Dr. A. Aria Tzika

The Washington Post article Robotic Device Could Help Stroke Patients said

U.S. researchers say they’ve developed a hand-exercising robotic device that appears to help stroke victims recover motor skills, even more than six months after a stroke.
 
Brain scans suggested that the device, which patients squeeze with their stroke-afflicted hands, boosted activity in the part of the brain that handles use of the hands.
 
“There’s still hope in these patients with chronic stroke who have had a stroke a long time ago. If they do the right type of exercises, they can get better,” said A. Aria Tzika, director of the NMR Surgical Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of a study released Wednesday at the Radiological Society of North America annual meeting, in Chicago.

A. Aria Tzika, Ph.D. is Director of the NMR Surgical Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard Medical School.
 
Aria’s research focuses on the use of advanced imaging methodology, including multi-parametric, functional, and physiological and molecular MR imaging and MR spectroscopy, to assess different states of tissue pathology. The aims of this research are to elucidate mechanisms underlying neoplasia, injury, and inflammation. Biologically important biomarkers are currently being identified and characterized in experimental tissue and animal models. The goals of this research are to move from in vitro and ex vivo biology to in vivo physiology and integrative biology; to integrate research in experimental animal models with clinical research and medicine; and to develop therapies for neoplasia, injury, and inflammation.
 
She coauthored Quantification of microheterogeneity in glioblastoma multiforme with ex vivo high-resolution magic-angle spinning (HRMAS) proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Biochemical characterization of pediatric brain tumors by using in vivo and ex vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Neuroimaging in Pediatric Brain Tumors: Gd-DTPA—enhanced, Hemodynamic, and Diffusion MR Imaging Compared with MR Spectroscopic Imaging, Prediction of Adverse Outcome with Cerebral Lactate Level and Apparent Diffusion Coefficient in Infants with Perinatal Asphyxia, and Noninvasive Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging Biomarkers to Predict the Clinical Grade of Pediatric Brain Tumors.
 
Aria earned her the B.Sc. degree (with highest honors) in biology from the University of Patras, Patras, Greece in 1981 and her Ph.D. in Physiology-Anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986.
 
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