Advanced MR Techniques for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Dr. Chan received her BSc and PhD degrees from The University of Hong Kong. She conducted post-doctoral research in biomaterials and medical imaging with a focus on MRI at Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2010, and became the Assistant Professor in 2014. She joined The City University of Hong Kong in 2016. Her research focuses on the development of biomaterials and imaging techniques to facilitate the clinical translation of cell therapy and cancer therapy. This includes the use of an emerging MRI contrast mechanism for molecular imaging, which is known as chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST). She published over 30 peer-reviewed articles, including the cover article in Nature Materials. Paul G Unschuld works in the Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) and University of Geneva (UniGE), Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Peter C.M. van Zijl is a research scientist at Kennedy Krieger Institute, as well as the founding director of the F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging. He is also a professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. van Zijl’s present research focuses on developing new methodologies for using MRI and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) to study brain function and physiology. In addition, he is working on understanding the basic mechanisms of the MRI signal changes measured during functional MRI (fMRI) tests of the brain. Other interests are in mapping the wiring of the brain (axonal connections between the brains functional regions) and the design of new technologies for MRI to follow where cells are migrating, and when genes are expressed. A more recent interest is the development of bioorganic, biodegradable MRI contrast agents. The ultimate goal is to transform these technologies into fast methods that are compatible with the time available for multi-modal clinical diagnosis using MRI. He is especially dedicated to providing a comfortable scanning environment for children, where they can enjoy the experience in the MRI scanner. Dr. Linda Knutsson is a Professor at the F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute. She also is a Professor of Medical Radiation Physics at Lund University, Sweden and group leader of the MR-physics group in Lund (40 members). Dr. Knutsson’s research is mainly focused on perfusion (microvascular blood flow) and perfusion-related measurements using MRI. The main target parameters are cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, mean transit time, permeability and oxygen extraction fraction. Relevant methods that Dr. Knutsson is working with are arterial spin labelling (ASL), dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI and dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI. Dr. Knutsson’s research also includes an emerging technique called chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI to retrieve perfusion and perfusion related parameters using natural sugar. For her research contributions she received the Kurt Lidén’s Award - 2015, from the Swedish Society of Radiation Physics.

• 1: IntroductionPart 2: Basics of the relevant MRI technology (Acquisition, analysis and interpretation for neurodegenerative diseases)2. Perfusion2.1. Arterial Spin Labelling2.2 Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI2.3 Dynamic Susceptibility MRI2.4 Flow (MRA, CSF, large vessel2.5 Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer and Magnetization Transfer Contrast2.6 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy2.7 Resting State fMRI2.8 Microscopic Diffusion Imaging2.9 Susceptibility Weighted imaging and Quantitative Susceptibility MappingPart 3: Imaging the glymphatic system3.1 Glymphatic system3.2 DCE MRI of glymphatic system3.3 MRI methods for in vivo imaging of CSF dynamics without contrast agentsPart 4: Neurodegenerative diseases and neurovascular pathology - current state-of-art in MRI4.1 Alzheimer’s disease4.2 Vascular dementia and cerebral small vessel disease4.3 Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia4.4 MRI in Huntington’s disease4.5 Advanced MRI in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): neuroimaging from the group level to individual subject analysis4.6 Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis