DrSamuel Klistorner

Dr Klistorner's research program develops quantitative MRI biomarkers and computational imaging pipelines for treatment-resistant neurological disease, with a primary focus on smouldering inflammation in multiple sclerosis. The program spans biomarker development and validation, longitudinal imaging analysis, registry-scale comparative effectiveness research, and computational pipeline engineering.

Research is conducted at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, within a unique infrastructure of longitudinal datasets, national and international collaborations, and active funded programs. Projects are closely integrated with clinical neurologists, imaging scientists, and computational researchers.

HDR candidates (PhD, MPhil), Honours students, and research assistants are actively sought. Candidates with backgrounds in biomedical engineering, medical physics, computer science, applied mathematics, or computational neuroscience are particularly encouraged. Scholarship support may be available for exceptional candidates.

To express interest or discuss project opportunities, please contact Samuel with a CV and a brief statement of interest.

Research Areas

• Smouldering Inflammation Biomarker Development Developing and validating quantitative MRI markers of chronic, treatment-resistant neuroinflammation in MS, including chronic lesion tissue expansion (CLTE), novel cross-sectional lesion instability indices, and multimodal biomarker integration. Work spans pipeline engineering, longitudinal cohort analysis, and biological validation.
• Registry-Scale Comparative Effectiveness Research Applying CLTE and related biomarkers at scale using the MSBase Registry and MSBase Imaging Repository to characterise treatment effects on smouldering inflammation across real-world patient populations. Methods include causal inference approaches designed to emulate clinical trial conditions within observational data.
• Multimodal Imaging and Biological Validation Integrating MRI-derived biomarkers with complementary modalities including TSPO PET, diffusion MRI, optical coherence tomography, and electrophysiology to establish biological grounding for smouldering lesion measures and extend their translational utility.
• Neurodegeneration and Brain Atrophy Metrics Developing advanced approaches to distinguish true neurodegeneration from treatment-related confounds in longitudinal brain volume measures, with relevance to both clinical trial endpoints and real-world disease monitoring.
• Cross-Disease Biomarker Extension Extending MRI biomarker approaches developed in MS toward other neuroinflammatory conditions, including choroid plexus imaging and perilesional tissue characterisation applicable across CNS inflammatory diseases.

Collaboration and Enquiries

Samuel's program collaborates actively with researchers at the University of Turku (Finland), University of Nottingham, University of Cambridge, Charité Berlin, Monash University, and Imperial College London.

Research groups interested in applying the LEAP pipeline to their own data, or in establishing collaborative studies on smouldering inflammation biomarkers, are encouraged to make contact directly.

HDR and Honours candidates wishing to discuss opportunities should send a CV and a brief statement of interest.