YBII Spotlight: Helene Benveniste

Community is a core value of Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute and is essential to our pursuit of collaborative and interdisciplinary science. Read more about our spotlight featuring Helene Benveniste, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist and faculty member in the Department of Anesthesiology. She earned her MD and PhD from the University of Copenhagen and received advanced MRI research training at Duke University and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Q: What problem are you most excited about right now, and why now?

A: What I am most excited about right now is imaging and quantifying nodal lymph flow at the level of the cervical lymph nodes. The specific goal is to understand the proportion of brain drainage directed toward the lymph nodes versus systemic circulation, as well as the adverse effects that impaired lymphatic drainage can have on brain health. In other words, when downstream drainage pathways become bottlenecks, brain fluid flow and waste clearance can be critically compromised. We are currently investigating this in a model of cerebral small vessel disease in the setting of chronic hypertension.

Q: What’s a term or misconception from your field you wish more people understood?

A: The term 'brain waste clearance' is often used imprecisely—even among scientists working in the field of glymphatics. This ambiguity stems largely from the lack of consensus in the field, driven by the wide variety of methods used to measure it. A key source of this confusion lies in the complexity of the process itself: for true brain waste clearance to occur, solutes within the CSF must first exchange with the brain's interstitial space, and the resulting waste-laden fluid must then exit the brain entirely.

Q: What’s a hypothesis you’re currently testing, or a question you’re trying to de-risk?

A: We are currently testing the hypothesis that cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD), in the context of chronic hypertension, disrupts the coupling between the glymphatic and lymphatic systems by impairing drainage at the level of the cervical lymph nodes — a mechanism that may independently contribute to the pathogenesis of cSVD.

Q: What’s a collaboration that worked especially well, and what made it work?

A: My current collaborations with Dr. Graeme Mason, Dr. Douglas Rothman, and Dr. Xenophon Papademetris have been working extremely well. Several key elements have been instrumental in making these collaborations exceptionally productive and fulfilling. First and foremost, our complementary areas of expertise have allowed us to approach complex scientific questions from multiple angles, enriching our work in ways that would not be possible individually.

Equally important has been our commitment to the open exchange of knowledge—sharing insights, methodologies, and findings freely and generously. This culture of intellectual openness has accelerated our progress and strengthened the quality of our research outcomes.

Finally, the equitable sharing of responsibilities and recognition has been a defining feature of our partnership. By ensuring that contributions are acknowledged fairly and that workloads are distributed thoughtfully, we have cultivated a collaborative culture built on mutual respect—one that motivates everyone involved to bring their very best to the table.

Q: What advice would you give to someone entering your subfield?

A: Familiarize yourself with the old and new literature on CSF and brain solute transport and be precise when posing and exploring ‘metrics’ of the glymphatic-lymphatic systems.

Q: How can people connect with you?

A: The best way to reach me is via email: helene.benveniste@yale.edu