Jiamin Zhou
Research Associate
Work
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2019.09 - Present San Francisco, CA, USA
Staff Research Associate III
University of California, San Francisco
SRA in Dr. Aaron Field’s Laboratory for Orthopaedic Biomechanics and Biotransport in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Characterization of chronic low back pain (Back Pain Consortium Research Program) through:
- Automatic vertebral body and paraspinal muscle segmentation
- Fat quantification of whole-body MRI
- Statistical analysis of multi-omic data
- Processing of whole genome sequencing data
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2016.06 - 2017.08 Dallas, TX, USA
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Research fellow in Dr. Qinghua Liu’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry. Studied the molecular mechanism of odor-induced innate fear mediated by Trpa1 in mice:
- Dissected and sectioned mouse brain tissue
- Modified a PCR protocol to target and produce a restriction enzyme recognition site on Trpa1
- Developed a method to selectively label bound proteins using biotinylation
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2013.06 - 2014.08 Dallas, TX, USA
Research Intern
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Intern in Dr. Zhigao Wang’s lab in the Department of Molecular Biology. Studied how the herb Citrullus colocynthis kills cancer cells through necrosis:
- Developed a technique to detect phosphorylated proteins in Western blots
Education
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2018.08 - 2019.06 San Francisco, CA, USA
M.Sc. in Biomedical Imaging
University of California, San Francisco
Thesis: ‘Spectrome-AI: a Neural Network Framework for Inferring MEG Spectra’
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2015.08 - 2018.06 Cambridge, UK
B.A. (Hons) in Natural Sciences
University of Cambridge
Dissertation: ‘Modelling calcium feedback mechanisms in light adaptation in vertebrate cone photoreceptors’
Teaching
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Bootcamp Instructor
University of California, San Francisco
MSBI Bootcamp
Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022
Taught incoming Master’s students with no prior programming background how to code in MATLAB
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Teaching Assistant
University of California, San Francisco
MR Pulse Sequences
Spring 2020
Physical Principles of CT, PET, and SPECT Imaging
Fall 2019
Talks
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International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine
Atlanta, GA, USA, 2025
’Serum inflammatory profiles associate with intradiscal propionic acid levels in chronic low back pain patients with Modic changes’
oral presentation, shortlisted for Best Paper Award
‘Modic changes associate with gut microbial dysbiosis'
oral presentation
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BACPAC Spring Meeting
Chapel Hill, NC, USA, 2025
’Phenotyping of comeBACK patients with Modic changes using MRI, MRS, and serum cytokines’
oral presentation
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International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine
Milan, Italy, 2024
’Magnetic resonance spectroscopy biomarker of Modic changes with bacterial etiology’
oral presentation, shortlisted for Best Paper Award
Skills
Python Tensorflow Matplotlib Seaborn Pandas Jupyter MATLAB R LaTeX Git Bash SLURM/SGE HPC SQL JMP Nextflow nf-core MS Office Notion ELISA PCR English Mandarin
Publications
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2025.07 Spatial patterns of fat within the deep multifidus as a biomarker for chronic low back pain
The Spine Journal
Keywords: chronic low back pain, multifidus, fat infiltration, muscle quality, biomarker
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2025.03 Artificial intelligence in musculoskeletal applications: a primer for radiologists
Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology
Keywords: artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, musculoskeletal, review
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2023.05 Deep-learning-based biomarker of spinal cartilage endplate health using ultra-short echo time magnetic resonance imaging
Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery
Keywords: cartilage endplate (CEP), low back pain, T2* relaxation time, disc degeneration, ultra-short echo time magnetic resonance imaging (UTE MRI)
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2023.05 ISSLS prize in bioengineering science 2023: Age- and sex-related differences in lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration between patients with chronic low back pain and asymptomatic controls
European Spine Journal
Keywords: disc degeneration, aging, chronic low back pain, T1ρ (T1rho) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), lumbar spine