Cardiodiabetological Flux Imaging

Cardiovascular diseases present a major global health challenge. This underlines the need to investigate early, preclinical functional distortions along the cardiometabolic continuum in order to enable early detection and the preservation of health. As part of the CARDDIAB (CARDiovascular research in DIABetes) research project, we are contributing to this goal by developing and applying magnetic resonance (MR)-based methods for non-invasive in vivo metabolic phenotyping.

Our research focuses on the development and application of MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), including ¹H and X-nuclei such as ²H,¹³C, and ³¹P, as well as chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST). These approaches enable the non-invasive assessment of metabolite levels, metabolic pathways, substrate utilization, and energy turnover in living systems. In particular, we will use labeled substrates and hyperpolarized ¹³C tracers to capture metabolic processes in real time.

A long-term goal of our work is to translate these technologies from preclinical models to clinical applications. Additionally, we explore how the various molecular MR techniques complement one another, leveraging their unique strengths while overcoming their individual limitations. 

In parallel, we develop open-source software for MRSI that covers the entire workflow, including experiment simulations, sequence design, data processing, and reproducible quantification. Our goal is to improve the accessibility, standardization, and clinical applicability of modern MR-based metabolic imaging.

Research topics:

Our key research topics include:

• Development of novel metabolic and molecular imaging techniques
• Developing open-source MRSI tools to improve accessibility and standardization
• Identification of imaging-based surrogate markers using metabolite signals
• Clinical translation of developed MR-based molecular imaging methods