Projektbeschreibung
Verknüpfung bildgebender Verfahren für feine Hirnstrukturen mit Biophysik
Die Magnetresonanzbildgebung (MRT) kann in Verbindung mit biophysikalischen Computermodellen Metriken von Gewebe im Mikrometerbereich liefern. Der Mangel an Daten zur Validität dieser Modelle in verschiedenen Fällen behindert jedoch derzeit ihre klinische Anwendung. Das vom Europäischen Forschungsrat finanzierte Projekt MRStain zielt darauf ab, diesen Ansatz anhand von Hirnschnittbildern von Menschen mit Temporallappenepilepsie in großem Maßstab zu validieren. Das Projektteam wird die gewonnenen Daten in ein neues Modell zur Identifizierung von Zielhirnregionen für Operationen integrieren und möchte so die Behandlung von Epilepsie und ähnlichen neuropsychiatrischen Erkrankungen deutlich verbessern. MRStain wird nicht nur eine Feindarstellung der Mikrostrukturen des menschlichen Gehirns ermöglichen, sondern auch eine nicht-invasive Alternative zu den derzeitigen klinischen Standards bieten.
Ziel
Ex-vivo histology is the gold standard to investigate human brain microstructure. However, its invasive nature precludes its use in monitoring disease progression and the investigation of the pathophysiological origin of neurological disorders. MRStain will address this shortcoming by exploiting the sensitivity of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) signal to estimate aggregated histological metrics in the human brain non-invasively. Like established histology staining methods (e.g. myelin-basic protein), MRStain will be sensitive to changes in cellular populations, axons, myelin, and iron. This will be achieved by augmenting the MRI measurements with computational biophysical models, which can disentangle tissue metrics at the micron-scale using the macroscopic spatial resolution (1–4 mm) of MRI. However, the clinical use of these models has not been employed because their validity and generalizability across disease trajectories has yet to be tested against the ex-vivo histological gold standard.
This project will address this shortcoming by generating a globally unique multi-modal dataset that combines novel in-vivo and ex-vivo MRI techniques with biophysical models as well as cutting-edge large-scale 3D histology. The project will benefit from a unique translational university hospital environment where large sections of freshly excised brain tissue from drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy patients (TLE, 80 sections of about 3 x 2 x cm^3) can be examined, enabling in-vivo MRI-based biophysical tissue parameters to be validated against their histological gold standard. I will develop an MRStain model to identify TLE relevant changes that will achieve a paradigm shift in how epilepsy is treated by identifying target brain areas for surgery that will help to predict seizure-free outcome after surgery. The final validated MRStain models will also pave the way for similar noninvasive investigations of other neuropsychiatric diseases with unprecedented precision.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thema/Themen
Finanzierungsplan
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsGastgebende Einrichtung
23562 Lübeck
Deutschland