CMITT will develop and optimize new PET/MR tools and methods for the biomedical research problems addressed by the projects listed below. The needs of the collaborative projects will drive the development of these new technologies.
Become a collaborative partner
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Collaborative Project Title |
Collaborative Partner |
Institution/Department |
Funding |
Publications |
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Impact of Amyloid and Tau on the Aging Brain: The Harvard Aging Brain Study |
Reisa Sperling |
Brigham & Women’s Hospital Neurology |
P01AG036694 4/2020 – 3/2025 |
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The Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS) Program Project seeks to understand the earliest brain changes that will predict whether an older individual will develop memory loss and eventual cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or whether they will demonstrate resilient brain aging. The study utilizes special imaging tests to detect evidence of the abnormal accumulation of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease, such as amyloid plaques and tau tangles, in the brains of older people who do not yet show any symptoms of the disease. |
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Evaluation of patients with low-risk and intermediate-risk prostate cancer scheduled for high-dose rate brachytherapy using PET and MRI |
Andrei Iagaru |
Stanford University |
R01CA230438 |
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This project will take a targeted approach to improving the detection of prostate cancer (PC), with a focus on early detection of sites of disease that can be treated with local targeted therapy, as well as on assessment of response to these therapies and prediction of progression-free survival at 24 months. 68Ga-RM2 is a synthetic bombesin receptor antagonist, which targets gastrin-releasing peptide receptors (GRPr). GRPr are highly overexpressed in several human tumors, including PC. Because of their low expression in BPH and inflammatory prostatic tissues, imaging of GRPr has potential advantages over current choline- and acetate-based radiotracers. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a cell surface protein significantly overexpressed in prostate cancer cells when compared to other PSMA-expressing tissues such as kidney, proximal small intestine or salivary glands. PSMA provides an excellent target for PC-specific imaging. While both 68Ga-RM2 and 68Ga-PSMA-11 can detect PC, their biodistribution is distinct due to their targeting of different biological processes involved in PC that do not overlap. Therefore, we will evaluate both 68Ga-RM2 PET/MRI and 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/MRI for detection of PC and evaluation of response to local targeted therapy, as well as for prediction of progression-free survival at 24 months. |
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Neuroimaging Studies of Reward Processing in Depression |
Diego Pizzagalli (TR&D 1,2,3) |
McLean Hospital Psychiatry |
R37MH068376 7/2017 – 6/2026 |
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Depression is a major public health problem. However, the heterogeneity of DSM-defined major depressive disorder (MDD) has prevented elucidating the etiology and the pathophysiology of this prevalent disorder. A core feature of MDD is impairment in reward processing, in the form of decreased reward motivation and anhedonia. The goal is to study how stress impacts cortical glutamatergic function, cortico-striatal circuits and striatal dopamine (DA) signaling in depressed patients using MRS, fMRI and 11C-raclopride PET. |
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Gamma Induction for Amyloid Clearance in Alzheimer’s Disease |
Emiliano Santarnecchi (TR&D 1,2,3) |
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Neurology |
R01AG060981 2/2019 – 11/2023 |
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The team has developed novel PET reconstruction approaches and will further develop them using state-of-the-art deep-learning framework. They have developed a novel partial volume correction (PVC) method based on kernel representation that can be used to obtain high resolution PET images. These approaches can be applied to the study of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for amyloid clearance in Alzheimer’s disease. Two PET scans using amyloid-β or tau tracer are performed before and after a transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and ∆DVR obtained from the two-time point measurement is used to quantify the change of amyloid-β plaques or p-tau deposition, respectively, in neurofibrillary tangles. |
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Using Atlas-Driven Imaging for Determining Variations in Velopharyngeal Function Among Children with Cleft Palate and Hypernasal Speech |
Bradley Sutton (TR&D 1,2) |
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Radiology |
R01DE027989 7/2019 – 6/2023 |
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Cleft lip and palate is the most prevalent birth defect in the United States affecting one out of every 577 births. Despite advances in surgery, it is estimated that 25-38% of children with a repaired cleft palate will continue to have hypernasal speech due to insufficient velopharyngeal closure, requiring additional surgeries. Insufficient information is available from current diagnostic technologies to visualize the location of muscles and their quantitative functional arrangement in the child. This research aims to develop a dynamic MRI imaging method with high spatial and high temporal resolution for speech imaging among children with cleft palate and hypernasal speech. |
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Personalizing immunotherapy in HER2+ breast cancer through quantitative imagin |
Anna Sorace |
University of Alabama at Birmingham |
R01CA240589 |
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The aim of this CP is to develop, optimize, and evaluate multiple innovative imaging methods for low-dose PET data to achieve comparable quantitative accuracy as full-dose PET, to reduce image noise and maintain quantitative accuracy in PET. While the imaging developments are generally applicable to all PET tracers in oncology, neurology, and cardiology, since cancer is the primary clinical application of PET, this CP focuses the investigation and optimization on three lung cancer imaging tracers at different clinical adoption stages as examples: 1) 18F-FDG as a routine clinical tracer, 2) 18F-FMISO for hypoxia studies as a tracer for human research, and 3) 18F-PD-L1 that specifically binds to human PD-L1 in tumors and other organs as a recent first-in-human tracer. For each tracer, it will investigate 1) static PET, 2) gated and respiratory motion corrected PET, and 3) dynamic PET. |
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Quantitative UTE MR Imaging: Sensitive Biomarkers for Osteoarthritis |
Jiang Du (TR&D 1,2) |
University of California, San Diego Radiation Oncology |
R01AR062581 |
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Extensive research over the past two decades has focused on two particular biomarkers for osteoarthritis (OA): T2 and T1rho, with T2 sensitive to collagen degradation, and T1rho sensitive to proteoglycan (PG) depletion. The main confounding factor is the magic angle effect, which may result in a several fold increase in T2 and T1rho when the tissue fibers are oriented ~54 degree to the B0 field. This often far exceeds the change produced by disease. In this project, we will further develop a 3D adiabatic-UTE-T1rho sequence for magic angle insensitive T1rho measurement, and a UTE-MT sequence for magic angle insensitive biomarkers of MT ratio (MTR) and MT modeling of macromolecular fractions and exchange rates. We will further evaluate the 3D adiabatic-UTE-T1rho and UTE-MT techniques for evaluation of macromolecules and water components in both short and long T2 tissues in normal knee joint specimens (Aim 1). Then we will compare the novel 3D UTE and clinical sequences for quantitative evaluation of cadaveric human knee specimens with normal, mild and moderate OA (Aim 2). Finally, we will apply 3D UTE-adiabatic-T1rho and UTE-MT techniques to evaluate knee joint degeneration in healthy volunteers and patients 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (Aim 3). |
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Studying Atherosclerosis Macrophage Dynamics by Combined PET and Fluorine- MRI |
Zahi Fayad (TR&D 1, 3) |
ICAHN School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Radiology |
R01HL143814 |
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The goal of this project is to develop an integrated multimodality imaging platform based on fluorine (19F) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nanobody positron emission tomography (PET) that allows studying all aspects of macrophage dynamics in atherosclerosis, through the use of monocyte/macrophage-specific MRI and PET probes. We will employ these techniques to quantitatively map macrophage dynamics in atherosclerotic mice during disease progression and after novel nanoimmunotherapeutic intervention. 19F-MRI will be used to track monocyte egress (E) from the spleen, a process that happens gradually (during atherosclerosis progression) (Aim 1A). Monocyte recruitment (R) to and macrophage accumulation (A) in atherosclerotic plaques will be instead quantified using PET imaging of radiolabeled nanobodies (antibody fragments with ideal pharmacokinetics for vessel wall imaging) targeted against vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM1) (R) and macrophage mannose receptor (MMR) (A) (Aim 1B). Combined 19F-MRI and nanobody PET will be used to map macrophage dynamics during atherosclerosis progression (Aim 1C), and treatment with a novel nanoimmunotherapy based on TRAF6 inhibition – which we show to specifically impair monocyte migration – to either slow down atherosclerosis progression (Aim 2A) or induce atherosclerosis regression (Aim 2B). |
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Alzheimer biomarker consortium – Down Syndrome: NeuroImaging Core |
Bradley Christian |
University of Wisconsin-Madison |
U19AG068054 |
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The ABC-DS Neuroimaging Core will apply state-of-the art PET and MRI neuroimaging techniques to quantitate amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration (AT(N)) in Down syndrome (DS) according to current pathophysiological models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) together with related cerebrovascular, microstructural, and functional biomarkers. The aims of this project are to: (1) oversee the harmonized acquisition of PET and MRI data at each of the 8 clinical performance sites; (2) quantitate primary outcome measures for each neuroimaging modality; (3) integrate the processed neuroimaging data into a ABC-DS database to support the proposed projects; and (4) provide curated primary outcome variables and raw neuroimaging data to the wider scientific community. The overall scanning protocols will follow those developed by the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) for MRI (structural and functional) and PET (amyloid, tau, FDG). The outcome variables are derived by modality-specific analytic nodes, with each modality analyzed by a single laboratory with expertise in that neuroimaging biomarker. The Core will utilize NIA-sponsored resources that currently support ongoing large-scale AD neuroimaging initiatives (e.g. ADNI, Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN)) to provide a fully developed data-access pipeline that encourages scientific investigation of neuroimaging biomarkers in Down syndrome. |
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Evaluation of Ga-68 and FDG for the diagnosis and response to treatment of myocardial inflammation and cardiovascular infections |
Matthieu Galarneau |
Montreal Heart Institute |
Fonds de Recherche |
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This research program aims to study the use of 68Ga and [18F]FDG in cardiovascular infection and inflammation. This program is divided into 4 distinct phases: (1) Development of an optimal protocol for PET imaging with 68Ga for the diagnosis of inflammation and cardiac infection; (2) Development and validation of diagnostic criteria for peri-cardiac PET infections by PET with [18F]FDG and 68Ga; (3) Evaluation of 68Ga in the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac sarcoidosis, diagnosis of peri-cardiac infection and infection of implanted devices, and diagnosis of myocarditis; (4) Evaluation of the use of PET as a biomarker of response to treatment in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis |
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Quantitative Oncologic PET/MR |
Georges El Fakhri |
Massachusetts General Hospital Radiology |
R01CA165221 5/2012 – 4/2024 |
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The goals of this research are to develop novel quantitative methods for simultaneous whole- body (WB) PET-MR imaging, validate these methods in a woodchuck model of spontaneous hepatocellular carcinoma and evaluate their clinical value, compared to PET-CT, in monitoring response to therapy in liver metastases. Simultaneous PET-MR is a novel and promising imaging modality that is generating substantial interest in the medical community and offers the scientific community many challenges and opportunities. Unlike sequentially- acquired WB PET-CT scans, the simultaneous acquisition of MR and PET data can be used to incorporate MR motion and anatomical MR priors within the PET reconstruction model. We hypothesize that the additional MR information will yield substantial improvement of PET in terms of lesion detection and activity estimation. We have formed a multi-disciplinary team that consists of scientists and clinicians to develop quantitative methods for PET-MR and evaluate clinically the improvement that can be achieved over conventional sequential PET-CT. |
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Can [18F]3F4AP detect brain demyelination? Evaluation of novel PET tracer in nonhuman primates and humans |
Pedro Brugarolas |
Massachusetts General Hospital Radiology |
R01NS114066 |
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| Demyelination represents the hallmark of multiple sclerosis (MS) and is also present in other diseases including brain ischemia, traumatic brain injury and even Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, demyelinating diseases are primarily imaged using MRI. Even though MRI is highly sensitive to demyelination, it is not quantitative and it cannot distinguish demyelination from other potentially coexisiting pathological processes such as inflammation or axonal loss. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) can provide quantitative and biochemically specific information to complement MRI. We recently developed a PET radiotracer for demyelination based on the FDA-approved drug for MS 4- aminopyridine (4AP) called [18F]3F4AP. We showed that this tracer be used to detect demyelination in rodent models of MS and that it has good properties for imaging the brain in monkeys. In this project, we seek to investigate the potential of this tracer for imaging demyelination in a model of traumatic brain injury and to validate it in nonhuman primates and humans. The information gathered here will be crucial for the design and interpretation of future human studies. Once validated, this tracer and could contribute to better monitoring of demyelinating diseases and to the development of therapies to reverse demyelination. | ||||
Previous collaborations
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Collaborative Project Title |
Collaborative Partner |
Institution/Department |
Funding |
Publications |
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Dynamic Cardiac SPECT |
Youngho Seo (TR&D 1,2) |
University of California in San Francisco Radiology Department |
R01HL135490 5/2017 – 4/2021 |
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The work on PET/MR imaging technology development and evaluation by research personnel at the UCSF Physics Research Laboratory (headed by Dr. Seo) are primarily in the areas of: a) quantification, b) improved attenuation and motion compensations, c) applications of PET/MRI using standard and novel radiopharmaceuticals. Our group was instrumental in installation and pre-FDA evaluation of the first clinical time-of-flight 3-tesla PET/MRI (GE SIGNA PET/MR) at UCSF, and have continued to work on many aspects of PET/MR imaging since 2014. |
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Quantitative Low Dose PET Imaging |
Chi Liu (TR&D 1,2) |
Yale University Radiology |
R01EB025468 7/2018 – 4/2022 |
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The aim of this CP is to develop, optimize, and evaluate multiple innovative imaging methods for low-dose PET data to achieve comparable quantitative accuracy as full-dose PET, to reduce image noise and maintain quantitative accuracy in PET. While the imaging developments are generally applicable to all PET tracers in oncology, neurology, and cardiology, since cancer is the primary clinical application of PET, this CP focuses the investigation and optimization on three lung cancer imaging tracers at different clinical adoption stages as examples: 1) 18F-FDG as a routine clinical tracer, 2) 18F-FMISO for hypoxia studies as a tracer for human research, and 3) 18F-PD-L1 that specifically binds to human PD-L1 in tumors and other organs as a recent first-in-human tracer. For each tracer, it will investigate 1) static PET, 2) gated and respiratory motion corrected PET, and 3) dynamic PET. |
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Ultrashort Time-to-Echo (UTE) MRI: New Biomarkers for Multiple Sclerosis |
Jiang Du (TR&D 1,2) |
University of California, San Diego Radiation Oncology |
R01 NS092650, 9/2019 – 2/2023 |
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been widely used for the evaluation of MS. Although standard T1- and T2-weighted fast spin echo sequences are highly sensitive in revealing macroscopic tissue abnormalities in the brain of patients with MS, they are not specific to the pathologic substrate of the MS lesion and have a limited prognostic role. We have developed Ultrashort Echo Time (UTE) sequences with minimum nominal TEs of 8 µs that are 100-1000 times shorter than conventional TEs of several milliseconds or longer. These sequences make it possible to directly detect signal from myelin using clinical scanners. |
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MR/PET Imaging of Coronary Atherosclerosis |
Zahi Fayad (TR&D 1,2) |
ICAHN School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Radiology |
R01HL071021 6/2017 – 5/2021 |
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Vascular inflammation is a hallmark of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques, at high-risk for causing acute clinical events. 18F-labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging in combination with computed tomography (CT) has emerged as an accurate, reliable and reproducible tool to quantify vascular inflammation in carotid, aorta and femoral arteries. Recently, novel PET tracers such as 18F- labeled sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) have been used to target many biological processes in atherosclerosis other than inflammation, including active micro-calcification, which appears to be an important marker of unstable atherosclerotic plaques. We are developing and testing methodologies for motion correction using MRI to optimize coronary PET imaging using phantoms and in an in vivo setting. We also examine strategies for partial volume corrections of PET data to improve coronary PET imaging. As the final aim we are using methodologies developed and optimized in our initial aims to evaluate in vivo, combined MR/PET imaging of FDG and NaF uptake in the coronary arteries of individuals following an acute myocardial infarction to determine the ability of these techniques to discriminate between the culprit lesions responsible for the clinical event and a non-culprit vessel. |
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Confounder-Corrected Quantitative MRI Biomarkers of Hepatic Disease |
Scott Reeder (TR&D 1,2) |
University of Wisconsin-Madison |
R01DK100651 6/2014 – 5/2021 |
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Excessive accumulation of iron in various organs, including the liver, is toxic and requires treatment aimed at reducing body iron stores. Measurement of liver iron concentration is critical for the detection and staging of iron overload. Translation of an MRI biomarker of liver iron concentration into broad clinical use requires that it is clinically feasible, precise, robust to changes in scan parameters, calibrated to a validated reference standard of LIC, and is reproducible across sites and manufacturers. There are currently no available MRI methods that meet these requirements. R2*-MRI holds the greatest promise to meet these requirements. The aim of this CP is to validate a rapid magnetic resonance-based confounder- corrected R2* mapping method as a quantitative imaging biomarker of liver iron concentration (LIC). |
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Kernel-Based Nonlinear Learning for Fast MRI with Sub-Nyquist Sampling |
Leslie Ying (TR&D 1,2) |
University of Buffalo, SUNY Biomedical & Electrical Engineering |
R21EB020861 |
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Clinical MRI could benefit from the improved resolution, image quality, and/or reduced acquisition times. To reduce the acquisition time for maximal spatial and temporal resolution, modern MRI protocols usually perform reduced acquisitions below the Nyquist rate. The aim of this CP is to develop a general framework and two specific new techniques to improve the spatial resolution and/or reduce the scan time in magnetic resonance imaging and evaluate the performance of the techniques for 3D parallel imaging and quantitative imaging in brain. Preliminary results on parallel imaging and sparsity-constrained reconstruction demonstrate that the kernel-based algorithms improve the reconstruction quality over the original algorithms with linear prior models. Built upon our strong preliminary results, the objective of this CP is to develop an innovative kernel-based framework for MR image reconstruction from undersampled data. This framework does not require explicit knowledge of nonlinear mapping (as in preliminary work) such that a broader family of nonlinear functions can be explored for different clinical applications. |
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PET measures of Tau and Amyloid Pathology |
Keith Johnson (TR&D 1,2,3) |
Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology |
P01AG036694 4/2020 – 3/2025 |
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The goal of this CP is to evaluate Tau PET measures in the entire Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS) cohort, focusing on testing whether the PET measures of Tau and Aβ are related to each other and to measures of brain structure and function. This research will facilitate the intense efforts currently underway to develop disease-modifying treatments of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), aided by biomarkers of these hallmark lesions that could potentially aid in diagnosis, disease staging, drug development, and treatment monitoring HABS participants are undergoing PiB and T807 PET with a representative subset undergoing longitudinal T807 and FDG PET, in order to achieve the following aims: Aim 1: To characterize T807 PET in the HABS cohort in order to determine the anatomy of specific binding, relate binding to age, gender and APOE genotype, and identify suitable standard proxy measures of global burden and/or its stages of longitudinal change. Aim 2: To assess the interrelationships of Tau and Aβ deposition and their differential impact on regional connectivity, synaptic integrity, brain volume, and CSF markers. Aim 3: To evaluate the longitudinal change in Tau accumulation in relation to Aβ, connectivity, synaptic integrity, atrophy, and CSF markers, as well as to longitudinal cognition. |
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Neurobiological underpinnings of placebo response in depression |
Maurizio Fava (PI), Cristina Cusin, Diego Pizzagalli (TR&D 1,2,3) |
Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology |
R01MH102279 |
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The main goal of the proposed research is to investigate the role of the brain reward system, including dopaminergic (DA) activity in the mesolimbic system, as a mediator of the placebo response in MDD. This is being achieved through a novel integration of behavioral, molecular imaging (i.e., simultaneous PET/MR), and hemodynamic probes of mesocorticolimbic DA pathways within the context of manipulations of psychological constructs previously linked to placebo responses. Together with the team in CP1, we are evaluating the performance of the proposed approaches in a large population of normal and depressed humans subjects. |
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Quantitative Simultaneous Cardiac PET/MR |
Jinsong Ouyang (TR&D 1,2,3) |
Massachusetts General Hospital GCMI |
R01HL118261 |
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The aim of this project is to apply PET-MR methods to myocardium imaging. While PET myocardial perfusion imaging offers the most robust method to evaluate the presence and severity of ischemia, it is currently limited by the degradation due to cardiac, respiratory, and bulk motion. Both cardiac and respiratory motion can be addressed using either gating or MR-based motion correction methods. Bulk motion, however, presents a major problem in cardiac PET although such motion can be minimized by patient cooperation or sedation in pediatric patients. |
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Combined PET and fMRI Imaging of Dopamine and Serotonin Responses in Depression |
Marc Normandin (TR&D 1,2,3) |
Massachusetts General Hospital GCMI |
R01MH100350 |
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The aim of this CP is to refine kinetic modeling methods, develop methods to quantitatively integrate fMRI and PET data, and assess the translational value of these methods to study dopamine and serotonin transmission in clinical depression. |
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Disentangling the contribution of Tau to aging and AD |
Keith Johnson (TR&Ds 1,2) |
Massachusetts General Hospital/HMS |
R01AG046396 6/1/2014-2/28/2019 |
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The aim of this CP is to detect the tau neurofibrillary tangles using PET tracers. The P41 team are developing direct and joint parametric estimation of multiple imaging time points. We estimate the region-wise rate of Tau distribution volume ratio (DVR) change using the multilinear reference tissue model (MRTM). The approach treats consecutive PET scans as a single data unit, preserve Poisson noise in all the projection data, incorporates an anatomical prior, estimate rate of DVR change directly. |
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Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R) |
Daniel Sodickson Fernando Boada (TR&Ds 1,2,3) |
New York University, School of Medicine |
P41EB017183 9/30/2014 – 7/31/2019 |
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The Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R) pursues a mission of bringing people together to create new ways of seeing. They work to create new paradigms for the acquisition, reconstruction, and interpretation of biomedical images. They implement new models of interdisciplinary collaboration in order to rapidly translate new technological developments into clinical practice. They discover new knowledge, invent new technologies, and develop new devices to advance medical imaging and improve human health. |
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Primary prostate cancer imaging with mpMRI, PET/MR and PET/CT for localization and grading |
David Townsend (TR&Ds 1,2,3) |
National University of Singapore / A*Star |
National Cancer Institute of Singapore (NCIS) 7/1/2014-6/30/2018 |
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Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer related death for men worldwide and the third most common cancer in Singapore men. In most cases primary diagnosis relies only on digital rectal examination, serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) and ultrasound-guided-biopsy. The aim of this study is to perform primary prostate cancer imaging with multiparametric MRI (mpMRI), PET/MR and PET/CT with focus on localization and grading: Investigating the use of mpMRI, PET/MRI and PET/CT to provide combined structural, metabolic, and functional information, in the diagnostic process of PCa, especially for primary PCa localization and grading. The attenuation and motion corrections and the point spread function (PSF) modeling in TR&D 1 and 2 can be directly applied to our PET/MR system and greatly improve the quality of the PET/MR images. In addition, the advanced parametric imaging technology developed in the TR&D 2 and 3 will help get a better kinetic modeling of our data. |
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RF-Penetrable PET Ring for Simultaneous TOF PET&MRI Data |
Craig Levin (TR&Ds 1,2,3) |
Stanford University |
R01EB019465 6/1/2015-5/31/2019 |
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They propose to create and explore a radio-frequency (RF)-penetrable positron emission tomography (PET) system technology that can be inserted into a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system for acquiring simultaneous PET/MRI data. Integrated PET/MRI has risen to the cutting edge of medical imaging technology, showing promise to be a powerful tool in disease characterization as it enables the simultaneous measurement of molecular, functional, and anatomical information in soft tissues of the body. Their lab is addressing cost issues by creating the world’s first RF-penetrable PET ring, which can in principle be inserted into any existing MR system, while still allowing use of the built-in MR RF transmit coil. Under this collaboration, the proposed dedicated MR image correction sequences (TR&D 1) will be acquired simultaneously with the PET insert present in the MRI, enabling a single overall patient scan. Motion estimates and PSF modeling (TR&D 1) will help to reduce blurring and increase image resolution, which is particularly useful given the high spatial resolution of the PET insert. The MR forward model including coil sensitivity (TR&D 1&2) will improve the MR image quality obtained from the custom high-sensitivity receive coil integrated into the PET insert. |
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Heart Failure: Prevention through early detection using new imaging methods |
Frank Prato (TR&Ds 1,2,3) |
U of Western Ontario, CAN Lawson Health Res Institute |
Ontario Research Fund RE07-021 (3/2014-06/2020) |
Pub links |
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This lab is involved in the PET/MRI imaging of cardiac diseases that lead to heart failure. Their focus is to improve early diagnosis of disease to limit disability caused by chronic disease/conditions. PET/MR technologies make it possible to measure, with a sensitivity that has never been possible before, heart tissue disturbances that lead to heart failure. These include cardiac imaging of innervation, blood flow, metabolism, inflammation, cell death and hemorrhage. The main limitation to incorporating the PET signal has been the limited spatial resolution of the latter and the work proposed in TR&D1 and 2 allows to finally achieve a spatial resolution in the 3 mm range by correcting for cardiac motion and respiratory motion, as well as deblurring detector response in a non-stationary way. Furthermore, the simultaneous kinetic modeling of the PET and MR signals proposed in TR&D 3 into a unified framework will allow us to reduce the noise associated with the identification of the kinetic parameters, which will be key in the atrial region |
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BIOCM Trial: Early identification of predictive biomarkers of response to cancer drug therapy |
Alberto Cuocolo (TR&Ds 1,2) |
University Frederico II Naples/Nuclear Medicine |
European Community E66J14000080007 11/1/2013-10/31/2018 |
Pub links |
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The aim of this funded project within the Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences at the University Frederico II is early identification of predictive biomarkers of response to standard and novel drug therapy in oncologic patients. The partner IRCCS SDN Nuclear Medicine Imaging Center is equipped with a Siemens PET/MR scanner and is involved in this work to assess genomic screening to evaluate up to 84 different micro RNA from oncologic patient referred to SDN for pre-surgery and pre-treatment evaluation with PET/MR scan. The main goal of this project is to identify diagnostic and prognostic micro RNA and the potential role of integrated information from simultaneous PET/MR data and micro RNA biomarkers. The specific aims of this funded project are to contribute in: 1) Early identification of oncologic patient, 2) Appropriate categorization of oncologic patients in responders and non responders as a function of the performed therapy, 3) Identification of patients who need an earlier follow up with respect to recurrence risk, 4) Evaluation of tumor characteristics such as the lesion vascularization. |
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Center for electron paramagnetic resonance imaging in vivo physiology |
Howard Halpern (TR&D 3) |
University of Chicago |
P41EB002034 9/30/1999-5/31/2018 |
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In collaboration with researchers at the University of Denver and the University of Maryland, the Center for Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) Imaging in Vivo Physiology aims to create new imaging technologies in order to better visualize the tissues of living animals. The EPR imaging technology under development by the Center has powerful implications for the treatment of cancers, strokes, peripheral vascular diseases and heart attacks. The subproject is to leverage the extensive work done on constrained image reconstruction in Liang’s group to improve the efficiency and quality of EPRI pO2 mapping. |
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Simultaneous PET/MR longitudinal assessment of severe TBI: the case of tauopathy |
Louis Puybasset (TR&Ds 1,2,3) |
Hospital Pitie Salpetriere Medicine |
Association Nationale de la Recherche ANR854958 8/1/2015-7/31/2018 |
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability, leading to great personal suffering for patients and relatives and huge costs to society. There is now evidence for white matter change over a long time period after TBI causes permanent cognitive, behavioral and sensorimotor impairments many years after the injury. In line with recent studies on repeated head injury, we hypothesize that this post-TBI processes are characterized by neuro-inflammation and tau protein deposition similar to that found in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The main objective of the Tau TBI project is to describe the dynamical sequence of pathological events following TBI – initial diffuse axonal injury, tau deposition, myelin deterioration, brain atrophy, functional changes and clinical impairments – and, then, to propose a model of disease progression. This CP will benefit from all TR&D 1-3 Projects: (1) motion correction in subjects who are frequently unable to refrain from movement due to their injuries, (2) TOF-based attenuation correction that handles well the implants and equipment that often accompany the subject into the scanner, (3) use of TEMPO to assess oxidative stress over the course of injury and recovery in animal models of mild (repeated mild concussion) and severe traumatic brain injury, and (4) assessment of changes in neurotransmission and mitochondrial function accompanying injury. |
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Dual-Tracer PET/MR as Imaging Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma |
Tzu-Chen (Dorothy) Yen* (TR&Ds 1,2,3) |
Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan |
CIRPG3D0111, CGMH/MOST-Taiwan 2/1/2016-1/31/2019 |
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| Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks as the second most common cause of cancer death for both men and women in Taiwan. Only approximately 20% of HCC patients are appropriate candidates for surgery. Dual-tracer (11C-acetate: ACT & 18F-FDG: FDG) PET probing both fatty acid and glucose metabolism has been shown to have excellent sensitivity in detection and characterization of primary HCC. MR imaging has shown better diagnostic performance than conventional CT in patients with cirrhosis or small hepatic lesions, Functional MRI techniques including intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) have also shown potentials in the management of HCC patients. The objectives for staging are to assess the PET tracer uptake pattern (more ACT-avid or more FDG-avid) and functional MR characteristics of the target tumor, and to determine which subtypes of tumors will be most susceptible for either therapy in terms of local control and overall survival rates. The objectives for response assessment are to assess whether dual-tracer PET/MR will perform better than standard contrast-enhanced triphasic CT for response evaluation. However, quantitation of liver tumor will be adversely affected by respiratory motion. The CIRPG project will directly benefit from Project TR&D1 as it will allow to perform motion correction for PET/MR imaging in the hepatic tumors, providing more accurate quantitation data during longitudinal imaging assessment.
The image reconstruction in TR&D2 is important for our Aim 2 to improve the visibility of smaller tumor lesions and lower radiotracer uptake post treatment. Beyond the reconstructed values, the kinetic modeling of membrane potential proposed in TR&D 3 for oncologic imaging will be used in our setting to determine whether the constant rates provide more insightful information on the status of our patients than the SUV values that we currently use. |
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PET/MRI guided radiotherapy |
Georges El Fakhri (TR&Ds 1,2) |
MGH, Harvard Radiology |
R21EB021710 7/1/2016-4/30/2019 |
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The overall goal of this project is to develop and validate a novel image guidance approach to radiotherapy of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) for accurate clinical target delineation and assessment of treatment response using simultaneous PET/MRS. |
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