging (the DREAM Report).
Xia M, Bayerlein R, Chemli Y, Liu X, Ouyang J, Lin M, El Fakhri G, Badawi R, Li Q, Liu C. On Hallucinations in Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content for Nuclear Medicine Imaging (the DREAM Report). Journal Of Nuclear Medicine 2025, jnumed.125.270653. PMID: 41198241, DOI: 10.2967/jnumed.125.270653.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricApplying dual energy computed tomography to postmortem coronary computed tomographic angiography
Solomon N, Hoerner M, Vermillion B, Jang S, Sanchez H, Gosangi B, Staib L, Thorn S, Liu C, Sinusas A. Applying dual energy computed tomography to postmortem coronary computed tomographic angiography. Journal Of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography 2025 PMID: 41176442, PMCID: PMC12712555, DOI: 10.1016/j.jcct.2025.10.016.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsDual-energy CTCoronary computed tomographic angiographyTomographic angiographyDual-energy computed tomographySimultaneous characterizationCoronary artery patencyContrast agentsIodinated contrastGadolinium contrastArtery patencyComputed tomographyMyocardial perfusionEpicardial vesselsPostmortem computed tomographyTissue perfusionGadolinium agentsVascular patencyVessel obstructionMyocardial tissuePostmortem settingAngiographyAnatomically and metabolically informed diffusion for unified denoising and segmentation in low-count PET imaging
Xia M, Ko K, Wang D, Chen M, Liu Q, Xie H, Guo L, Ji W, Ouyang J, Bayerlein R, Spencer B, Li Q, Badawi R, El Fakhri G, Liu C. Anatomically and metabolically informed diffusion for unified denoising and segmentation in low-count PET imaging. Medical Image Analysis 2025, 107: 103831. PMID: 41076965, PMCID: PMC12551811, DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2025.103831.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsPET denoisingDenoising diffusion modelsSuperior performanceImage denoisingDenoised outputMulti-vendorDenoisingInformation diffusionImage informationSegmentation modelAblated versionsDiffusion strategySegmentation methodDice coefficientOrgan segmentationTest casesMulti-task functionRevision moduleTaskImagesAnalysis pipelineSegmentsClinical count levelsTotal lesion glycolysisDatasetLeqMod: Adaptable Lesion-Quantification-Consistent Modulation for Deep Learning Low-Count PET Image Denoising
Xia M, Xie H, Liu Q, Zhou B, Wang H, Li B, Rominger A, Li Q, Badawi R, Shi K, Fakhri G, Liu C. LeqMod: Adaptable Lesion-Quantification-Consistent Modulation for Deep Learning Low-Count PET Image Denoising. IEEE Transactions On Medical Imaging 2025, PP: 1-1. PMID: 41052161, DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2025.3618247.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsConceptsPeak signal-to-noise ratioImage denoisingPET image denoisingLow-count imagesDenoising frameworkDenoised imageInference phaseSignal-to-noise ratioSegmentation networkModel architectureModel trainingDenoisingPositron emission tomography datasetsComputational burdenOptimization procedureNoise levelImagesAuxiliary toolFrameworkModulationDeepQumodesDatasetArchitectureVendorsMotion Management in Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography and Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance
Guo L, Liu C, Soultanidis G. Motion Management in Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography and Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance. PET Clinics 2025, 20: 423-437. PMID: 40858422, DOI: 10.1016/j.cpet.2025.07.004.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsAxial field-of-viewLong axial field-of-viewTotal-body PET systemsMotion managementPET systemClinical positron emission tomographyMotion correctionField of viewPositron emission tomography/magnetic resonancePositron emission tomographyImage registrationData-driven motionPositron Emission Tomography/Computed TomographyEmission Tomography/Computed TomographyImage qualityPositronCorrectionTomography/Computed TomographyMotionAccuracy of motion estimationDeep learning-based methodsCorrection strategyEmission tomographyResonancePET studiesComparative Study of Bone-Avid SPECT Tracers: In Search of a Diagnostic Target of Cardiac Amyloidosis
Zohora F, Lin A, Jang S, Vermillion B, Burns R, Callegari S, DePino A, Liu C, Miller E, Thorn S, Sinusas A. Comparative Study of Bone-Avid SPECT Tracers: In Search of a Diagnostic Target of Cardiac Amyloidosis. Journal Of Nuclear Cardiology 2025, 50: 102377. DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclcard.2025.102377.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchA generalizable diffusion framework for 3D low-dose and few-view cardiac SPECT imaging
Xie H, Gan W, Ji W, Chen X, Alashi A, Thorn S, Zhou B, Liu Q, Xia M, Guo X, Liu Y, An H, Kamilov U, Wang G, Sinusas A, Liu C. A generalizable diffusion framework for 3D low-dose and few-view cardiac SPECT imaging. Medical Image Analysis 2025, 106: 103729. PMID: 40752375, PMCID: PMC12360895, DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2025.103729.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsImage qualityNetwork re-trainingDeep learning methodsCardiac SPECT imagingLow-doseSPECT imagesContextual informationDiffusion frameworkLearning methodsConsistency strategyRe-trainingAcquisition settingsLow count levelsFine-tuningSpatial informationVariation constraintCardiac catheterization resultsImage dataMyocardial perfusion imagingCoronary artery diseaseProjection dataCatheterization resultsImage volumesScanner geometryProjective measurements2.5D Multi-View Averaging Diffusion Model for 3D Medical Image Translation: Application to Low-Count PET Reconstruction With CT-Less Attenuation Correction
Chen T, Hou J, Zhou Y, Xie H, Chen X, Liu Q, Guo X, Xia M, Duncan J, Liu C, Zhou B. 2.5D Multi-View Averaging Diffusion Model for 3D Medical Image Translation: Application to Low-Count PET Reconstruction With CT-Less Attenuation Correction. IEEE Transactions On Medical Imaging 2025, 44: 4239-4250. PMID: 40372846, PMCID: PMC12632186, DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2025.3570342.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricConceptsAttenuation correctionLow-dose PETImage-to-image translationStandard-dose PETPositron emission tomographyPET reconstructionOverall radiation doseCT acquisitionState-of-the-art deep learning methodsCNN-based methodsState-of-the-artMedical image translationRadiation doseDeep learning methodsPatient studiesDiffusion modelHigh computation costHuman patient studiesClinical imaging toolBaseline methodsImage translationMulti-viewCNN-basedMultiple viewsGeneration quality
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
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Honors
honor Bruce Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award
10/31/2012International AwardIEEE Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences CouncilDetailsUnited States
News
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News
- June 16, 2025
Yale Announces New Biomedical Imaging Institute
- June 13, 2025
NeuroEXPLORER Paper wins Journal of Nuclear Medicine's Editors' Choice Award as the best clinical article
- October 15, 2024
CMITT presentations at upcoming IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD conference
- April 01, 2024
Yale Faculty Present Groundbreaking Clinical Research at the 2024 American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions
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