An understanding of spin quantum coherence and symmetry is crucial to the development and application of modern pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques for the study of restricted diffusion and cellular biochemical exchange processes as well as imaging thereof.

General goals of research for the Kiruluta group are in the development of novel theory and experiments in MNR physics, with applications to fundamental problems in biophysics and biochemical processes, as well as medical imaging. Current research topics include high resolution diffusion probing with NMR to study transport phenomena in porous media and complex flow, to 'inverse-image' the underlying confining geometry of diffusing molecules including chemical exchange and molecular transport of small molecules to determine compartment sizes and their related apparent diffusion coefficients in the presence of homonuclear scalar couplings. A related current area of research interest is diffusion tensor imaging as applied to mapping neural interconnectivity in the brain.