Goyal to Lead Neuroimaging Labs Research Center

Manu S. Goyal, MD, professor of radiology, will serve as the next director of the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center (NIL-RC) for WashU Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR). The NIL-RC is home to investigators across disciplines and departments dedicated to neuroimaging techniques and analyses in cognitive and clinical neuroscience, human aging and neurodevelopment, and more.

Goyal is a principal investigator in the NIL-RC, where he directs an NIH-funded human brain imaging lab alongside Andrei G. Vlassenko, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiology for MIR. They study mechanisms underlying brain aging and resilience to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke. The lab is particularly focused on applying advanced brain PET and MRI techniques and multimodal analytical methods to delineate key mechanisms driving these disease processes.

A clinical expert in stroke and cerebrovascular imaging, Goyal is also a neuroradiologist for clinical studies at the Blantyre Malaria Project in Blantyre, Malawi. He is a widely recognized researcher and clinician, receiving the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research Distinguished Investigator Award in 2024 and multiple Team Quality Improvement Awards from Barnes-Jewish Hospital for stroke perfusion imaging and stroke thrombectomy.

Goyal succeeds Tamara Hershey, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience. She “essentially ‘grew up’ in the NIL-RC” and went on to lead the center where her career began for a decade. During her tenure, the center experienced transformative growth in both faculty recruitment and extramural funding, while maintaining the collaborative culture that makes the center unique. Hershey will remain in the NIL-RC as faculty pursuing new research in cognitive and clinical neuroscience, helping to better understand the impact of metabolic and neurodegenerative conditions on the brain across the lifespan. She will also remain director of the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience and vice chair of research, as well as division director of clinical neuroscience and behavioral health research for the Department of Psychiatry.