Elizabeth M. C. Hillman
HERBERT AND FLORENCE IRVING PROFESSOR AT THE ZUCKERMAN INSTITUTE AND PROFESSOR OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING AND RADIOLOGY (PHYSICS)
351 Engineering Terrace
Mail Code 8904
Elizabeth Hillman’s research focuses on the development of novel biomedical imaging and microscopy techniques that use light (optics) to capture information about the structure and function of living tissues.
Research Interests
Novel biomedical imaging and microscopy techniques using optics.Her research to date has encompassed both the demonstration of new optical techniques and imaging paradigms, as well as studies of fundamental physiology, particularly related to the relationship between blood flow and neuronal activity in the living brain (neurovascular coupling). Hillman’s work in this area has contributed new knowledge about the cellular mechanisms and neural underpinnings of the hemodynamic signals detected in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Major technological contributions have included the development of dynamic contrast methods for small animal imaging (DyCE), the application of in-vivo meso-scale ‘wide-field optical mapping’ (WFOM) to studying neurovascular coupling, and the recent development of swept, confocally-aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscopy. Her teaching at Columbia has focused on advanced microscopy, biomedical imaging, and disruptive design and commercialization.
Hillman joined the faculty of Columbia University in 2006. She holds a BSc and MSc in Physics (1998) and a PhD in Medical Physics and Bioengineering (2002) from University College London, London, UK.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
- Assistant Physicist, Department of Radiology, Mass General Hospital, 2005-2006
- Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Martinos Center for Biomedical Engineering, Mass General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 2003-2005
- Welcome Trust Graduate Research Assistant, University College London, 1998-2002
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Herbert and Florence Irving Professor at the Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University, 2020 -
- Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering, 2017 –
- Professor, Radiology (Physics), Columbia University, 2017 –
- Member, Columbia Zuckerman Mind brain Behavior Institute, 2012 –
- Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia, University, 2011 –
- Tenured Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering, 2013 – 2017
- Tenured Associate Professor in Radiology, Columbia University, 2013-2017
- Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering, 2011-2013
- Associate Professor, Radiology, Columbia University, 2011-2013
- Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering, 2006-2011
- Assistant Professor, Radiology, Columbia University, 2006-2011
- Instructor in Radiology, Harvard, 2005-2006
- Manager of In-vivo Spectroscopy, Argose Inc. Waltham, 2002-2003
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- Optical Society of America (OSA) (Elected Fellow 2015)
- The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) (Elected Fellow 2017)
- American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (Elected Fellow 2017)
- Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
- International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism (ISCBFM)
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
- Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics (SBMT)
- American Heart Association
GRANT SUPPORT
- NIH BRAIN Initiative 5U01NS094296-01 (PI Hillman)
- SCAPE microscopy for high-speed in-vivo volumetric microscopy in behaving organisms
- NIH R01 NS076628 (PI Hillman)
- Imaging the neuronal and metabolic basis of resting state connectivity mapping
- NIH R01 NS063226 (PI Hillman)
- In-vivo optical imaging of neurovascular coupling and cerebral metabolism
- Columbia Data Science Institute, ROADS Provost Ignition grant (co-PI Zheng)
- Dissecting Spatiotemporal Brain Dynamics
- Kavli Foundation pilot project grant (co-PI Behnia)
- Tracing visual circuits in the fly brain using SCAPE: a novel, fast, whole-brain imaging technique
- Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership (PI Hillman)
- SCAPE-Tech Pathfinder
- Columbia University RISE Program (co-PI Lev)
- Predicting Volcanic Eruptions Using Real-time 4D+ Microscopy of Bubble Interactions in a Solid-Liquid Mush
- MURI, W911NF-12-1-0594 (PI Yuste)
- Imaging how a neuron computes
- R01HL13143801 (PI Targoff)
- Mechanisms of second heart field development regulated by NKX genes
HONORS & AWARDS
- SPIE 2018 Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award, 2018
- Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2017
- Fellow, Society of Photonics in Industry and Engineering (SPIE), 2017
- Fellow, Optical Society of America (OSA), 2015
- Adolph Lomb Medal from the Optical Society of America (OSA) for contributions to Optics before the age of 35, 2011
- NSF CAREER Award, 2010
- Rodriguez Junior Faculty Award, Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2008
- Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Young Investigator Award, 2007
- Wallace H Coulter Foundation Early Career Award, 2006
- Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship (funding PhD work; stipend and research costs), 1998-2002
- Top overall undergraduate in Physics and Astronomy, University College London, UK, 1995-1998
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Xu L, Li W, Voleti V, Zou D, Hillman EMC†, Stuart Firestein†, "Widespread Receptor Driven Modulation in Peripheral Olfactory Coding". Science. 368(6487). (2020), †equal contribution.
- Voleti V, Patel KB, Li W, Perez Campos C, Bharadwaj S, Yu H, Ford C, Casper MJ, Yan RW, Liang W, Wen C, Kimura KD, Targoff KL, Hillman EMC. Real-time volumetric microscopy of in vivo dynamics and large-scale samples with SCAPE 2.0. Nature Methods. 16(10):1054-62. (2019).
- Anikeeva P, Boyden E, Brangwynne C, Cisse, II, Fiehn O, Fromme P, Gingras AC, Greene CS, Heard E, Hell SW, Hillman EMC, Jensen GJ, Karchin R, Kiessling LL, Kleinstiver BP, Knight R, Kukura P, Lancaster MA, Loman N, Looger L, Lundberg E, Luo Q, Miyawaki A, Myers EW, Jr., Nolan GP, Picotti P, Reik W, Sauer M, Shalek AK, Shendure J, Slavov N, Tanay A, Troyanskaya O, van Valen D, Wang HW, Yi C, Yin P, Zernicka-Goetz M, Zhuang X. Voices in methods development. Nat Methods. 2019;16(10):945-51.
- Montgomery MK†, Kim S†, Dovas A†, Patel K, Mela A, Humala N, Zhao H, Thibodeaux D, Shaik M, Ma Y, Grinband J, Chow D, Schevon C, Hillman EMC†, Canoll P†, "Glioma-induced alterations in neuronal activity and neurovascular coupling during disease progression". BioRxiv. Sep;10. (2019), †equal contribution.
- Xu L, Li W, Voleti V, Hillman EMC†, Stuart Firestein†, "Widespread Receptor Driven Modulation in Peripheral Olfactory Coding". BioRxiv. Sep;08. (2019), †equal contribution.
- Hillman EMC, Voleti V, Li W, Yu H, “Light sheet microscopy in neuroscience”, Annu Rev Neurosci. 42:295-313 (2019).
- Vaadia RD†, Li W†, Voleti V, Singhania A, Hillman EMC†, Grueber WB†. "Characterization of Proprioceptive System Dynamics in Behaving Drosophila Larvae Using High-Speed Volumetric Microscopy". Current Biology 29, 935–944 (2019), †equal contribution.
- Hillman EMC, *Voleti V, *Patel K, *Li W, *Yu H, *Perez-Campos C, *Benezra SE, Bruno RM, *Galwaduge PT. “High-speed 3D imaging of cellular activity in the brain using axially-extended beams and light sheets”. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 50:190-200. (2018).
- Shaik MA, Hillman EMC. “Skip the salt: your brain might thank you.”, Nat Neurosci. Feb;21(2):154-155. (News & Views) (2018).
- Miller J, Wang ST, Orukari I, Prior J, Sudlow G, Su X, Liang K, Tang R, Hillman EMC, Weilbaecher KN, Culver JP, Berezin MY, Achilefu S. “Perfusion-based fluorescence imaging method delineates diverse organs and identifies multifocal tumors using generic near-infrared molecular probes.”, J Biophotonics. Apr;11(4):e201700232 (2018).
- Nguyen HD, Ullmann JFP, McLachlan GJ, Voleti V, Li W, Hillman EMC, Reutens DC, Janke A, "Whole-volume clustering of time series data from zebrafish brain calcium images via mixture modeling". Stat Anal Data Min: The ASA Data Sci Journal,11:5–16. (2018).
- Marcu L, Hillman EMC. “In vivo Optical Imaging / Intravital Microscopy.”, J Biophotonics. Jun;10(6-7):760-761. (2017).
- Tang M, Gao G, Rueda CB, Awano T, Engelstad KM, Sanchez-Quintero M-J, Yang H, Li F, Li H, Su Q, Shetler KE, Jones L, McConathy J, Thibodeaux DN, Yu H, Seo R, Hillman EMC, Noebels JL, De Vivo DC, Monani UR, “Brain microvasculature defects and Glut1-deficiency syndrome averted by early repletion of the Glucose Transporter-1 protein”, Nature Communications, 8:14152. (2017).
- Ma Y, Shaik MA, Kozberg MG, Kim SH, Portes JP, Timerman D, Hillman EMC. "Resting-state hemodynamics are spatiotemporally coupled to synchronized and symmetric neural activity in excitatory neurons." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. PNAS, 113 (52) E8463–E8471 (2016).
- Kozberg MG, Ma Y, Kim SH, A. SM, and Hillman EMC, "Rapid postnatal expansion of neural networks occurs in an environment of altered neurovascular and neurometabolic coupling". J Neurosci, 36(25): 6704-6717 (2016).
- Ma Y, Shaik MA, Kim SH, Kozberg MG, Thibodeaux DN, Zhao HT, Yu H., and Hillman EMC, ‘Wide-field optical mapping of neural activity and brain haemodynamics: considerations and novel approaches’. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 371 p. 1705 (2016).
- Bouchard MB, Voleti V, Mendes C, Lacefield C, Grueber W, Mann R, Bruno R, Hillman EMC, “Swept, confocally aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscopy for ultra-fast, volumetric microscopy of behaving organisms”, Nature Photonics, 9, 113–119 (2015).
- Galwaduge PT, Kim SH, Grosberg LE, Hillman EMC, "Simple wavefront correction framework for two-photon microscopy of in-vivo brain," Biomed. Opt. Express 6, 2997-3013 (2015).
- Hillman EMC, "Out for Blood", Scientific American MIND, July / Aug (2014).
- Hillman EMC, "Coupling Mechanism and Significance of the BOLD Signal: A Status Report", Annual Reviews, Neuroscience, 37, (in press) (2014).
- Chen BR, Kozberg MG, Bouchard MB, Shaik MA2, Hillman EMC, "A critical role for the vascular endothelium in functional neurovascular coupling in the brain", JAHA, 3: e000787, (2014).
- Kozberg M, Chen BR, De Leo SE, Bouchard MB, Hillman EMC, "Resolving the transition from negative to positive BOLD in the developing brain", PNAS, 110(11):4380-5 (2013).
- Hillman E. M. C and Moore A, "All-optical anatomical coregistration for small animal molecular imaging using dynamic contrast", Nature Photonics, 1 (9), 526 - 530, (2007).