Fall 2024
Wednesdays, 12:00 -1:00 PM
106 Stanley Hall
Next seminar:
Wednesday, September 11
12noon – 1:00pm
Stanley Hall, Room 106
“On the Implications of Tiny Signals: The Role of Molecular MRI in Modern Medicine”
Dr. Moriel Vandsburger
Associate Professor of Bioengineering
UC Berkeley
Abstract:
Emerging treatments for heart failure including gene therapy and reparative cell therapy seek to improve cardiac function or replace lost myocardium via targeting of genetic, cellular, and tissue scale mechanisms. Within clinical settings, imaging modalities including cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are used to assess the subsequent impact on global ventricular structure and function, and changes in dense scar tissue. Although such measurements can be performed non-invasively and serially, the macro-level imaging measurements derived from such scans reflect the aggregate effects of changes at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels. Subsequently, when promising therapies fail to demonstrate efficacy, the source of failure often remains unknown. The absence of suitable imaging methodologies represents a fundamental barrier to further development of such treatments. In our lab we utilize a first principles approach to unify changes in myocardial MRI physics properties with advanced pulse sequence design and analysis in order to transform cardiac MRI into a multi-scale molecular imaging tool for unmet needs in cardiology. Using a process of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) we have designed pre-clinical methods to quantify gene transfer following adeno associated viral gene therapy, and to longitudinally quantify cell survival/proliferation following intra-myocardial implantation in mouse models of regenerative cell therapy. In addition, cardiac CEST approaches for imaging of myocardial creatine levels and endogenous contrast fibrosis imaging have been translated to clinical application in obese adults and renal failure patients on routine hemodialysis. When integrated, these approaches can enable serially non-invasive and multi-scale analysis from the level of gene expression up to whole organ function in the failing or healing heart.
Upcoming seminars:
9/18/2024
Robert Krauss, Mt. Sinai Med School
10/2/2024 4-5PM in 105 Stanley Hall
Distinguished Lecture: Angela Belcher, MIT
11/20/2024 4-5PM in 105 Stanley Hall
Rising Star Lecture: Jian Shu, Harvard & MIT
12/4/2024
James Moon, University of Michigan
Don’t miss our annual Distinguished Lecture in Bioengineering and Rising Star Lecture, coming up later this year.
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