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The premise is really simple: each time the fantastic hosts Tim and Giannis invite one senior academic to discuss their favourite publication from the recent literature.
Pour yourself a nice glass of wine and join us as we delve into recent literature, and perhaps learn a little from the minds that have shaped the field.
We’ll find out what caught their eye, and why it is worth taking a closer look at this particular publication. Along the way, we will learn about their publication strategies and possibly even glimpse into the future of this amazing field of research.

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Latest Edition 12/2023

Episode #10: Kevin Brindle, Cambridge

In this episode we welcome the one and only Kevin Brindle from University of Cambridge.

During his long and illustrious career, Kevin pioneered hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a method to map metabolic flux in cancer and other diseases, with implications for treatment response monitoring.

We explicitely explore how deuterium imaging and [18F]FDG PET can be used to track the metabolic changes that occur soon after stroke and during the recovery phase. We discuss the complementary information that these two techniques provide and whether they could be used to improve clinical outcomes.

Along the way, we learn how Kevin could have worked in structural biology or been a painter and decorator… and how he used to meet his wife-to-be in the cold room when he was a postdoc at Oxford!

Selected publication:

In vivo imaging of cerebral glucose metabolism informs on subacute to chronic post-stroke tissue status – A pilot study combining PET and deuterium metabolic imaging.

Meerwaldt AE, Straathof M, Oosterveld W, van Heijningen CL, van Leent MM, Toner YC, Munitz J, Teunissen AJ, Daemen CC, van der Toorn A, van Vliet G, van Tilborg GA, De Feyter HM, de Graaf RA, Hol EM, Mulder WJ, Dijkhuizen RM. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2023 May;43(5):778-790. doi: 10.1177/0271678X221148970. Epub 2023 Jan 6. PMID: 36606595; PMCID: PMC10108187.

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About the Guest

Kevin is Professor of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute.

His early work studied enzyme kinetics in cells and tissues using molecular genetics, isotope exchange and magnetization transfer. He is known for developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for use in cell biochemistry and new imaging methods that give an early indication of tumour treatment response.

Kevin took his BA in Biochemistry at Oxford University in 1978, before earning a D.Phil in 1982. He became a Royal Society University Research Fellow, also at Oxford, in 1986. Four years later, he took up a lectureship at Manchester University and came a lecturer at Cambridge in 1993 and has been a professor there since 2005. 

He served as ESMI President from 2028-2029 and has received numerous awards and recognition for his work.

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About the Hosts

Tim Witney is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and Reader in Molecular Imaging at King’s College London’s School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences. His Group’s research focuses on the development of next-generation imaging tools for cancer diagnosis, monitoring of therapeutic response, and detection of drug resistance. Tim has been serving as member of the ESMI Board since 2018, and became Secretary in 2023.

Giannis Zacharakis is a Principal Researcher at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser – Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH – IESL) in Heraklion, Crete and the Head of the Laboratory for Biophotonics and Molecular Imaging. Giannis was elected as ESMI Vice President in 2018 and served as President from 2019 to 2020.

Tim Witney, London & Giannis Zacharakis, Heraklion

About the music

  • Andreas Jacobs – violin
  • Jacob Niller – accordion
  • Wolfgang Platen – contrabass

All of you who attended the EMIM 2021 in Göttingen certainly remember Andreas – one of the society’s founding fathers and past presidents – on stage playing the violin. Together with two young, talented musicians, he recorded Olecht Konflytt* again for the special occassion of becoming the “Dive into Imaging Science” theme – we could not be more grateful!

*composer: Guido Jäger “Olecht Konflytt”

LATEST Edition | 12/2023

Guest: Kevin Brindle, Cambridge

In vivo imaging of cerebral glucose metabolism informs on subacute to chronic post-stroke tissue status – A pilot study combining PET and deuterium metabolic imaging.

Meerwaldt AE, Straathof M, Oosterveld W, van Heijningen CL, van Leent MM, Toner YC, Munitz J, Teunissen AJ, Daemen CC, van der Toorn A, van Vliet G, van Tilborg GA, De Feyter HM, de Graaf RA, Hol EM, Mulder WJ, Dijkhuizen RM. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2023 May;43(5):778-790. doi: 10.1177/0271678X221148970. Epub 2023 Jan 6. PMID: 36606595; PMCID: PMC10108187.

Download as full text

Check here for all podcast editions