Dynamic PET-MRI for integrated quantification of molecular immune responses and their vascular consequences
Principal investigators: Philipp Backhaus, Florian Büther
Project number: CRC 1450 B06
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024

The aim of the project is to elaborate synergistic links between PET and MRI in a hybrid PET-MRI system by dual dynamic recordings of arterial input functions and pharmacokinetic modelling (1). A framework to deduce the PET arterial input function from MRI will be established by performing simultaneous recordings in animals, and finally tested in patient scans (2, 3).
Building on this, approaches will be evaluated to integrate MRI-derived information on perfusion and permeability into PET modelling in mouse models of ischemia driven inflammation in the heart and kidney (4) to uncover and better understand unspecific radiotracer uptake phenomena (5, 6).

Team
Principal investigators
- Backhaus, Philipp, Dr. med.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, UKM & European Institute for Molecular Imaging - Büther, Florian, Priv.-Doz. Dr. rer. medic.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, UKM & European Institute for Molecular Imaging
Project members
- Cufe, Juela
Department of Nuclear Medicine - Gierse, Florian
European Institute for Molecular Imaging
Publications
The names of the principal investigators in our network have been bolded. Publications released prior to 2021, when funding for our network commenced, represent previous project-related work.
2022
Backhaus P, Burg MC, Asmus I, Pixberg M, Buther F, Breyholz H-J, Yeh R, Weigel SB, Stichling P, Heindel W, Bobe S, Barth P, Tio J, Schafers M. Initial Results of FAPI-PET/MRI to Assess Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer. J Nucl Med 2022Abstract |
Backhaus P, Burg MC, Roll W, Buther F, Breyholz H-J, Weigel S, Heindel W, Pixberg M, Barth P, Tio J, Schafers M. Simultaneous FAPI PET/MRI Targeting the Fibroblast-Activation Protein for Breast Cancer. Radiology 2022;302: 39-47. Abstract |
2020
Backhaus P, Buther F, Wachsmuth L, Frohwein L, Buchholz R, Karst U, Schafers K, Hermann S, Schafers M, Faber C. Toward precise arterial input functions derived from DCE-MRI through a novel extracorporeal circulation approach in mice. Magn Reson Med 2020;84: 1404-1415. Abstract |
Backhaus P, Roll W, Beuker C, Zinnhardt B, Seifert R, Wenning C, Eisenblatter M, Thomas C, Schmidt-Pogoda A, Strunk D, Wagner S, Faust A, Tuttelmann F, Ropke A, Jacobs AH, Stummer W, Wiendl H, Meuth SG, Schafers M, Grauer O, Minnerup J. Initial experience with [(18)F]DPA-714 TSPO-PET to image inflammation in primary angiitis of the central nervous system. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2020Abstract |
Buther F, Jones J, Seifert R, Stegger L, Schleyer P, Schafers M. Clinical Evaluation of a Data-Driven Respiratory Gating Algorithm for Whole-Body PET with Continuous Bed Motion. J Nucl Med 2020;61: 1520-1527. Abstract |
Foray C, Barca C, Backhaus P, Schelhaas S, Winkeler A, Viel T, Schafers M, Grauer O, Jacobs AH, Zinnhardt B. Multimodal Molecular Imaging of the Tumour Microenvironment. Adv Exp Med Biol 2020;1225: 71-87. Abstract |
Zinnhardt B, Muther M, Roll W, Backhaus P, Jeibmann A, Foray C, Barca C, Doring C, Tavitian B, Dolle F, Weckesser M, Winkeler A, Hermann S, Wagner S, Wiendl H, Stummer W, Jacobs AH, Schafers M, Grauer OM. TSPO imaging-guided characterization of the immunosuppressive myeloid tumor microenvironment in patients with malignant glioma. Neuro Oncol 2020;22: 1030-1043. Abstract |
2018
Backhaus P, Noto B, Avramovic N, Grubert LS, Huss S, Bogemann M, Stegger L, Weckesser M, Schafers M, Rahbar K. Targeting PSMA by radioligands in non-prostate disease-current status and future perspectives. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2018;45: 860-877. Abstract |
Büther F, Ernst I, Frohwein LJ, Pouw J, Schafers KP, Stegger L. Data-driven gating in PET: Influence of respiratory signal noise on motion resolution. Med Phys 2018;45: 3205-3213. Abstract |
2017
Noto B, Buther F, Auf der Springe K, Avramovic N, Heindel W, Schafers M, Allkemper T, Stegger L. Impact of PET acquisition durations on image quality and lesion detectability in whole-body 68Ga-PSMA PET-MRI. EJNMMI Res 2017;7: 12. Abstract |
2016
Buther F, Vehren T, Schafers KP, Schafers M. Impact of Data-driven Respiratory Gating in Clinical PET. Radiology 2016;281: 229-238. Abstract |
2014
Schäfers KP, Bolwin K, Büther F, Hermann S, Jacobs AH, Kösters T, Kuhlmann M, Schäfers M, Viel T. High-Resolution Small Animal Imaging. In: Comprehensive Biomedical Physics 2014;Elsevier, Oxford: 181-211. Abstract |