"Imaging Human Brain Metabolism Exploiting Ultra-High Field MRI"
Metabolic MRI allows observing energy metabolism, neurotransmission, second messaging, endocrine signaling, antioxidants, protein metabolism and dynamic membrane processes in the human brain and spinal cord. Related quantitative metabolic imaging biomarkers are beneficial for differential diagnostics, monitoring of treatment response and patient stratification in various neurological and psychiatric disorders and yield complementary information to structural and functional imaging. To visualize related metabolic processes my lab develops methodology for highly spatially and temporally resolved metabolic imaging exploiting magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) and non-proton imaging at 3T, 7T and 9.4T with application in the human brain and spinal cord.
In vivo 1H MRS/MRSI, CEST and non-proton MRI/MRSI (1H, 31P, 13C, 23Na, 2H, 39K) allow for non-invasive and non-ionizing determination of tissue concentrations and metabolic turn-over rates of more than 20 metabolites and ions and specifically benefits from ultrahigh field strength with regard to spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. However, specific physical challenges have to be overcome to fully exploit the advantages of ultrahigh field MR at > 7T for human application. Hence my laboratory also invests into the development of enabling technology for ultrahigh field MRI including scan hardware such as radiofrequency coils and static magnetic field shimming, numerical optimization of these setups and is able to perform respective safety assessment to allow for application in humans. The lecture will give an overview about our recent ultra-high field metabolic human MRI work at 7T and 9.4T.
About the Speaker
Anke Henning, Ph.D., an expert in medical imaging technology development, has been Director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center since January 2019.
A former research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, Dr. Henning has developed novel magnetic resonance imaging methods for noninvasive visualization of disease-related structural, functional, and metabolic changes in the human brain, spinal cord, and heart.
Her expertise is in ultra-high field magnetic imaging technology, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and non-proton imaging. She also directs clinical research with respect to brain imaging in psychiatric disorders, spinal cord imaging in traumatic injury, and imaging of the human heart. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Henning has expanded her research interests as a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar in Cancer Research to include imaging glioblastoma with the ultimate goal of enhancing the treatment of this aggressive, incurable brain cancer.
She obtained a master’s degree in physics from the Technical University of Chemnitz in Germany and her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (also known as Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or ETH). She remained at the ETH for postdoctoral training and soon became project leader of the MR Spectroscopy activities. During that time, she also spent a short-term stay as a visiting scientist in the Department of Radiology at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She joined the Max Planck Institute in 2012 and in 2017 was made a full Professor of Medical Physics at the Ernst-Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany.
