Dr. Piotr Kozlowski

Dr. Piotr Kozlowski received his PhD in Physics from the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Krakow, Poland. He completed his post-doctoral training at the NRC in Ottawa, where he subsequently worked as a Research Officer in the Institute for Biological Sciences in Ottawa and the Institute for Biodiagnostics in Winnipeg. Dr. Kozlowski joined the University of British Columbia in 2001, where he currently is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Urological Sciences and the Associate Director of the UBC MRI Research Centre. His main research interest is in the development and application of MRI techniques to study pre-clinical models of human diseases with specific focus on cancer and spinal cord injuries. He has also been involved in the development of the multi-parametric MRI techniques for prostate cancer diagnosis in the clinical setting.

Current Research Focus

Dr. Kozlowski’s main research interest is in the development and application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (MRI/MRS) technology to study pre-clinical models of human diseases, and the development of novel MRI-based diagnostic techniques for prostate cancer. The pre-clinical research is mostly related to spinal cord injury models and MRI techniques to characterize the biophysical basis of these models.

Example Project

 “Development of MRI Techniques to Study Rat Models of Spinal Cord Injury” His particular interest is in the development of a non-invasive MRI-based technique for monitoring changes in myelin in rat spinal cord following injury. This part of his research, conducted on a 7 T pre-clinical MRI scanner at the UBC MRI Research Centre’s 7 T facility, is funded by NSERC. This research involves close collaboration with researchers from ICORD.

“Development of a Novel MRI-Based Diagnostic Technique for Prostate Cancer” His group recently developed a novel technique called Luminal Water Imaging, which in a pilot study showed much improved performance in detecting and grading prostate cancer in patients. The technique is based on a multi-component quantitative T2 measurements, and showed higher accuracy of prostate cancer detection and grading than the current standard multi-parametric MRI protocol. The study, funded by the CIHR is conducted using a research 3T MRI human scanner at the UBC MRI Research Centre. This research involves collaboration with researchers from the Departments of Radiology, Urologic Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Anatomical Pathology at VGH, and Vancouver Prostate Centre.

Research Keywords

Multi-Parametric MRI, Luminal Water Imaging, Prostate Cancer, Brachytherapy, Cancer Imaging, Spinal Cord Injury, Myelin Imaging, MRI/MRS