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Natasha Lepore, PhD

Associate Professor of Research Radiology

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Phone +1 310 909 3296
Email nlepore@chla.usc.edu
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Overview

My current work involves the development of numerical tools for the analysis of brain structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data. In particular, these include improvements to tensor-based morphometry, surface and volume registration, segmentation and statistics for group comparisons. I also work on applying these methods to different types of brain imaging data including prematurity, healthy brain development, healthy twins, blindness, deafness, HIV/AIDS, autism and Alzheimer’s disease. I am currently an assistant professor in Radiology at the University of Southern California and at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. I graduated with a Bsc in physics and mathematics from the University of Montreal and then obtained a masters in applied mathematics from Cambridge University, in general relativity. My PhD is in theoretical physics (Harvard University), and deals with quantum chaos in quantum billiards living on the plane and the pseudosphere. Afterward, I switched to neuroimaging and became a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, working with Dr Paul Thompson.

Publications

  • Your note, your way: how to write an inpatient progress note accurately and efficiently as an intern Postgrad Med J. 2023 Jun 08; 99(1171):492-497. . View in PubMed
  • Improved Prediction of Amyloid-ß and Tau Burden Using Hippocampal Surface Multivariate Morphometry Statistics and Sparse Coding J Alzheimers Dis. 2023; 91(2):637-651. . View in PubMed
  • Effect of a NICU to Home Physical Therapy Intervention on White Matter Trajectories, Motor Skills, and Problem-Solving Skills of Infants Born Very Preterm: A Case Series J Pers Med. 2022 Dec 07; 12(12). . View in PubMed
  • Self-Supervised Equivariant Regularization Reconciles Multiple Instance Learning: Joint Referable Diabetic Retinopathy Classification and Lesion Segmentation Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2022 Nov; 12567. . View in PubMed
  • Data-driven Normative Reference of Pediatric Cranial Bone Development Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2022 Aug; 10(8):e4457. . View in PubMed
  • White matter tract changes in pediatric posterior fossa brain tumor survivors after surgery and chemotherapy Front Neuroimaging. 2022; 1:845609. . View in PubMed
  • Predicting Tau Accumulation in Cerebral Cortex with Multivariate MRI Morphometry Measurements, Sparse Coding, and Correntropy Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2021 Nov; 12088. . View in PubMed
  • Developmental changes of the central sulcus morphology in young children Brain Struct Funct. 2021 Jul; 226(6):1841-1853. . View in PubMed
  • Tract-specific analysis and neurocognitive functioning in sickle cell patients without history of overt stroke Brain Behav. 2021 03; 11(3):e01978. . View in PubMed
  • Brain biomarkers and neuropsychological outcomes of pediatric posterior fossa brain tumor survivors treated with surgical resection with or without adjuvant chemotherapy Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2021 02; 68(2):e28817. . View in PubMed
  • Fetal neurodevelopmental recovery in donors after laser surgery for twin-twin transfusion syndrome Prenat Diagn. 2021 01; 41(2):190-199. . View in PubMed
  • Federated Morphometry Feature Selection for Hippocampal Morphometry Associated Beta-Amyloid and Tau Pathology Front Neurosci. 2021; 15:762458. . View in PubMed
  • Comparison of Regularly Scheduled Ibuprofen Versus “Pro Re Nata” for Ankle Sprains in Children Treated in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pediatr Emerg Care. 2020 Dec; 36(12):559-563. . View in PubMed
  • Patch-Based Surface Morphometry Feature Selection with Federated Group Lasso Regression Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2020 Oct; 11583. . View in PubMed
  • Down syndrome with co-occurring Marfan syndrome BMJ Case Rep. 2020 Sep 23; 13(9). . View in PubMed
  • Transient Hypoxia Model Revealed Cerebrovascular Impairment in Anemia Using BOLD MRI and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy J Magn Reson Imaging. 2020 11; 52(5):1400-1412. . View in PubMed
  • MRI restoration using edge-guided adversarial learning IEEE Access. 2020; 8:83858-83870. . View in PubMed
  • A UNIVARIATE PERSISTENT BRAIN NETWORK FEATURE BASED ON THE AGGREGATED COST OF CYCLES FROM THE NESTED FILTRATION NETWORKS Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2020; 2020. . View in PubMed
  • Structural neuroimaging Handb Clin Neurol. 2020; 174:251-264. . View in PubMed
  • Neurocranium thickness mapping in early childhood Sci Rep. 2020 10 06; 10(1):16651. . View in PubMed
  • Quantitative evaluation of local head malformations from three-dimensional photography: application to craniosynostosis Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2019 Feb; 10950. . View in PubMed
  • White matter has impaired resting oxygen delivery in sickle cell patients Am J Hematol. 2019 04; 94(4):467-474. . View in PubMed
  • A Tetrahedron-based Heat Flux Signature for Cortical Thickness Morphometry Analysis Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2018 Sep; 11072:420-428. . View in PubMed
  • ORCHESTRAL FULLY CONVOLUTIONAL NETWORKS FOR SMALL LESION SEGMENTATION IN BRAIN MRI Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2018 Apr; 2018:889-892. . View in PubMed
  • CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW AND PREDICTORS OF WHITE MATTER LESIONS IN ADULTS WITH TETRALOGY OF FALLOT Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2018 Apr; 2018:1309-1312. . View in PubMed
  • Radiation-free quantification of head malformations in craniosynostosis patients from 3D photography Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2018 Feb; 10575. . View in PubMed
  • Discriminating lung adenocarcinoma from lung squamous cell carcinoma using respiration-induced tumor shape changes Phys Med Biol. 2018 11 07; 63(21):215027. . View in PubMed
  • Oral morphine versus ibuprofen administered at home for postoperative orthopedic pain in children: a randomized controlled trial CMAJ. 2017 Oct 10; 189(40):E1252-E1258. . View in PubMed
  • Bayesian automated cortical segmentation for neonatal MRI Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2017 Oct; 10572. . View in PubMed
  • Cranial thickness changes in early childhood Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2017 Oct; 10572. . View in PubMed
  • Central sulcus development in early childhood Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2017 Jul; 2017:161-164. . View in PubMed
  • Central sulcus depth and sulcal profile differences between congenitally blind and sighted individuals Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2017 Jul; 2017:3008-3011. . View in PubMed
  • Contribution to speech development of the right anterior putamen revealed with multivariate tensor-based morphometry Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2017 Jul; 2017:3085-3087. . View in PubMed
  • Atypical monoarthritis presentation in children with oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a case series Pediatr Rheumatol Online J. 2017 Jan 13; 15(1):2. . View in PubMed
  • Graph Lasso-Based Test for Evaluating Functional Brain Connectivity in Sickle Cell Disease Brain Connect. 2017 09; 7(7):443-453. . View in PubMed
  • Ventricular shape and relative position abnormalities in preterm neonates Neuroimage Clin. 2017; 15:483-493. . View in PubMed
  • Tractography in the clinics: Implementing a pipeline to characterize early brain development Neuroimage Clin. 2017; 14:629-640. . View in PubMed
  • Contrasting resting-state fMRI abnormalities from sickle and non-sickle anemia PLoS One. 2017; 12(10):e0184860. . View in PubMed
  • Multivariate surface-based analysis of corpus callosum in patients with sickle cell disease Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2016 Dec; 10160. . View in PubMed
  • Extending PACS Functionality: Towards Facilitating the Conversion of Clinical Necessities into Research-Derived Applications Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2016 Dec; 10160. . View in PubMed
  • Putamen Development in Children 12 to 21 Months Old Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2016 Dec; 10160. . View in PubMed
  • FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY ANALYSIS FOR THALASSEMIA DISEASE BASED ON A GRAPHICAL LASSO MODEL Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2016 Apr; 2016:1295-1298. . View in PubMed
  • The 3D EdgeRunner Pipeline: A Novel Shape-Based Analysis for Neoplasms Characterization Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2016 Feb-Mar; 9788. . View in PubMed
  • BOLD delay times using group delay in sickle cell disease Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2016 Feb-Mar; 9784. . View in PubMed
  • A study of brain white matter plasticity in early blinds using tract-based spatial statistics and tract statistical analysis Neuroreport. 2015 Dec 16; 26(18):1151-4. . View in PubMed
  • Low-frequency fluctuation amplitude analysis of resting-state fMRI in sickle cell disease Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2015 Nov; 9681. . View in PubMed
  • Multidimensional Interactive Radiology Report and Analysis: Standardization of workflow and reporting for renal mass tracking and quantification Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2015 Nov; 9681. . View in PubMed
  • Tract specific analysis in patients with sickle cell disease Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2015 Nov; 9681. . View in PubMed
  • Intraurethral Lidocaine for Urethral Catheterization in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pediatrics. 2015 Oct; 136(4):e879-86. . View in PubMed
  • Characterization of the central sulcus in the brain in early childhood Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015; 2015:149-52. . View in PubMed
  • Mapping of ApoE4 Related White Matter Damage using Diffusion MRI Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2014 Apr 09; 9039:90390H. . View in PubMed
  • The Power of Hybrid/Fusion Imaging Metrics in Future PACS Systems: A Case Study into the White Matter Hyperintensity Prenumbra using FLAIR and Diffusion MR Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2014 Apr 09; 9039:90390I. . View in PubMed
  • Evaluating the Predictive Power of Multivariate Tensor-based Morphometry in Alzheimers Disease Progression via Convex Fused Sparse Group Lasso Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 2014 Mar 21; 9034:90342L. . View in PubMed
  • Magnetic resonance image enhancement by reducing receptors’ effective size and enabling multiple channel acquisition Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014; 2014:2420-3. . View in PubMed
  • Neuroimaging changes in the brain in contact versus noncontact sport athletes using diffusion tensor imaging World Neurosurg. 2013 Dec; 80(6):824-8. . View in PubMed
  • Neuroimaging biomarkers of preterm brain injury: toward developing the preterm connectome Pediatr Radiol. 2012 Jan; 42 Suppl 1:S33-61. . View in PubMed
  • Acute and chronic changes in diffusivity measures after sports concussion J Neurotrauma. 2011 Oct; 28(10):2049-59. . View in PubMed
  • A nonconservative Lagrangian framework for statistical fluid registration-SAFIRA IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2011 Feb; 30(2):184-202. . View in PubMed
  • STATISTICALLY ASSISTED FLUID IMAGE REGISTRATION ALGORITHM – SAFIRA Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2010 Apr; 2010:364-367. . View in PubMed
  • A LAGRANGIAN FORMULATION FOR STATISTICAL FLUID REGISTRATION Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2009 Jun-Jul; 2009:975-978. . View in PubMed
  • REDUCING STRUCTURAL VARIATION TO DETERMINE THE GENETICS OF WHITE MATTER INTEGRITY ACROSS HEMISPHERES – A DTI STUDY OF 100 TWINS Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2009 Jun-Jul; 2009:819-822. . View in PubMed
  • The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter Neuroimage. 2009 Apr 15; 45(3):672-8. . View in PubMed
  • 3D characterization of brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment using tensor-based morphometry Neuroimage. 2008 May 15; 41(1):19-34. . View in PubMed
  • Generalized tensor-based morphometry of HIV/AIDS using multivariate statistics on deformation tensors IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2008 Jan; 27(1):129-41. . View in PubMed
  • Brain Differences Visualized in the Blind using Tensor Manifold Statistics and Diffusion Tensor Imaging Proc Front Converg Biosci Inf Technol (2007). 2007 Oct; 2007:470-476. . View in PubMed
  • Multivariate statistics of the Jacobian matrices in tensor based morphometry and their application to HIV/AIDS Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2006; 9(Pt 1):191-8. . View in PubMed

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