April Khademi

Dr. April Khademi serves as Canada Research Chair in AI for Medical Imaging and Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University. She maintains dual appointments as Affiliate Scientist at Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science and Senior Scientist/Innovation Specialist at GE Healthcare's Pathology Innovation Centre of Excellence (PICOE).

Education:

• PhD, University of Toronto (2012)
• MASc, Toronto Metropolitan University (2006)
• BEng, Toronto Metropolitan University (2004)

Research Focus: Dr. Khademi pioneers AI-driven medical image analysis with emphasis on automated MRI biomarker detection for neurodegenerative diseases and digital pathology cancer characterization. Her work bridges machine learning with clinical applications in radiology, pathology, and neurology to transform diagnostic workflows through objective, rapid analysis systems that reduce human error.

Publication Trends: Her recent research demonstrates leadership in large-scale collaborative medical imaging initiatives, particularly in dementia cohort harmonization and multiple sclerosis lesion segmentation. These works establish standardized AI frameworks for national clinical data integration while addressing critical challenges in color normalization, unsupervised proliferation indexing, and cross-institutional MRI analysis.

Scientific Recognition:

• Google Canada and Anita Borg Scholar Award
• NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Doctoral Scholarship
• Governor General’s Gold Medal
• L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Scholarship

Academic Leadership: As Editor for Frontiers in Biomedical Engineering and committee member for IEEE ICASSP 2021 and ICPR 2020, she shapes AI in digital pathology research. Her Canada Research Chair supports translation of algorithms into clinical practice through partnerships with Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) and St. Michael's Hospital.

Research Infrastructure: She directs the Image Analysis in Medicine Lab (IAMLAB) while contributing to the Neuroimaging Platform of CCNA and the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science & Tech (iBEST), driving innovation from algorithm development to clinical implementation.