Research

Ichio Aoki initially studied NMR science with Dr. Kohji Fukuda (Physics/Physiology) in 1993-1994 and received an MSc for quantitative brain perfusion MRI with Dr. Chuzo Tanaka (Neurosurgery, 1996) at the Meiji University of Oriental Medicine in Kyoto, Japan. He also received a Ph.D. in research and development of manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) with Dr. Tanaka in 1999 (Kyoto, Japan).

A Visiting Fellow position (2000-2002) at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at NIH (Bethesda, USA) focused on brain function and contrast agent research using high-field MRI with Dr. Alan P. Koretsky. In the fall of 2006, Dr. Aoki moved to the Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS; Chiba, Japan) as Team Leader of the Imaging Physics Team (2007-2011) and the Multimodal Molecular Imaging Team (2011-2015) at NIRS. In 2016, NIRS was integrated into the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), Japan.

Dr. Aoki is a Senior Principal Investigator at the Institute for Quantum Medical Science (iQMS) and focuses on " Noninvasive in vivo science" using preclinical MRI and MR molecular imaging technologies. QST is one of the most active national institutes in Japan, especially in molecular imaging and radiotherapy. He has published more than 200 papers (maximum impact factor; 37.49). In addition, he has 21 patents, received 13 awards, and is one of the senior editors of Molecular Imaging and Biology (Springer Nature). His paper on low pH-responsive contrast agents (Nat Nanotechnol. 2016) was ranked as one of the "top 0.5% papers" in the Web of Science database. He was awarded two ISMRM travel grants (1998 and 1999), the NRS/QST President Award (2010, 2017, 2019, 2022), the 15th Mizushima Prize (2022), and ISMRM Senior Fellow (2023).