Khoi Huynh
Postdoctoral Researcher in Radiology · UNC Chapel Hill

Khoi Huynh

Turning brain scans into practical tools.

I am a postdoc at UNC Chapel Hill. Since 2017, I've been working with Dr. Pew-Thian Yap on MR reconstruction, signal representation, noise removal, tractography, and microstructure imaging using diffusion MRI data with applications in neurodevelopment.

I'm especially focused on creating normative brain charts (like the height and weight charts used in pediatric care) to help spot when something's not quite right.

Google Scholar LinkedIn ORCID CV (PDF)
Khoi Huynh

News

Nov 2026 Talk Nanosymposium: Superficial white matter maturation in early childhood at SfN Neuroscience 2026, Washington, DC, USA
Oct 2026 Talk Power pitch: Mapping superficial white matter pathways in the developing brain at IST 2026, Banff, Alberta, Canada
Aug 2026 Journal Brain-wide myelination across the lifespan paper published in Nature Communications
Aug 2026 Abstract Three abstracts accepted for SfN Neuroscience 2026, Washington DC: Superficial white matter maturation in early childhood, Surface mapping of cerebellar microstructure in infancy, and Structure-function coupling in cortical gyri and sulci
Jun 2026 Abstract Abstract accepted for the International Society for Tractography Meeting 2026, Banff: Mapping superficial white matter pathways in the developing brain
May 2026 Talk Oral presentation: Infant Brain Tract Atlas at ISMRM 2026, Cape Town, South Africa
Apr 2026 Award ISMRM Magna Cum Laude Awards at ISMRM 2026: Infant Brain Tract Atlas
Mar 2026 Journal Lifespan functional gradients paper published in Nature
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Selected Work

Featured Nature, 2026

Functional hierarchy of the human neocortex across the lifespan

H.P. Taylor IV, K. Huynh, K.-H. Thung, G. Lin, W. Lyu, W. Lin, S. Ahmad, P.-T. Yap

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Cortical surface maps at birth, 2, 10, 25 and 80 years showing three functional gradients (sensorimotor-association, visual-somatosensory, and a myelin-related axis), each with its distribution curve
Featured Nature Communications, 2026

The shifting landscape of brain-wide myelination across the human lifespan

S. Ahmad, K. Huynh, G. Lin, P.-T. Yap

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Graphical summary of lifespan myelination across 214 brain regions - peak timing in supratentorial versus infratentorial structures, myelination rate for commissural and association fibers, and degree gradients through the cerebral lobes, subcortex, cortical networks, cerebellum and brainstem, with gain-predicts-loss and gain-resists-loss gauges and a starts-first finishes-first timeline
Nature Communications, 2025

Anatomy-to-tract mapping infers white matter pathways without diffusion streamline propagation

Y.-F. Tan, K. Huynh, S. Liu, R. Phan, C.-M. Ting, P.-T. Yap

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Two pipelines compared. Top: diffusion-weighted images to fiber orientation distributions to streamline propagation to a tractogram. Bottom: a single anatomical image through a neural network directly to an inferred tractogram
Nature Communications, 2025

Functional development of the human cerebellum from birth to age five

W. Lyu, K.-H. Thung, K. Huynh, L. Wang, W. Lin, S. Ahmad, P.-T. Yap

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Cerebellar functional networks rendered on a transparent brain in axial, coronal and sagittal views, split into three primary networks (somatomotor, auditory, visual) and five higher-order networks (salience, ventral attention, default mode, executive control, dorsal attention)
Communications Biology, 2025

The effective connectome over a century of human life

G. Li, K. Huynh, K.-H. Thung, H.P. Taylor IV, G. Lin, W. Lin, S. Ahmad, P.-T. Yap

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Network segregation and integration indices plotted from birth to age 100, by sex and by network, with cortical surface maps at years 1, 6, 21 and 60
Patterns, 2024

Optimal shrinkage denoising breaks the noise floor in high-resolution diffusion MRI

K. Huynh, W.-T. Chang, Y. Wu, P.-T. Yap

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Denoising pipeline schematic. Multi-channel complex data is split into blocks, denoised and re-aggregated; the noisy and denoised brain images and diffusion direction maps are shown side by side
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Beyond the Lab

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Hiking

Trail adventures in the mountains

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Camping

Under the stars

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Kayaking

Exploring rivers and lakes

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National Parks

9 / 63 with Truc Nguyen →