Timothy P.L. Roberts

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Timothy Roberts, PhD

Vice Chair of Research, Department of Radiology

Dr. Roberts investigates brain-wave scanning with magnetoencephalography (MEG) and works to identify biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders like autism. Those biomarkers are for diagnosis, prognosis, stratification, and response monitoring as well as substrate identification for targeted therapy. Putting the "bio" into biomarkers is a major emphasis of Dr. Roberts' research, for which he also uses advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and edited spectroscopy.

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Bio

Dr. Roberts holds the Oberkircher Family Chair in Pediatric Radiology and is vice chair for Research in the Department of Radiology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as well as professor of Radiology and adjunct professor of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania.

He directs the Lurie Family Foundations MEG Imaging Center at Children's Hospital, one of the larger clinical and research MEG facilities in the United States, with three MEG devices and a staff of approximately 50 faculty, postdocs, graduate students, research assistants, and technologists.

Dr. Roberts' work in multimodal, 4D/5D functional imaging using biomagnetic recording (MEG) as well as advanced MRI techniques (such as diffusion tensor imaging and edited magnetic resonance spectroscopy), specifically in the study of auditory processing and language in autism spectrum disorders and the pursuit of imaging biomarkers, has been supported by the National Alliance for Autism Research, Autism Speaks, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Simons Foundation, Clinical Research Associates, the Department of Defense, and through multiple awards from NIH.

He additionally serves or has served as the primary mentor of five junior faculty supported by NIH "K"awards and has active research endeavors, beyond the field of autism, in schizophrenia, TBI and Parkinson's Disease, as well as methodological development.

He has published in excess of 300 scientific papers, 30+ book chapters, and given a large number of international invited presentations, mostly in the field of physiologic and functional imaging. In addition to actively reviewing grant proposals and serving on executive committees and editorial boards, in 2018 Dr. Roberts hosted the International Meeting on Biomagnetism (Biomag), the premier meeting in its field. He is a "Distinguished Investigator" of the Academy for Radiology Research.