Bruce A. Wasserman, MD

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, BS, Biomedical Engineering
• University of Rochester School of Medicine, Internship, Internal Medicine
• Mount Auburn Hospital in Harvard Medical School, Residency
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Fellowship, Neuroradiology
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD, Neuroradiology

Dr. Wasserman’s expertise in imaging techniques for evaluating neurovascular diseases dates back to his postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University and subsequent work in the Imaging Sciences Training Program at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH. At Johns Hopkins School of Medicine he served as Director of the Diagnostic Neurovascular Imaging Center for 16 years, where he oversaw the design, implementation and interpretation of new imaging techniques to diagnose complex cervical and intracranial vasculopathies and characterize atherosclerosis for risk management. He also served as Director of Translational Neuroradiology for which he oversaw the development and application of new imaging techniques and research protocols in all areas of neuroimaging.

Dr. Wasserman has been continuously funded by the NIH as a PI or co-PI since 2002. He has led several multi-institutional, population-based NIH-funded studies that have used new vascular MRI techniques, some of which were developed in his lab, to investigate risk factors for the development of carotid and intracranial plaque, the consequences of plaque features, and the hemodynamic patterns that influence plaque development.  This includes his work as PI of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) carotid MRI study, PI of the MRI Reading Center for the Carotid MRI Study of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and Chair of the ARIC MRI Committee, Co-PI of the Vascular Aging: The Link that Bridges Age to Atherosclerosis (VALIDATE) study, an extension of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, PI of the Intracranial Atherosclerotic Disease and Cognitive Impairment Study in ARIC, and PI of the Intracranial Atherosclerosis in the Development of Alzheimer’s Disease Study in ARIC. These cohorts have included thousands of participants he has followed for years to study imaging biomarkers of cardiovascular events.  His lab is also actively engaged in studies of cerebral microcirculatory physiology using new techniques that challenge microvascular function.  Dr. Wasserman has chaired the American Society of Neuroradiology Cervical and Intracranial Vessel Wall Imaging Study Group since it was established, and in this capacity he has led educational webinars that present case discussions of complex neurovascular studies and has facilitated collaborations among members worldwide. 

mri, carotid artery, atherosclerotic disease