Ashish Manohar

Biography

Ashish Manohar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, specializing in medical imaging physics, with an adjunct appointment in the Department of Radiology. Prior to joining UW, he was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University working with Dr. Koen Nieman in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Ashish earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UC San Diego, where he worked with Dr. Elliot McVeigh on cardiac CT imaging.

His research has been supported by American Heart Association fellowships during both his PhD and postdoc, and he is a recipient of the Siemens Healthineers Young Scientist Award.

Outside the lab, Ashish can be found at a live concert, out on a hike or bike ride, on the tennis court, or exploring Seattle's craft brewery scene.

Education

• PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
• MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
• BE, Mechanical Engineering, R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

Previous appointments

• Postdoctoral Scholar, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University

Research Statement

Our research focuses on developing advanced CT imaging methods to improve disease diagnosis and management, with a particular emphasis on cardiovascular disease. We integrate imaging physics, computational modeling, and data-driven analysis to derive quantitative biomarkers of cardiac structure and function.

The group's broad research themes include: 

(1) Imaging physics - patient-specific dose reduction strategies, image standardization techniques, and artifact reduction methods to improve image quality and reliability;

(2) Medical image analysis - automated segmentation, quantitative feature extraction, and ML/AI approaches to derive clinically meaningful biomarkers from medical images;

(3) Computational cardiac mechanics - physics-based and data-driven modeling of cardiac motion and deformation, including estimation of mechanical activation for electrophysiology applications, regional myocardial strain, and ventricular twist/torsion

Select publications

1. Manohar A, Wong A, Castillo E, Gunderson A, Mistelbauer G, Bagherzadeh SP, Haddad F, Caliskan K, Budde RPJ, Hirsch A, Lee SP, Lee W, Owens A, Litt H, Wheeler M, Kwon DH, Tang WHW, Nieman K. Cardiac CT fractal analysis of LV noncompaction and common cardiomyopathies. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr. 2025
2. Vigneault DM, Manohar A, Hernandez A, Wong KT, Kong F, Gegenava T, Nieman K, Fleischmann D. Cardiac computed tomography angiography plane prediction and comprehensive LV segmentation. Medical Imaging with Deep Learning. 2025
3. Manohar A, Yang J, Pack JD, Ho G, McVeigh ER. Motion correction of wide-detector 4DCT images for cardiac resynchronization therapy planning. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr. 2024
4. Manohar A, Colvert GM, Yang J, Chen Z, Ledesma-Carbayo MJ, Kronborg MB, Sommer A, Nørgaard BL, Nielsen JC, McVeigh ER. Prediction of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Response Using a Lead Placement Score Derived From 4-Dimensional Computed Tomography. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2022
5. Manohar A, Colvert GM, Ortuño JE, Chen Z, Yang J, Colvert BT, Bandettini WP, Chen MY, Ledesma-Carbayo MJ, McVeigh ER. Regional left ventricular endocardial strains estimated from low-dose 4DCT: Comparison with cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking. Med Phys. 2022
6. Manohar A, Pack JD, Schluchter AJ, McVeigh ER. Four-dimensional computed tomography of the left ventricle, Part II: Estimation of mechanical activation times. Med Phys. 2022
7. Pack JD, Manohar A, Ramani S, Claus B, Yin Z, Contijoch FJ, Schluchter AJ, McVeigh ER. Four-dimensional computed tomography of the left ventricle, Part I: Motion artifact reduction. Med Phys. 2022

Honors & awards

• Siemens Healthineers Young Scientist Award, 2019
• American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship, 2020
• American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2024
• Stanford Cardiovascular Institute Travel Award, 2025