Biography
An MRI physicist by training, Deoni's formative work focused on the development of novel MR imaging sequences to highlight and characterize brain tissue at increasing levels of detail. He earned his PhD in Medical Biophysics at the Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, Canada, with post-doctoral fellowships at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences at King’s College, London UK, and the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, Oxford University, UK. He is a member of the Advanced Baby Imaging (ABI) lab, which started at Brown University in 2009 and has since migrated to Hasbro Children’s and Rhode Island Hospital. This work now bridges basic MRI physics and longitudinal studies of neurodevelopment, with the aim of understanding the factors that promote healthy child development.
The primary focus of Deoni's research is characterizing and understanding the genetic, environmental, and equality factors that shape early brain development and ultimately later cognitive behavioral and academic outcomes. Although he is based in the US, this work has global significance as he collaborates closely with groups across high and lower-income settings to better understand how social and gender inequality, maternal autonomy, nutrition, and educational access and quality impact infant and child brain health. The foundation of this research is the development of advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to interrogate brain tissue and microstructure at high levels of detail. As the PI of NIH (USA), MRC (UK), and CIHR (CANADA), as well as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded grants, Deoni has developed and applied neuroimaging methods to characterize development trajectories in healthy neurotypically developing children, as well as in the context of poverty, nutritional deficits, and early intellectual and developmental disorders.