Project description
Novel contrast agents that stay visible longer enhance medical imaging
The ability to non-invasively visualise the human body has played a critical role in enhancing the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of numerous diseases. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging is one of those powerful imaging techniques that helps clinicians see cells and tissues and observe physiological processes. Signal enhancement methods have been developed to overcome sensitivity challenges of NMR and molecules with highly enhanced signals have in recent years been introduced as contrast agents for biomedical imaging. However, these agents are only active for a couple of minutes. The EU-funded HyperULFNMR project is designing functional contrast molecules for a class of NMR devices that will have significantly longer lifetimes and simultaneously reveal molecular coupling patterns, spurring advances in both research and diagnostics.
Objective
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful technique that is widely applied for chemical analysis, structural biology and for medical imaging. Despite its versatility, NMR is inherently insensitive. To overcome sensitivity challenges, hyperpolarization methods were developed that enhance NMR signals by over 10,000-fold. Hyperpolarized molecules have mainly been used in standard high-field imaging as contrast agents to directly observe metabolism. Most of the contrast agents have a traceability of up to 3 minutes until the hyperpolarized signal is depleted, limiting the scope of applications. Contrast agents that are observable for longer time periods (> 10 minutes) hence promise new opportunities to probe physiological function in vivo, exceeding the state-of-the-art. Long hyperpolarization storage is especially possible in many chemicals species at ultra-low magnetic fields (< 10 millitesla), more than 1000-fold lower than typical NMR systems. My overarching goal is to introduce a novel concept of functional contrast agents using the advantages of ultra-low field (ULF) NMR spectroscopy. I will show that these contrast agents are even of interest for cancer diagnostics. In addition to a long traceability, different structural information of molecules become available in the ULF regime that I am planning to explore to design contrast agents: Changes of electron-mediated couplings between nuclear spins of different elements can be determined with unprecedented precision in the ULF regime. I have already extensively worked on this challenge and have constructed ULF-NMR devices and analyzed how molecules change their coupling patterns under ULF conditions. In addition, I have made great progress in designing molecules that can be hyperpolarized and the polarization stored for tens of minutes. Success in this project will open a gate towards better functional magnetic resonance, both for research purposes and for affordable cancer diagnostics.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG
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80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
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