Magnetic Particle Imaging for Cancer Imaging and Treatment Monitoring

Abstract: Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a rapidly emerging biomedical imaging modality. MPI takes advantage of the nonlinear magnetization response of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to image their spatial distribution. Human tissues do not exhibit a similar response, hence they are completely transparent in MPI images. This desirable feature makes MPI a very high contrast tracer imaging modality. Unlike other tracer imaging modalities such as PET, MPI does not utilize any radioactive tracers of ionizing radiation for imaging. Since its first introduction in 2005, MPI has evolved rapidly in terms of both hardware development and image reconstruction schemes, and has found important applications such as angiography, stem cell imaging, and cancer imaging. This presentation will introduce the imaging principles of MPI and its potential functional imaging applications, in the light of our efforts in National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM) of Bilkent University. Particularly, this presentation will discuss how the relaxation response of MNPs are affected by environmental properties such as viscosity and temperature, and present techniques for simultaneous viscosity and temperature mapping of the MNP environment for cancer imaging and treatment monitoring.

 

Short Bio: Dr. Saritas graduated with B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University in 2002. She was awarded the Lucent Technologies Stanford Graduate Fellowship for her graduate studies at Stanford University at the Department of Electrical Engineering. There, she received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 2004 and 2010, respectively. She then joined the Department of Bioengineering at University of California, Berkeley as a Siebel Stem Cell Institute Postdoctoral Fellow. She has been a faculty member at Bilkent University since September 2013. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2015 "Young Scientist Outstanding Achievement Award" given by TUBA, the 2016 "Young Scientist Award" (BAGEP) given by Bilim Akademisi, and the 2019 "Incentive Award" given by TUBITAK. She has also received the Distinguished Teaching Award of Bilkent University in 2018. Dr. Saritas is currently serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, and as the chair of IEEE Turkey Engineering in Medicine & Biology (EMB) Society. She has previously served as the chair of IEEE Turkey Women in Engineering (WIE) Society.