I have a background in electronics engineering and artificial intelligence, with a professional interest in signal processing, generative modeling, multimodal and physics-guided representation learning, and (medical) imaging systems. Currently, I am doing my PhD in computational MRI working on accelerating multi-contrast MR scans, for e.g. by learning powerful disentangled representations of them and applying in image reconstruction.
Following is a short overview of my publications. For a more complete account, visit my Google Scholar or LinkedIn.
First-Author Journal Publications
- Rao, van Osch, Pezzotti, de Bresser, van Buchem, Beljaards, Meineke, de Weerdt, Lu, Doneva, Staring. “A Plug-and-Play Method for Guided Multi-contrast MRI Reconstruction based on Content/Style Modeling.” (under review a MedIA) (arXiv 2024) (GitHub)
First-Author Conference Papers
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Rao, van Osch, Doneva, Meineke, de Weerdt, Beljaards, Staring. “Analysis of the Information Contribution of Different Contrast Scans in an MRI Examination aided by Content/style Modeling” (ISMRM 2026 (Oral))
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Jabarimani, Rao, Ercan, Dong, Pezzotti, Doneva, Weerdt, van Osch, Staring, Nagtegaal. “Accelerated FLAIR Imaging at 0.6T using T2W-guided Multi-contrast Deep Learning-based Reconstruction using a Zero-shot Approach.” (ISMRM 2025)
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Rao, Beljaards, van Osch, Doneva, Meineke, Schülke, Pezzotti, de Weerdt, Staring. “Guided Multicontrast Reconstruction based on the Decomposition of Content and Style.” (ISMRM 2024 (Oral))
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Rao, Meineke, Pezzotti, Staring, van Osch, Doneva. “Analysis of the Discretization Error vs. Estimation Time Tradeoff of MRF Dictionary Matching and the Advantage of the Neural Net-based Approach.” (ISMRM 2023)
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Traverso, Rao, Briassoulli, Dekker, de Ruysscher, van Elmpt. “Generating Synthetic Hypoxia Images from FDG-PET using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs).” (Radiotherapy and Oncology 2022)
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Rao, Pai, Hadzic, Zhovannik, Bontempi, Dekker, Teuwen, Traverso. “Oropharyngeal Tumour Segmentation using Ensemble 3D PET-CT Fusion Networks for the HECKTOR Challenge.” (HECKTOR at MICCAI 2020)
Collaborations
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van Straten, Rao, Nagtegaal, Breeuwer, van Osch, Börnert, Dong. “Breast Diffusion-Weighted Multi-Shot EPI with Model-Based Deep Learning Reconstruction.” (ISMRM 2026)
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Beljaards, Nagtegaal, Rao, Dong, van Osch, Pezzotti, Doneva, Staring. “DEEP-DISORDER: Motion Correction in 3D MRI via Segment Reconstruction and Registration.” (NMR in Biomed)
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Ilıcak, Rao, Najac, Lena, Imre, Galve, Alonso, Webb, Staring. “Physics-Informed Deep Unrolled Network for Portable MR Image Reconstruction.” (arXiv 2025)
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Gao, Mody, Rao, Dankers, Staring. “On Factors that Influence Deep learning-based Dose Prediction of Head and Neck Tumors.” (PMB 2025)
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Lyu, Rao, Staring, van Osch, Doneva, Lamb, Pezzotti. “UPCMR: A Universal Prompt-Guided Model for Random Sampling Cardiac MRI Reconstruction.”. (STACOM at MICCAI 2024)
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Dong, Lena, O’Reilly, Mach, Rao, Li, van Osch, Webb, Börnert. “Rapid Zero-shot Image Denoising for Quantitative Imaging on a Point-of-Care 46-mT-MRI System.” (ISMRM 2024)
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Mody, Chaves-de-Plaza, Rao, Astrenidou, de Ridder, Hoekstra, Hildebrandt, Staring. “Improving Uncertainty-Error Correspondence in Deep Bayesian Medical Image Segmentation.” (Melba 2024)
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Beljaards, Pezzotti, Rao, Doneva, van Osch, Staring. “AI‐based Motion Artifact Severity Estimation in Undersampled MRI Allowing for Selection of Appropriate Reconstruction Models.” (Med. Phy. 2024)
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Pai, Hadzic, Rao, Zhovannik, Dekker, Traverso, Asteriadis, Hortal. “Frequency-Domain-based Structure Losses for CycleGAN-based Cone-Beam Computed Tomography Translation.” (Sensors 2023)
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Oreiller et al. “Head and Neck Tumor Segmentation in PET/CT: The HECKTOR Challenge.” (MedIA 2022)