UBC PET/MR Imaging Program

Vesna Sossi, PhD

Professor, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, UBC
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
IEEE Fellow
Director, PET/MR Imaging

Email: vesna.sossi@ubc.ca 

Phone: 604-822-7710

Vesna Sossi is a Professor in UBC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, adjunct Professor in the faculty of medicine and researcher at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. She directs PET/MRI imaging in the Charles E. Fipke Integrated Neuroimaging Suite, where her pioneering work focuses on advancing multimodality imaging techniques.

Her main area of interest is developing multimodality imaging methods to enhance the investigation of neurochemical mechanisms that lead to an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD), mechanisms that contribute to pathogenesis and to treatment-related complications. She is also renowned for her contributions to PET and MRI image analysis, imaging instrumentation, and multi-modal, multi-parameter data integration.

Dr. Sossi has published more than 240 peer-reviewed papers, is funded by several granting agencies, including the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, NSERC, CIHR and the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Institute, and sits on several national and international review and advisory panels, including the Parkinson Canada Research and Clinical Advisory Committee . She was recognized as an IEEE fellow ‘for contributions to quantitative and translational brain PET imaging’, and is currently serving as Past President of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society.

Selected publications:  

  1. Severino M, Peretti DE, Bardiau M, Carlo Cavaliere C, Doyen M, Gabriel Gonzalez-Escamilla G, Horowitz T, Nørgaard M, Mejia Perez JA, Perovnik M, Rullmann M, Steenken D, Talmasov D, Tang C, Volpi T, Xu Z, Bertoldo A, Calhoun VD, Caminiti SP, Di X, Habeck C, Jamadar S, Perani D, Sala A, Sossi V, Yakushev I, Pereira JB,  Veronese M, on behalf of the Molecular Connectivity Working Group, Molecular connectivity studies in neurotransmission: a scoping review, EJNMMI 2025 in press 
  2. Cheng Y-C, Reimers E, Sossi V,  “HYPR4D Kernel Method with an Unsupervised 2.5SD+0.5TD Deep Learning Assisted Kernel Matrix” IEEE TRPMS 2024,  2025, 9(1):20 – 28 
  3. Nelson B, Farah L, Su W, Chen J, Sossi V, Sekhon M, Stoessl AJ, Wellington C, Honer WG, Lang D, Silverberg ND and Panenka W,  Differences in brain structure and cognitive performance between patients with Long COVID and those with Normal Recovery, Neuroimage. 2024 Oct 15;300:120859 
  4. Liu S-Y, Sossi V, Detrimental but Not Doomed-Glial Activation in Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder, Mov Disord. 2024 39(8):1256-1257 
  5. Hanania J, Reimers E, Bevington CWJ, Sossi V, PET-based Brain Molecular Connectivity in Neurodegenerative Disease, Current Opinion in Neurology, 2024 37(4):353-360 
  6. Matarazzo M,  Pérez-Soriano A, Nasim Vafai N,, Shahinfard E,,Cheng J-K, McKenzie J, Neilson N, Miao Q, Shinotoh H, Sossi V, Stoessl AJ, Does alpha synuclein pathology in Parkinson’s disease start in axonal terminals? A 11C-PBB3 PET study, NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2024 May3;10(1):96 
  7. Mannheim J, Fu J, Wegener T, Klyuzhin IS, Stoessl AJ, Sossi V, Multi-tracer PET joint correlation analysis reveals disease-specific patterns in both Parkinson’s disease and asymptomatic LRRK2 mutation carriers compared to healthy controls, Neuroimage: Clinical, 42, 2024, 103600 
  8. Reimers E,  Cheng J-C, Sossi V, Deep learning aided intra-frame motion correction for low-count dynamic brain PET, IEEE TRPMS 2024 8(1) 53-63 
  9. Volpi T, Maccioni L, Colpo M, Debiasi G, Capotosti A, Ciceri T, Carson RE, DeLorenzo C, Hahn A, Moos Knudsen G, Lammertsma AA, Price JC, Sossi V, Wang G, Zanotti-Fregonara P, Bertoldo A, Veronese M, An update on the use of image-derived input functions for human PET studies: new hopes or old illusions? EJNMMI Research, 2023 Nov 10;13(1):97 
  10. C Bevington*, J Hanania *, J-C Cheng, Pavel A, AJ Stoessl, V Sossi, Novel voxelwise residual analysis of  [11C]raclopride PET data improves detection of low-amplitude dopamine release, J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2023 Nov 16. doi: 10.1177/0271678X231214823. 
  11. Hajianfar G, Kalayinia S, Hosseinzadeh M, Samanian S, Maleki M, Sossi V, Rahmim A, Salmanpour MR. Prediction of Parkinson’s disease pathogenic variants using hybrid Machine learning systems and radiomic features, Phys Med  2023 Aug 12;113:102647 
  12. Cheng J-C, Bevington C, Sossi V, HYPR4D Kernel Method on TOF PET Data with Validations Including Image Derived Input Function, EJNMMI 2022 9(1):78 
  13. Fu, J.F., Wegener, T., Klyuzhin, I.S., Mannheim, J.G., McKeown, M.J., Stoessl, A.J., Sossi, V., Spatiotemporal patterns of putaminal dopamine processing in Parkinson’s disease: a multi-tracer Positron Emission Tomography study, Neuroimage Clin. 2022;36:103246 
  14. Yatham L, Liddle PF, Gonzalez M, Saraf G, Vafai N, Lam RW, Sossi V, A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Dopamine Transporter in Current and Recently remitted Mania, Jama Psychiatry,  2022 79 (12):1217-1224 
  15. Vavasour IM, Vafai N, Beauchemin P, Kanjilal C, Badalan A, Shahinfard E, Laule C, Li DKB, Traboulsee A, Sossi V, Kolind SH, Carruthers RL, A Pilot Study Comparing Myelin Measurements from Myelin Water Imaging and 11C-PIB PET in Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders,  2022 Dec;68:104238 
  16. Liu S-Y, Qiao H-W, Song T-B, Qiao F-W, Qi C-Y, Yao Y-X, Zhao C-S, Barret O, Xu S-L, g Cai Y-N, Tamagnan GD, Sossi V,  Lu J, Chan P, Brain microglia activation and peripheral adaptive immunity in Parkinson’s disease: a multimodal PET study, Journal of Neuroinflammation 2022 Aug 29;19(1):209 
  17. Sossi V, Patterson JR, McCormick S, Kemp CJ, Miller KM, Stoll AC, MSc2, Kuhn, BS2, Kubik NM, Kochmanski J, Luk KC, Sortwell CE, Dopaminergic PET imaging in the alpha-synuclein PFF model reveals similarities to early Parkinson’s disease. 2022 37(8):1739-1748 
  18. Cherkasova MV, Fu JF, Jarrett M, Johnson P, Abel S, Tam R, Rauscher A, Sossi V, Kolind S, Li DKB, Sadovnick AD, Machan L, Girard JM, Emond F, Vosoughi R, Traboulsee A, Stoessl AJ, Cortical morphology predicts placebo response in multiple sclerosis, Sci Rep. 2022 Jan 14;12(1):732 
  19. Bevington C,  Cheng K, Sossi V,  A 4D iterative HYPR denoising operator improves PET image quality IEEE TRPMS 2022  6 (6)6, 641-655  
  20. Aceves-Serrano L,  Sossi V, Doudet DJ, Comparison of invasive and non-invasive estimation of [11C]PBR28 binding in non-human primates, Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2022;24(3):404-415.  
  21. Saraf G, Pinto JV, Cahn A, While AG, Shahinfard E, Vafai N, Sossi V, Yatham L, Dopamine release during psychological stress in euthymic bipolar I disorder: a Positron Emission Tomography study with [11C]raclopride, Journal of Affective Disorders, 2021;295:724-732 
  22. Kogos B, Cohen-Gould L, Rodriguez-Rodriguez C, Sossi V, Sobol N, Johnson R, Miller DC Robertson JD, Pevsner PH Electron microscopy of antibody-conjugated, Lutetium-177 lanthanide gold-coated nanoparticles proof of concept of targeted loci – a potential theranostic agent, AIP advances 11(4) 10.1063/5.0044515 Article selected as an Editor’s Pick 
  23. Mannheim JG, Cheng J-C, Vafai N, Shahinfard E, English C, McKenzie J, Zhang J, Barlow L, Sossi V,  Cross-validation study between the HRRT and the PET component of the SIGNA PET/MRI system with focus on neuroimaging, European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular imaging  2021 Feb 26;8(1):20 
  24. Meikle S, Sossi V, Roncali E, Cherry S, Banati R, Mankoff D, Jones T, James M, Sutcliffe J, Ouyang J, Petibon Y, Ma C, El Fakhri G,  Surti S, Karp J, Badawi R, Yamaya T,  Akamatsu, Go; Schramm, Georg; Rezaei, Ahmad; Nuyts J ; Fulton, Kyme A, Lois C; Sari H; Price J, Boellaard R; Jeraj R, Bailey D, Eslick E,Willowson K, Dutta J, Quantitative PET in the 2020s: A Roadmap, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2021 Mar 12;66(6) 
  25. Fu J, Matarazzo M, McKenzie J, Neilson N, Vafai N, Dinelle K, Felicio AC, McKeown MJ, Stoessl AJ, Sossi V, Serotonergic system affects levodopa response in early Parkinson’s and future risk of dyskinesia, Mov Disord. 2021 Feb;36(2):389-397. 
  26. Ju-Chieh (Kevin) Cheng, Connor Bevington, Arman Rahmim, Ivan Klyuzhin, Julian Matthews, Ronald Boellaard, and Vesna Sossi, Dynamic PET Image Reconstruction Utilizing Intrinsic Data-Driven 4D De-noising Kernel Medical Physics 2021 May;48(5):2230-2244 
  27. Klyuzhin IS,  Bevington CWJ,  Cheng J-C, Sossi V  Detection of Transient Neurotransmitter Response Using Personalized Neural Networks Phys Med Biol. 2020 Dec 18;65(23):235004 
  28. Malik N, Kornelsen R, McCormick S; Colpo N; Merkens H, Bendre S, Benard F, Sossi V; Schirrmacher R, Schaffer P, Development and biological evaluation of[18F]FMN3PA & [18F]FMN3PU for leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) in vivo PET imaging, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2021 Feb5;211:113005 
  29. Bevington CWJ, Cheng J-C,Klyuzhin IS, Mariya V. Cherkasova MV, Winstanley CA, Sossi V, A Monte Carlo approach for improving transient dopamine release detection sensitivity, J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2021 Jan;41(1):116-131. doi: 10.1177/0271678X20905613. Epub 2020 
  30. Fu J, Klyuzhin IS, McKeown MJ;  Stoessl AJ,  Sossi V, Novel data-driven, equation-free method captures spatio-temporal patterns of neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease: application of dynamic mode decomposition to PET, Neuroimage Clin. 2020;25:102150 
  31. M. R. Salmanpour, M. Shamsaei, A. Saberi, I. S. Klyuzhin, J. Tang, V. Sossi, and A. Rahmim, Machine learning methods for optimal prediction of motor outcome in Parkinson’s disease 
  32. Phys Med. 2020 Jan;69:233-240 
  33. Sacheli MA, Neva JL, Lakhani B, Murray DK, Vafai N, Shahinfard E, English C, McCormick S, Dinelle K, Neilson N, McKenzie J, Schulzer M, McKenzie D, Appel-Cresswell S,  McKeown MJ, Boyd L, Sossi V, Stoessl AJ, Exercise increases caudate DA release and ventral striatal activation in Parkinson’s disease, Mov Disord. 2019 Dec;34(12):1891-1900 
  34. Klyuzhin IS, Cheng J-C, Bevington C,  Sossi V Use of a Tracer-specific Deep Artificial Neural Net to Denoise Dynamic PET Images, IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2020 Feb;39(2):366-376 
  35. Fu JF, Klyuzhin IS,  McKenzie J, Neilson N, Shahinfard E, Dinelle K, McKeown MJ, Stoessl AJ, Sossi V, Joint pattern analysis applied to PET DAT and VMAT2 imaging reveals new insights into Parkinson’s disease induced presynaptic alterations, Neuroimage Clin. 2019;23:101856 
  36. Sossi V, Cheng J-C, Klyuzhin IS, Imaging in Neurodegeneration: Movement Disoderders, (review article), IEEE Trans on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, IEEE TRPMS 2019 May 2019 3 (3) 261-274 
  37. Tang J, Yang B, Shenkov N, Fotouhi S, Davoodi-Bojd E, Lu L, Soltanian-Zadeh H, Sossi V and Rahmim A, Artificial Neural Network Based Prediction of Outcome in Parkinson’s Disease Patients using DaTscan SPECT Imaging Features, Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2019 Dec;21(6):1165-1173 
  38. Whone AL, Boca M, Luz M, Woolley M, Mooney L, Dharia S, Broadfoot J, Cronin D, Schroers C, Barua NU, Lara Longpre L, Barclay L, Boiko C, Johnson GA, Fibiger HC, Harrison R, Lewis O, Pritchard G, Howell M, Irving C, Johnson D, Kinch S, Marshall C, Lawrence AD, Blinder S, Sossi V, Stoessl AJ, Skinner P, Mohr E, Gill SS, Extended Treatment with Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Parkinson’s Disease, J Parkinsons Dis. 2019;9(2):301-313 
  39. Whone A, Luz M, Boca M, Woolley M, Mooney L, Dharia S, Broadfoot J, Cronin D, Schroers C, Barua NU, Lara Longpre L, Barclay L, Boiko C, Johnson GA, Fibiger HC, Harrison R, Lewis O, Pritchard G, Howell M, Irving C, Johnson D, Kinch S, Marshall C, Lawrence AD, Blinder S, Sossi V, Stoessl AJ, Skinner P, Mohr E, Gill SS Randomised trial of intermittent intraputamenal glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor in Parkinson’s disease, Brain. 2019 Mar 1;142(3):512-525 
  40. Dao E, Nicklin E, Strahinfard E, Al Keridy W, Hsiung G-Y R, Sossi V, Tam R, Liu-Ambrose T, Cerebral amyloid-β deposition is associated with impaired gait speed and lower extremity function J Alzheimers Dis. 2019;71(s1):S41-S49 
  41. Klyuzhin IS, Fu JF,  Shenkov N,  Rahmim A,  Sossi V, Use of Generative Disease Models for Analysis and Selection of Radiomic Features in PET, IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences 3 (2), 178-191 March 2019 
  42. Schildt A, Walker MD, Dinelle K, Miao Q, Schulzer M, O’Kusky J, Farrer MJ, Doudet DJ, Sossi V, Single inflammatory trigger leads to neuroinflammation in LRRK2 rodent model without degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, J Parkinsons Dis. 2019;9(1):121-139 
  43. Klyuzhin I, Fu JF, Hong A, Sacheli MA, Shenkov. N Matarazzo M, Sossi V, Data-driven, Voxel-based Analysis of Brain PET Images: Application of PCA and LASSO Methods to Visualize and Quantify Patterns of Neurodegeneration, PLoS One. 2018 Nov 5;13(11):e0206607 
  44. Sacheli MA, Murray DK, Vafai N, Dinelle K,  Neilson N, McKenzie J, Appel-Cresswell S,  McKeown MJ Schulzer M,  Sossi V, Stoessl AJ,  Investigation of dopamine release in habitual exercisers and non-exercisers with Parkinson’s disease: Multimodal [11C] Raclopride PET and fMRI study, Mov Disord. 2018 Dec;33(12):1945-1950 
  45. Perez-Soriano A, Matarazzo M, Vafai N, Shahinfard E, Miao Q, Higuchi M, Sossi V,  Stoessl AJ, PBB3 Binding in a Patient with Corticobasal Syndrome  Mov Disord. 2018 33(8):1359-1360 
  46. Fu J, Klyuzhin , Liu S, Shahinfard E, Vafai N, McKenzie J, Neilson N, Mabrouk R, Sacheli MA, Wile D, McKeown MJ, Stoessl AJ, Sossi V, Investigation of Parkinson’s Disease-Related Covariance Pattern in the Serotonergic System using [11C]-DASB/PET Neuroimage Clinical 19; 562-660, 2018.  
  47. Crawford J, Robertson A, Yang H, Rodriguez-Rodriguez C, Esquinas P, Kunz P, Blinder, S, Sossi V, Schaffer P, Ruth T, Evaluation of 211At as a theranostic isotope for 211At-radiopharmaceutical development using high-energy SPECT, Phys Med Biol. 2018 Feb 21;63(4):045025 
  48. Stortz G, Thiessen JD, Bishop D, Khan MS, Kozlowski P, Retière F, Schellenberg G, Shams E Zhang X, Thompson CJ, Goertzen AL*, Sossi V* (*equal senior authors) Performance of a PET Insert for High Resolution Small Animal PET/MR Imaging at 7T, J Nucl Med 2018 Mar;59(3):536-54 
  49. Cheng JK, Matthews J, Sossi V, Anton-Rodriguez J, Salmon A, Boellaard R, Incorporating HYPR de-noising within iterative PET reconstruction (HYPR-OSEM), Phys Med Biol 2017 62 (16) 6666-6687 
  50.  Rahmim A, Huang P, Shenkov N, Fotouhi S, Davoodi-Bojd E, Lu l, Mari Z, Soltanian-Zadeh H, Sossi V, Improved Prediction of Outcome in Parkinson’s Disease using Radiomics Analysis of Longitudinal DAT SPECT Images, Neuroimage Clinical, 16, 2017 539-544 
  51. Goertzen AL, Shrestha R, Khan MS , Stortz G, Bishop D,  Kozlowski P, Retière F, Thiessen JD Thompson CJ Sossi V, Data Acquisition for a Preclinical MR Compatible PET Insert Using the OpenPET Platform, IEEE Transactions On Radiation And Plasma Medical Sciences,  1 (6), 495-504 
  52. Yatham LN, Sossi V, Ding Y-S, Vafai N, Sundat S, Lam RW, Bond DJ, Puyat J, A PET study of norepinephrine transporter occupancy and its correlation with symptom responses in depressed patients treated with Quetiapine XR, Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2018 Feb 1;21(2):108-113 
  53. Robertson AKH, Ramogida CF, Rodríguez-Rodríguez C, Blinder S, Kunz P, Sossi V* and Schaffer P* (*equal senior authors) Multi-isotope SPECT imaging of the 225Ac decay chain: feasibility studies, Phys Med Biol 2017 62(11):4406-4420 
  54. Topping G.J, Yung A, Schaffer P, Hoehr C, Kornelsen R, Kozlowski P, Sossi V, Manganese Concentration Mapping in the Rat Brain with MRI, PET, and Autoradiography, Med Phys. 2017 Aug;44(8):4056-4067