Research Summary

Sharmila Majumdar, PhD, is a UCSF Professor and the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Orthopedic Surgery at UCSF and Bioengineering at UC Berkeley. She is Director of the Musculoskeletal Research Interest Group at UCSF, an interdisciplinary group consisting of faculty, post-doctoral scholars and students. She obtained her PhD degree in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University in 1987, where she stayed as a post-doctoral researcher and Assistant Professor until 1989, when she joined UCSF.

Her research work on imaging, particularly magnetic resonance and micro computed tomography, and development of image processing and analysis tools, has been focused in the areas of osteoporosis, osteo-arthritis and lower back pain. Her research, which is supported by grants from the NIH and corporate entities, and is diverse ranging from technical development to clinical trials. She currently heads an NIH Center of Research Translation focused on Osteoarthritis and Imaging, a joint effort between UCSF and UC Davis.

Dr. Majumdar was selected as a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers in 2004 and a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in 2008. In 2007 she was awarded the “Excellence in Direct Teaching and/or Excellence in Mentoring and Advising Award” by the UCSF Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators.

She has published extensively in the Journal of Bone Mineral Research, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and other highly regarded journals. She also serves as a reviewer and is on the editorial board of scientific journals, and is a recognized expert in the area of imaging.

Research Funding

  • July 14, 2016 - June 30, 2026 - Evaluating Disease Progression in Hip Osteoarthritis , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AR069006
  • September 26, 2019 - July 31, 2024 - Technology Research Site for Advanced, Faster Quantitative Imaging for BACPAC , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: UH3AR076724
  • April 1, 2018 - July 31, 2021 - Deep Learning for Characterizing Knee Joint Degeneration Predicting Progression of Osteoarthritis and Total Knee Replacement , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R33AR073552
  • September 26, 2019 - August 31, 2020 - Technology Research Site for Advanced, Faster Quantitative Imaging for BACPAC , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: UH2AR076724
  • April 1, 2018 - March 31, 2020 - Deep Learning for Characterizing Knee Joint Degeneration Predicting Progression of Osteoarthritis and Total Knee Replacement , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R61AR073552
  • July 1, 2014 - March 31, 2020 - UCSF Core Center for Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P30AR066262
  • August 1, 2011 - July 31, 2018 - Translation of Quantitative Imaging in Osteoarthritis , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P50AR060752
  • September 17, 1999 - May 31, 2018 - Loaded and Unloaded MR Imaging of Meniscus-Cartilage-Trabecular Bone in OA , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AR046905
  • January 1, 2000 - June 30, 2014 - Morphological and Functional Musko-Skeletal Imaging , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AG017762
  • September 30, 2009 - August 31, 2012 - A Multi-Disciplinary Multi-Development Core on Musculoskeletal Imaging , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P30AR058899
  • July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2011 - Instrument Development for the Osteoarthritis Initiative , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01AR055079
  • September 30, 2002 - August 31, 2007 - Vertebral Fracture: Trabecular Bone Structure Assessment , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AR049701
  • August 23, 2004 - June 30, 2007 - SPECTROSCOPIC MARKERS OF DISC DEGENERATION , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21AR051048
  • September 30, 1995 - August 31, 2000 - NON-INVASIVE ASSESSMENT OF TRABECULAR ARCHITECTURE , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AG013612
  • June 1, 1999 - May 31, 2000 - CARTILAGE &TRABECULAR BONE MORPHOLOGY IN OSTEOARTHRITIS , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R03AG016388
  • April 15, 1999 - April 14, 2000 - CONSOLE AND COMPUTER UPGRADE FOR A 15T MR SCANNER , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: S10RR013051
  • May 1, 1993 - December 31, 1998 - QUANTIFICATION OF TRABECULAR BONE DENSITY AND STRUCTURE , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K04AR001903
  • September 15, 1992 - August 31, 1995 - QUANTIFICATION OF TRABECULAR BONE DENSITY AND STRUCTURE , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01AR041226

Education

St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, India, B.S., 1983, Physics
Yale University, Connecticut, USA, M.S., 1984, Eng. & Applied Physics
Yale University, Connecticut, USA, Ph.D., 1987, Eng. & Applied Physics
Yale University, Connecticut, USA, Postdoctoral, 1988, Radiology

Honors & Awards

  • 2002
    Celebrating Woman Faculty, Award and Recognition, Chancellor and Deans of UCSF
  • 2004
    Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE)
  • 2008
    Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)
  • 2016
    Gold Medal of International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)

Selected Publications

  1. Bhattacharjee R, Thahakoya R, Luitjens J, Han M, Roach KE, Jiang F, Souza RB, Pedoia V, Majumdar S. Effects of T1p Characteristics of Load-Bearing Hip Cartilage on Bilateral Knee Patellar Cartilage Subregions: Subjects With None to Moderate Radiographic Hip Osteoarthritis. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2023 Sep 13.  View on PubMed
  2. Joseph GB, Takakusagi M, Arcilla G, Lynch JA, Pedoia V, Majumdar S, Lane NE, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Link TM. Associations between weight change, knee subcutaneous fat and cartilage thickness in overweight and obese individuals: 4-Year data from the osteoarthritis initiative. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2023 Aug 22.  View on PubMed
  3. Hawkins JR, Olson MP, Harouni A, Qin MM, Hess CP, Majumdar S, Crane JC. Implementation and prospective real-time evaluation of a generalized system for in-clinic deployment and validation of machine learning models in radiology. PLOS Digit Health. 2023 Aug; 2(8):e0000227.  View on PubMed
  4. Hess M, Allaire B, Gao KT, Tibrewala R, Inamdar G, Bharadwaj U, Chin C, Pedoia V, Bouxsein M, Anderson D, Majumdar S. Deep Learning for Multi-Tissue Segmentation and Fully Automatic Personalized Biomechanical Models from BACPAC Clinical Lumbar Spine MRI. Pain Med. 2023 08 04; 24(Suppl 1):S139-S148.  View on PubMed
  5. Sollmann N, Fields AJ, O'Neill C, Nardo L, Majumdar S, Chin CT, Tosun D, Han M, Vu AT, Ozhinsky E, Shah LM, Harris RE, Lobo R, Anderst W, Herzog R, Psioda MA, Standaert CJ, Price RT, Lotz JC, Link TM, Krug R. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Lumbar Spine: Recommendations for Acquisition and Image Evaluation from the BACPAC Spine Imaging Working Group. Pain Med. 2023 08 04; 24(Suppl 1):S81-S94.  View on PubMed
  6. Han M, Bahroos E, Hess ME, Chin CT, Gao KT, Shin DD, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Link TM, Pedoia V, Majumdar S. Technology and Tool Development for BACPAC: Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Accelerated Lumbar Spine MRI with Deep-Learning Based Image Reconstruction at 3T. Pain Med. 2023 08 04; 24(Suppl 1):S149-S159.  View on PubMed
  7. Mauck MC, Lotz J, Psioda MA, Carey TS, Clauw DJ, Majumdar S, Marras WS, Vo N, Aylward A, Hoffmeyer A, Zheng P, Ivanova A, McCumber M, Carson C, Anstrom KJ, Bowden AE, Dalton D, Derr L, Dufour J, Fields AJ, Fritz J, Hassett AL, Harte SE, Hue TF, Krug R, Loggia ML, Mageswaran P, McLean SA, Mitchell UH, O'Neill C, Pedoia V, Quirk DA, Rhon DI, Rieke V, Shah L, Sowa G, Spiegel B, Wasan AD, Wey HM, LaVange L. The Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program: Structure, Research Priorities, and Methods. Pain Med. 2023 08 04; 24(Suppl 1):S3-S12.  View on PubMed
  8. Gao KT, Xie E, Chen V, Iriondo C, Calivà F, Souza RB, Majumdar S, Pedoia V. Large-Scale Analysis of Meniscus Morphology as Risk Factor for Knee Osteoarthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2023 Jun 01.  View on PubMed
  9. Cummings J, Gao K, Chen V, Morales Martinez A, Iriondo C, Caliva F, Majumdar S, Pedoia V. The knee connectome: A novel tool for studying spatiotemporal change in cartilage thickness. J Orthop Res. 2023 May 30.  View on PubMed
  10. Su F, Tong MW, Lansdown DA, Luke A, Ma CB, Feeley BT, Majumdar S, Zhang AL. Leukocyte-Poor Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections Improve Cartilage T1ρ and T2 and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Mild-to-Moderate Knee Osteoarthritis. Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. 2023 Jun; 5(3):e817-e825.  View on PubMed
  11. Liao TC, Bird A, Samaan MA, Pedoia V, Majumdar S, Souza RB. Persistent underloading of patellofemoral joint following hamstring autograft ACL reconstruction is associated with cartilage health. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2023 09; 31(9):1265-1273.  View on PubMed
  12. Tolpadi AA, Luitjens J, Gassert FG, Li X, Link TM, Majumdar S, Pedoia V. Synthetic Inflammation Imaging with PatchGAN Deep Learning Networks. Bioengineering (Basel). 2023 Apr 25; 10(5).  View on PubMed
  13. Bharadwaj UU, Christine M, Li S, Chou D, Pedoia V, Link TM, Chin CT, Majumdar S. Deep learning for automated, interpretable classification of lumbar spinal stenosis and facet arthropathy from axial MRI. Eur Radiol. 2023 May; 33(5):3435-3443.  View on PubMed
  14. Tolpadi AA, Bharadwaj U, Gao KT, Bhattacharjee R, Gassert FG, Luitjens J, Giesler P, Morshuis JN, Fischer P, Hein M, Baumgartner CF, Razumov A, Dylov D, Lohuizen QV, Fransen SJ, Zhang X, Tibrewala R, de Moura HL, Liu K, Zibetti MVW, Regatte R, Majumdar S, Pedoia V. K2S Challenge: From Undersampled K-Space to Automatic Segmentation. Bioengineering (Basel). 2023 Feb 18; 10(2).  View on PubMed
  15. Joseph GB, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Lynch J, Lane NE, Pedoia V, Majumdar S, Link TM. The effect of interactions between BMI and sustained depressive symptoms on knee osteoarthritis over 4 years: data from the osteoarthritis initiative. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2023 Jan 12; 24(1):27.  View on PubMed
  16. Tolpadi AA, Han M, Calivà F, Pedoia V, Majumdar S. Region of interest-specific loss functions improve T2 quantification with ultrafast T2 mapping MRI sequences in knee, hip and lumbar spine. Sci Rep. 2022 12 23; 12(1):22208.  View on PubMed
  17. Lee JJ, Namiri NK, Astuto B, Link TM, Majumdar S, Pedoia V. Personalized Risk Model and Leveraging of Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Structural Phenotypes and Clinical Factors to Predict Incidence of Radiographic Osteoarthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2023 03; 75(3):501-508.  View on PubMed
  18. Shah R, Astuto Arouche Nunes B, Gleason T, Fletcher W, Banaga J, Sweetwood K, Ye A, Patel R, McGill K, Link T, Crane J, Pedoia V, Majumdar S. Utilizing a Digital Swarm Intelligence Platform to Improve Consensus Among Radiologists and Exploring Its Applications. J Digit Imaging. 2023 04; 36(2):401-413.  View on PubMed
  19. Neumann J, Zhang AL, Bucknor M, Majumdar S, Souza R, Joseph GB, Link TM. Acetabular cartilage delamination: performance of MRI using arthroscopy as the standard of reference. Acta Radiol. 2023 Mar; 64(3):1122-1129.  View on PubMed
  20. Roach KE, Souza RB, Majumdar S, Pedoia V. Local Patterns in 2-Year T1ρ and T2 Changes of Hip Cartilage Are Related to Sex and Functional Data: A Prospective Evaluation on Hip Osteoarthritis Participants. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2023 04; 57(4):1042-1053.  View on PubMed

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