Dr. Barker is the Vice Chief of Pediatric Radiology Research and Director of the Advanced Imaging Lab at Children’s Hospital Colorado; additionally he is Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering at University of Colorado Anschutz.

Research Focus: Novel Methods for Biomedical Imaging

Dr. Barker’s lab develops MRI methods and postprocessing algorithms for translational cardiovascular imaging. Past contributions have occurred in the fields of cardiovascular and biofluid dynamics, blood pool contrast agents, and MRI physics (202 papers). His most recent research activities focus on noninvasive fetal, pediatric, and adult cardiovascular MRI techniques to understand the relationship between blood flow, vascular health, and congenital heart disease. Dr. Barker’s initial papers on bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and proximal vessel remodeling were cited by the Circulation Editors’ as the “most read article in 2012” on Aortic Disease and among the “Most Important Articles in Cardiovascular Imaging Science”. In 2023, Dr. Barker was recognized as the 2nd most published author on the topic of 4D flow MRI. Additionally, in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital Colorado Radiology, Cardiology, and MFM department, Dr. Barker and team won the Society of Pediatric Radiology’s ‘Best Paper of 2024’ for the use of fetal cardiac MRI to better diagnose in-utero cardiovascular disease. Dr. Barker has mentored over 32 graduate students, medical fellows, and junior faculty and takes great pride in their success, with many continuing to independent research careers at leading global institutions.

Projects

• Fetal cardiac MRI with motion correction and advanced gating strategies
• Hemodynamics of congenital heart disease as measured by 4D flow MRI
• MRI measurement of mechanotransduction forces in the presence of valve disease
• MRI Pulse sequence programming of respiration control algorithms to minimize breathing artifacts
• Big data biomedical image analysis and machine learning

Education 

Other Positions and Honors: