Title:
"Molecular Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cancer using Core/Shell Nanoparticles"

February 4 2020 at 4:15 pm in aula A 1-08.​ Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Barbara Błasiak (Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences).

Curriculum vitae of the speaker

Announcement about the seminar
 

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been used for early cancer detection, treatment monitoring and image guided surgery. MRI has excellent spatial resolution and soft tissue contrast but low specificity. Standard contrast enhanced MRI based on tumors vasculature, including Gd-based T₁ contrast agents, does not provide sufficiently high specificity for tumor diagnosis and thus contrast agents providing T₂ contrast have been applied to provide information on tumor specificity. To improve the tumor contrast we have developed core/shell NaDyF₄/NaGdF₄ nanoparticles changing both T₁ and T₂ relaxation times of surrounding water molecules and conjugated them with tumor specific antibodies. The relaxation times (T₁ and T₂) of the nanoparticles with various score/shell sizes and concentrations were measured at 9.4T and 3T to find the optimum T₁/T₂ ratio for MRI. T₁- and T₂-weighted images using core/shell nanoparticles of the animal models of brain, breast and prostate cancer were collected and combined to provide enhanced contrast and edges.

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