Dr. Venkatagiri Krishnamurthy is a translational neuroimaging researcher advancing how vascular and neural mechanisms drive functional recovery after stroke, including language and broader cognitive outcomes. He is the co-director of the B.I.G. Stroke Imaging Lab and holds the appointments of assistant professor in the Department of in the Department of Medicine in the Emory University School of Medicine and as a research scientist in the Atlanta VA Medical Center.
Dr. Krishnamurthy develops vascular‑informed MRI biomarkers—multi‑PLD CBF and CVR transfer‑function measures (gain/phase)—to characterize lesion, perilesional, and collateral physiology and improve prognostic accuracy for individualized rehabilitation. He also leverages multi‑echo resting‑state fMRI (ME‑rsfMRI) to map echo‑specific patterns of network reorganization that differentiate responders from non‑responders to standard care, offering mechanistic insight that complements biomarker‑based stratification. His program integrates Bayesian tensor‑based longitudinal modeling to quantify treatment‑related neuroplasticity and concurrent tDCS–fMRI to reveal how neuromodulation shapes large‑scale networks in chronic stroke and aphasia.
Extending beyond stroke, his multimodal biomarker research links cerebral blood flow, neurometabolites, and cardiorespiratory fitness to cognitive aging, delivering imaging‑based frameworks that enhance prognosis and guide precision rehabilitation for persons recovering from stroke‑related communication, cognitive, and functional deficits.
Dr. Krishnamurthy has received local, national, and international recognition, including VA Research Day first-place awards, Emory Researcher Appreciation recognition, NIH Early Career Reviewer selection, and multiple invited talks.
He serves as topic co-editor for special issues in Frontiers in Neurology and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, and as a reviewer for VA CDA, VA RR&D, and NIDCD fellowship panels. His grant portfolio spans major federal agencies and foundation partners, with multi-million dollar total support, including a recently completed VA CDA 2 as PI, and supporting VA Merit Awards, NIH DP2, DoD TERP, and the AHA Early Career Award as a Co-I. He is also PI on the competitive Emory I³ Synergy Award, supporting 7T MRI biomarker development.
His funded scientific domains include cerebrovascular physiology, aphasia neurorehabilitation, neuromodulation, multimodal MRI, aging and cognition. His leadership extends across Emory and the VA, where he mentors trainees at all levels and contributes to national scientific review panels and collaborative VA research initiatives.
Together, his honors, funding achievements, and scientific leadership underscore a rapidly advancing career at the intersection of neural and cerebrovascular physiology, rehabilitation, and precision medicine.
Dr. Krishnamurthy earned his PhD in biomedical engineering from the joint program of the University of Texas Arlington and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
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