Dan Benjamini, Ph.D.

Research in the Multiscale Imaging and Integrative Biophysics (MiiB) Unit focuses on understanding how biological processes associated with aging reshape brain structure and function and contribute to vulnerability to neurodegenerative disease. Our work combines advanced magnetic resonance imaging with cellular, tissue-based, and translational models to uncover the biological mechanisms that give rise to measurable imaging changes in the brain. A central goal of the Unit is to bridge the gap between microscopic processes–such as neuroinflammation, changes in cellular and tissue architecture, metabolic dysfunction, and neurodegeneration–and the macroscopic signals measured noninvasively in living individuals. To achieve this, we integrate studies of experimental systems and human brain tissue with advanced, multidimensional MRI approaches that are sensitive to tissue microstructure and heterogeneity. These complementary strategies allow us to identify the cellular determinants of MRI contrast, validate imaging signatures against underlying pathology, and translate mechanistic findings across biological scales. In parallel, we apply these imaging tools in longitudinal studies of human aging to investigate how brain microstructure changes across the lifespan and how these changes relate to cognition, molecular biomarkers, and disease risk. Ultimately, our goal is to develop biologically interpretable imaging biomarkers that can distinguish healthy aging from early pathological change and improve the detection, characterization, and monitoring of neurodegenerative disease.

After finishing his undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering in Israel’s Tel Aviv University, Dan Benjamini moved to the USA in 2012, where through an NIH graduate partnership program he completed his Ph.D. in the lab of Peter Basser in 2015. He was a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow with Peter Basser at the NICHD from 2015 to 2018. During his tenure he won the Giulio Cesare Borgia Prize for Young Researchers at the 2016 International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Porous Media for his work on accelerating multidimensional MRI acquisition. Dr. Benjamini went on to serve as a Staff Scientist at the Neuroradiology–Neuropathology Integration Core of the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine from 2018 to 2021. In 2021, Dr. Benjamini received the Stadtman Investigator Award at NIH and joined NIA's Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience as a Tenure-Track Investigator. He is currently serving as a Principal Investigator and the Chief of the Multiscale Imaging and Integrative Biophysics (MiiB) Unit.