Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics
Professor of Imaging Chemistry and Head of Department of Imaging Chemistry and Biology
Chair of Cardiovascular Imaging
Professor of Perinatal Imaging & Health
Director, Insititute for Women & Children's Health
Professor of PET Chemistry
Chair of Clinical Cancer Imaging
Professor of Imaging Science
Head of the PET Centre and Professor of Imaging and Neuroscience
Centre Manager for the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering
Professor of Neuroimaging Analytics
Community Engagement Officer
Professor of Healthcare Engineering
Head of Cardiovascular Imaging
Vice President (Research)
Professor of Imaging Sciences
Professor in Biomedical Engineering and the Head of Education at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences
Professor of Perinatal Imaging
Chair in Computational Imaging
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Public and Patient Engagement Coordinator
Public Engagement Manager
Professor in Neuroimaging (Analysis & Statistics)
Professor of Interventional Image Computing
Professor of Neuroimaging
Computational science
Using artificial intelligence, machine & deep learning and computer modelling to improve diagnostics, patient stratification and outcome prediction.
Physics and engineering
To improve the image acquisition, reconstruction and hardware associated with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
Interventional engineering
Expanding our translational research capabilities by developing robotic systems for surgery and medical interventions.
Imaging chemistry
Imaging Chemistry with Metallo-radiochemistry, Translational Carbon and Fluorine PET Chemistry and Cell Tracking to develop new PET tracers and cell‐based therapies.
Other project
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Enablers
Aim: to support highly-talented early career researchers to allow them to pursue their own research schemes and obtain independent funding: 6 Fellowships awarded to date.
Awardees:
- Tobias Wood, ‘Silent Quantitative Magnetization Transfer MR Imaging’
- Colm McGinnity, ‘Quantification of brain stiffness via magnetic resonance elastography in refractory focal epilepsies’
- Teresa Matias Correia, ‘Fully quantitative high-resolution free-breathing first-pass perfusion cardiac MRI for assessing myocardial ischemia’
- Rui Teixeira, ‘Establishing MRI as reproducible and motion robust measurement tool’
- Marta Varela, ‘Predicting the outcome of atrial fibrillation patients using CINE-MRI and convolutional neural networks’
- Esther Puyol, ‘Building artificial intelligence based tools for better stratification of heart failure patients’
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New Postdoc (Finishing PhD) Fellowship Enablers
Aim: to support outstanding PhD students who are about to complete their studentship with funding for up to a year’s salary plus consumables to enable them to obtain data and experience to use towards a fellowship application in the future.
Awardees:
2018:
- Camila Munoz, ‘Synergistic Motion-corrected PET-MR Reconstruction for Cardiac Sarcoidosis Diagnosis’
- Ed Waters, ‘Novel biomarkers for non-invasive in vivo imaging of REDOX with PET’
2020:
- Hannah Greenwood, ‘Imaging radiation response and resistance in lung cancer with [18F]FSPG positron emission tomography’
- George Keeling, ‘Do nanoparticulate environmental pollutants enter the brain when inhaled nasally? A potential answer from SPECT and PET in humans’
- Emil Ljunberg, ‘Silent, Motion Insensitive, Neuroimaging with Self-Navigated Zero TE MRI’
- Cian Scannell, ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled quantitative cardiac magnetic resonance in the clinic’
- Daniel West, ‘High-resolution motion corrected quantitative brain imaging’
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Scan Charge Awards
Aim: to provide support for early career researchers who need preliminary data to support fellowship applications or to cover access costs not able to be funded by other means. 28 projects funded to date
Awardees:
2018:
- Francis Man, ‘PET imaging of activated platelets in cancer metastasis’
- Peter Gawne, ‘Prostate Cancer-Targeted Liposome Tracking Using Positron Emission Tomography’
- Alkystis Phinikaridou, ‘Detection of fibrosis in deep vein thrombosis using a T1rho MRI sequence’
- Teresa Matias Correia, ‘Quantitative free-breathing first-pass myocardial perfusion MR’
- Joanna Bartnicka, ‘PET imaging of prostate cancer with 64CuCl2’
- Claudia Prieto Vasquez, ‘Multicontrast Whole-heart PET-MR Imaging for Heart Failure Risk Assessment’
- Tom Eykyn/ Begona Lavin Plaza, ‘eNOS-/- mice fed with HFD develop a progressive non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) which is partially reversible with antihypertensive and hypoglycemic therapy investigation at 9.4T & 3T’
- Anastasia Polycarpou/ Samantha Terry, ‘PET imaging of complement activation in a murine model of heart inflammatory disease’
- Salvatore Bongarzone, ‘In Vivo PET imaging of carbon-11 vitamin biotin’
- Marios Politis, ‘Tracking myelin longitudinal changes in vivo with [18F]Florbetaben PET and MRI in patients with Multiple Sclerosis: 1-year Follow up’
- Marta Varela, ‘Creation of 3D maps of atrial mechanics using high-resolution free-breathing CINE-CMR’
- Colm McGinnity, ‘In vivo molecular mechanisms of memory impairment in human focal epilepsy (pilot study)’
2019:
- Ayse Sila Dokumaci, ‘Cardiac MR Elastography using Simultaneous Multi Slice Imaging’
- Azalea Khan, ‘PET tracking of neutrophil microvesicles in rheumatoid arthritis’
- Enrico De Vita, ‘Motion Robust fetal metabolic profiling with MR Spectroscopy’
- Gemma Modinos, ‘Mapping cortical GABA circuit disruption by advanced multimodal in vivo imaging’
- George Keeling, ‘Novel Ga-68/67 Complexes Based on Tris(hydroxypyridinone) (THP) Conjugates for PET Imaging and Radionuclide Therapy’
- Kuberan Pushparajah, ‘Maternal hyperoxygenation in diagnostic fetal imaging (FIMOx) for congenital heart disease (CHD)’
- Madeleine Lafrate / Gilbert Fruhwirth, ’In vivo validation of a new non-immunogenic reporter for cell tracking in oncology’
- Malene Fischer/ Sally Barrington, ‘Siderophores for Imaging Infection: A first-in-human pilot study using a tracer (68Ga-DFO) as proof of concept that siderophores can image bacterial infection in vascular grafts
- Mattia Veronese/ Eugene Kim, ‘3OMG-CEST: MRI Imaging of Brain Glucose Transporters Easily Translatable into Humans’
- Xenios Milidonis, ‘Development of a multi-compartmental synthetic myocardium for assessment and validation of quantitative first-pass perfusion MRI’
- Rachael Morris, ‘EXERT: Exercise Physiology after Thrombosis. A single centre, prospective pilot study’
- Salvatore Bongarzone, ‘Radiovitaminomics: Determining the in vivo trafficking of Vitamin B3 (Niacin) using PET imaging’
- Samantha Terry / Tim Whitney / Michelle Ma, ‘Non-invasive imaging of macrophages in tumours using a novel Zr-89-labelled antibody,
- Siti Nurbaya Yaakub, ‘Focal Cortical Dysplasia in Adults with Epilepsy at 7T’
- Jonathan Shapey, ‘7T diffusion MRI of the facial-vestibulocochlear nerve complex’
- Cath Williamson, ‘KHP R&D Challenge Fund award: Impact of cold exposure on metabolic regulation in children with NAFLD’
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Pump Priming
Aim: To encourage collaboration, future funding, and routes to commercialisation
- Jana Hutter, ‘Detecting risks created during pregnancy: the placenta - heart axis’
- Kavitha Sunassee, ‘Assessment of novel particle platform technology: for tracking cancer cells and nuclear delivery of Auger Emitting Radionuclides for therapy’
- Tim Witney, ‘High throughput PET/CT imaging using a multiple mouse imaging system’
- Carole Sudre, ‘An integrated neurovascular pathology score: prediction of cognitive and clinical outcome’
- Ozlem Ipek, ‘7T neonatal brain and cardiac receiver array design’
- Seb Roujol, ‘XMRI scanning towards the project with Imricor titled, ‘Advanced imaging of MRI-compatible interventional devices’
- Steve Connor, ‘MRI sequence development and optimisation for inner ear imaging at 7T’
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BHF Centre Co-pump priming 2020
- Claudia Prieto, ‘Radiomics analysis of multiparametric quantitative cardiac MR for improved diagnosis of Heart Failure’
- Pier-Giorgio Masci, Pablo Lamata and Ajay Shah, ‘Deep Mechanical Phenotyping by Advanced Imaging and Modelling’
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COVID-19 pump priming
- Federico Formenti, 'NHS ventilators: Ox-vent'
- Steven Williams, 'Novel approach to increase ventilator capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic: Split-Vent'
Public engagement
We are committed to engaging the public with our research and its potential impact on society and healthcare. Our long-term research projects have ambitious goals which raise many valid questions on what the future of clinical practice might look.
We want to ensure we have open, two-way dialogues with the public from the national level right the way through to local focus groups. This will help to inform our research from the earliest stages of the project and involve the public with how funds are being spent.
From students through to senior leadership, our researchers are participating in public engagement activities throughout the year.
Patient and public involvement
We organise and participate in many PPI groups with a range of specialist focus areas. This helps us manage meaningful, long-term conversations with patients on the care they are receiving or might receive one day and allow them to feedback on how research funding is being used. We also coordinate surveys at the national level to help inform our research and measure public opinion on certain topics.
Our facilities include pre-clinical and clinical imaging systems, ensuring state-of-the-art capability:
- XMRI facility (Siemens 1.5T Aera with Artis-Q-Biplane CathLab system) - cardiac, body imaging, biomedical and image guided interventional procedures
- 3 x 3T Philips MRI Scanner – Cardiac, biomedical, cancer & perinatal imaging and teaching
- 1.5T Philips MRI Scanner – Fetal, Cardiac & biomedical imaging
- 7T facility with RF lab
- Pre-clinical scanners (9.4T Bruker Biospec® MR scanner , 3T Clinical MRI with Hyperion IIDPET Insert- Prototype, NanoSCan PET/ CT)
- 18.9MeV PETrace cyclotron (PERL) with clinical and R&D tracer production labs
Key Infrastructure:
- Imaging Bioresource with matched imaging and clinical with biological samples
- Clinical trial coordination to support the setup and management of clinical studies
- High Performance Computing (2800 CPUs connected with high speed networking allowing parallel computation)
- PET Tracer Development: 18.9MeV PETrace cyclotron (PERL) with clinical and R&D tracer production labs, Pipeline with available staff to develop, optimize, test and obtain regulatory approvals for new tracers
Translation support:
- Health Technology Assessment: Through our Partner the King’s Technology Evaluation Centre (KiTEC) we can evaluate innovative medical technologies (including devices and diagnostics) by producing systematic reviews, meta-analyses, economic models and outcomes research
- Engagement with the public and patients through our experienced Public Engagement team, accessing 5 PPI groups and reaching a non-academic audience of nearly 50,000
- We have established relationships with several global multinational companies, including Medtronic, Siemens, NVIDIA and GlaxoSmithKline. Our industry engagement also includes small to medium enterprises (SMEs), and we welcome any new opportunities to work with new industry partners. We also have a well-established pipeline for IP and licensing and for commercialising our research. Contact us for support in business development activity, business plan prep, etc
- Ethics and Governance: Expertise available to support IRAS applications, guidance on R&D and HRA approvals, clinical study set-up, management and governance
- Regulation and Quality support with our own Quality Management System, expertise on quality assurance, quality control, use of radiopharmaceuticals as IMPs, guidance on regulatory/ MHRA approvals and GMP