The network is organized in 6 WPs including 3 scientific research WPs, a WP for Dissemination and Exploitation, a WP for Training and a last WP for management. The preliminary results of the 5 WPs are the following:
• WP1 “Next generation methodology for enhanced MRS(I) in (pre-)clinical research and use” has developed 3 tasks including 1) a multi-echo MRS in single excitation implemented as basis for fingerprinting acquisition, spectra simulation, improved data fitting by incorporating multi-parameter approach into jMRUI through plugin for FiTAID and machine learning implementation and tests have been initiated for fingerprinting, 2) high-speed MRSI methods implemented in a prostate clinical application at 3T and on a heteronuclear (Deuterium) 7T MR system to increase spatial and temporal resolution, 3) diffusion-weighted MRS STE-LASER techniques implemented on a preclinical 14.1T system in a C hepatic encephalopathy rodent model. These works have led to 8 conference communications and 8 journal publications.
• WP2 “Multi-parametric and multimodal metabolic imaging approaches for (pre)-clinical application” has developed 3 tasks including 1) development of methods for simultaneous MR/PET in brain tumor of rodent model, 2) 3D semi-LASER MRSI of the prostate w/o water suppression in human volunteers and 3) multiparametric MRI/MRS (QSM, T2*, T1, MRS) combined with dopamine receptor-sensitive PET scanning in Tourette syndrome. These works have led to 38 conference communications and 11 journal publications.
• WP3 “Boosting processing techniques for quantitative clinical MRS(I) and multimodal analysis by machine learning methods” has developed 3 tasks including 1) pre-processing and fusing longitudinal multimodal data into jMRUI, 2) integrate automatic pipeline into a user-friendly visualization tool, 3) design unsupervised, semi-supervised and supervised classifiers (deep learning) for diagnosis and prediction of disease progression in brain tumors and multiple sclerosis. These works have led to 10 conference communications and 10 journal publications
• WP4 « Communication, Dissemination & Exploitation »: A website has been developed for presentation of the project and the activities performed. Despite the current “Covid”, the ESR are encouraged in participating to virtual conferences, and submitting conference abstracts and journal publications to largely disseminate the project results.
• WP5 « Training programme »: the 15 ESRs have been enrolled in doctoral studies hosted the university organizations and are fully integrated in their respective research laboratories. Most of the secondments have been postponed to 2021 due to Covid-19 and virtual exchanges have been intensified. Meanwhile three Workshops (MRS, jMRUI, machine learning) could be organized virtually due to the Covid-19.
