publications

2026

1. Vision-Language

   

   Merlin: A Computed Tomography Vision-Language Foundation Model and Dataset

   Louis Blankemeier^*, Ashwin Kumar^*, Joseph Paul Cohen, Dave Van Veen, and 7 more authors

   Nature, 2026

   arXiv Github PYPI HUGGINGFACE Bib Paper Video

   @article{blankemeier2024merlin,
     title = {Merlin: A Computed Tomography Vision-Language Foundation Model and Dataset},
     author = {Blankemeier, Louis and Kumar, Ashwin and Cohen, Joseph Paul and Van Veen, Dave and Gardezi, Syed Jamal Safdar and Paschali, Magdalini and Chen, Zhihong and Delbrouck, Jean-Benoit and Reis, Eduardo and Truyts, Cesar and others},
     journal = {Nature},
     year = {2026},
     pypi = {https://pypi.org/project/merlin-vlm/},
     huggingface = {https://huggingface.co/stanfordmimi/Merlin},
   }

2. Image Synthesis

   

   Accelerating Longitudinal MRI using Prior Informed Latent Diffusion

   Yonatan Urman^*, Zachary Shah^*, Ashwin Kumar, Bruno P Soares, and 1 more author

   Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2026

   Bib Paper

   @article{urman2024accelerating,
     title = {Accelerating Longitudinal MRI using Prior Informed Latent Diffusion},
     author = {Urman, Yonatan and Shah, Zachary and Kumar, Ashwin and Soares, Bruno P and Setsompop, Kawin},
     journal = {Magnetic Resonance in Medicine},
     year = {2026},
   }

2025

1. Image Downsizing

   

   MedVAE: Efficient Automated Interpretation of Medical Images with Large-Scale Generalizable Autoencoders

   Maya Varma^*, Ashwin Kumar^*, Rogier Sluijs^*, Sophie Ostmeier, and 6 more authors

   MIDL, 2025

   Best Paper Award arXiv Github PYPI HUGGINGFACE Bib

   Best Oral Paper Award at MIDL 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah

   @article{varma2025medvae,
     title = {MedVAE: Efficient Automated Interpretation of Medical Images with Large-Scale Generalizable Autoencoders},
     author = {Varma, Maya and Kumar, Ashwin and van der Sluijs, Rogier and Ostmeier, Sophie and Blankemeier, Louis and Chambon, Pierre and Bluethgen, Christian and Prince, Jip and Langlotz, Curtis and Chaudhari, Akshay},
     journal = {MIDL},
     year = {2025},
     pypi = {https://pypi.org/project/medvae/},
     huggingface = {https://huggingface.co/StanfordMIMI/MedVAE},
   }

2. Stroke

   

   Deep Learning Applications in Imaging of Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review and Narrative Summary

   Bin Jiang, Nancy Pham, Eric K Staalduinen, Yongkai Liu, and 7 more authors

   Radiology, 2025

   Bib Paper

   @article{jiang2025deep,
     title = {Deep Learning Applications in Imaging of Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review and Narrative Summary},
     author = {Jiang, Bin and Pham, Nancy and van Staalduinen, Eric K and Liu, Yongkai and Nazari-Farsani, Sanaz and Sanaat, Amirhossein and van Voorst, Henk and Fettahoglu, Ates and Kim, Donghoon and Ouyang, Jiahong and others},
     journal = {Radiology},
     volume = {315},
     number = {1},
     pages = {e240775},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Radiological Society of North America},
   }

2024

1. Dementia

   

   Deep Learning-Based Prediction of PET Amyloid Status Using Multi-Contrast MRI

   Donghoon Kim, Jon Andre Ottesen, Ashwin Kumar, Brandon C Ho, and 4 more authors

   American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2024

   arXiv Bib Paper

   @article{kim2024deep,
     title = {Deep Learning-Based Prediction of PET Amyloid Status Using Multi-Contrast MRI},
     author = {Kim, Donghoon and Ottesen, Jon Andre and Kumar, Ashwin and Ho, Brandon C and Bismuth, Elsa and Young, Christina B and Mormino, Elizabeth and Zaharchuk, Greg},
     journal = {American Journal of Neuroradiology},
     year = {2024},
   }

2. Spinal Cord

   

   Biological Variation in Cervical Spinal Cord MRI Morphometry in Healthy Individuals and People with Multiple Sclerosis

   Sarah R Cook, Kritin Vasamreddy, Anna Combes, Simon Vandekar, and 7 more authors

   Journal of Neuroimaging, 2024

   Bib Paper

   @article{cook2024biological,
     title = {Biological Variation in Cervical Spinal Cord MRI Morphometry in Healthy Individuals and People with Multiple Sclerosis},
     author = {Cook, Sarah R and Vasamreddy, Kritin and Combes, Anna and Vandekar, Simon and Visagie, Mereze and Houston, Delaney and Wald, Lily and Kumar, Ashwin and McGrath, Megan and McKnight, Colin D and others},
     journal = {Journal of Neuroimaging},
     volume = {34},
     number = {4},
     pages = {466--474},
     year = {2024},
     publisher = {Wiley Online Library},
   }

3. Segmentation

   

   MRF-SEG: Accelerated Brain MRI Acquisition and Segmentation

   Ashwin Kumar, Zihan Zhou, Quan Chen, Xiaozhi Cao, and 4 more authors

   In The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), 2024

   Bib Paper

   @article{kumarmrf,
     title = {MRF-SEG: Accelerated Brain MRI Acquisition and Segmentation},
     author = {Kumar, Ashwin and Zhou, Zihan and Chen, Quan and Cao, Xiaozhi and Billot, Benjamin and Fischl, Bruce and Chaudhari, Akshay and Setsompop, Kawin},
     journal = {In The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)},
     year = {2024},
   }

4. Image Synthesis

   

   Deep Learning-based Disambiguation for Multiple AD Radiotracers using PET/MRI

   Ashwin Kumar, Donghoon Kim, Elizabeth Mormino, Akshay Chaudhari, and 4 more authors

   In The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), 2024

   Magna Cum Laude Bib Paper

   A top 15% abstract award at the 2024 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

   @article{kumardeep,
     title = {Deep Learning-based Disambiguation for Multiple AD Radiotracers using PET/MRI},
     author = {Kumar, Ashwin and Kim, Donghoon and Mormino, Elizabeth and Chaudhari, Akshay and Young, Christina and Chen, Kevin and Khalighi, Mehdi and Zaharchuk, Greg},
     journal = {In The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)},
     year = {2024},
   }

2022

1. Spinal Cord

   

   Mapping Pediatric Spinal Cord Development with Age

   Ashwin Kumar, Simon Vandekar, Kurt Schilling, Aashim Bhatia, and 2 more authors

   In Medical Imaging 2022: Image Processing, 2022

   Oral Bib Paper

   Oral Presentation at SPIE Medical Imaging 2022 in San Diego, California

   @inproceedings{kumar2022mapping,
     title = {Mapping Pediatric Spinal Cord Development with Age},
     author = {Kumar, Ashwin and Vandekar, Simon and Schilling, Kurt and Bhatia, Aashim and Landman, Bennett A and Smith, Seth},
     booktitle = {Medical Imaging 2022: Image Processing},
     volume = {12032},
     pages = {286--292},
     year = {2022},
     organization = {SPIE},
   }

2. Quantitative MRI

   

   Rapid Simultaneous Acquisition of Macromolecular Tissue Volume, Susceptibility, and Relaxometry Maps

   Fang Frank Yu, Susie Yi Huang, Ashwin Kumar, Thomas Witzel, and 4 more authors

   Magnetic resonance in medicine, 2022

   Bib Paper

   @article{yu2022rapid,
     title = {Rapid Simultaneous Acquisition of Macromolecular Tissue Volume, Susceptibility, and Relaxometry Maps},
     author = {Yu, Fang Frank and Huang, Susie Yi and Kumar, Ashwin and Witzel, Thomas and Liao, Congyu and Duval, Tanguy and Cohen-Adad, Julien and Bilgic, Berkin},
     journal = {Magnetic resonance in medicine},
     volume = {87},
     number = {2},
     pages = {781--790},
     year = {2022},
     publisher = {Wiley Online Library},
   }

2021

1. Object Detection

   

   Automated Detection of Surgical Wounds in Videos of Open Neck Procedures Using a Mask R-CNN

   TingYan Deng, Shubham Gulati, Ashwin Kumar, William Rodriguez, and 2 more authors

   In Medical Imaging 2021: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling, 2021

   Bib Paper

   @inproceedings{deng2021automated,
     title = {Automated Detection of Surgical Wounds in Videos of Open Neck Procedures Using a Mask R-CNN},
     author = {Deng, TingYan and Gulati, Shubham and Kumar, Ashwin and Rodriguez, William and Dawant, Benoit M and Langerman, Alexander},
     booktitle = {Medical Imaging 2021: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling},
     volume = {11598},
     pages = {323--328},
     year = {2021},
     organization = {SPIE},
   }