Chiara Mauri, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Advances in neuroimaging make it possible to extract rich information from brain scans that was previously inaccessible. My research focuses on developing advanced computational methods to analyze brain imaging data and uncover biological markers of brain health and disease.

During my PhD at the Technical University of Denmark, I developed a method that can estimate a person’s “brain age” from MRI scans while also providing biologically meaningful explanations for its predictions. This approach helps reveal how the brain changes during healthy aging and how these patterns may differ in neurodegenerative disease. By developing an interpretable machine learning framework, this work enabled not only accurate predictions but also insight into the underlying biological mechanisms.

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where I focus on developing methods to automatically identify small and complex brain structures, particularly the brain’s vasculature. Cerebral blood vessels play a critical role in brain health, and their dysfunction is linked to many neurological, cerebrovascular, and psychiatric disorders. The tools I develop aim to detect and quantify these structures from brain scans, enabling large-scale studies of vascular health in aging and disease. A key goal of my research is to build methods that remain reliable across different imaging technologies and scales—from high-resolution microscopy to clinical MRI—so that these tools can be broadly applied in both research and medical settings. Ultimately, I aim to develop computational neuroimaging technologies that support early detection of brain disorders and help guide more personalized treatment strategies.

Outside of research, I like swimming, board games, and plants—and I’m endlessly fascinated by brains!