Jens Frahm

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jens Frahm (born March 29, 1951 in Oldenburg ) is a German biophysicist and physical chemist .

He is the scientific director of Biomedical NMR at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen . In the mid-1980s he further developed magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) using FLASH technology, which accelerated the acquisition times for individual MRI images by at least a factor of 100. Instead of several minutes as with the first clinical MRI recordings, individual slice images took just seconds. For the first time, the FLASH process also enabled three-dimensional MRT images with the highest spatial resolution and measurement times of a few minutes. With the development of the FLASH-2 technology ( real-time MRT ) from 2010 onwards, Frahm and colleagues again achieved a considerable acceleration in MRT, so that serial cross-sectional images only need 10 to 40 milliseconds, depending on the application. MRT films of any body functions can now be obtained in real time, i. H. with up to 100 frames per second.

Live and act

After graduating from the NGO (Neues Gymnasium Oldenburg) in 1969, Frahm studied physics at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 1969 to 1974 . He then completed a doctoral thesis on the use of NMR spectroscopy for the molecular dynamic characterization of ions in solvent mixtures with Hans Strehlow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen , which he completed in 1977 with a doctorate in physical chemistry .

From 1977 Frahm worked as a scientific assistant at the Göttingen MPI and was involved in setting up an independent research group that was increasingly concerned with the in vivo possibilities of NMR methods and (initially mainly theoretically) those described by Paul Lauterbur in 1974 , was dedicated to spatially resolved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, also known as magnetic resonance imaging ).

In 1982, a Biomedical NMR working group was founded, which was financially supported from 1984 to 1992 by substantial third-party funding from the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (today: Federal Ministry for Education and Research , BMBF). The task of the working group included the scientific development of imaging MRT based on NMR technology. In 1985, the invention of the flash image method FLASH ( fast low-angle shot ) succeeded, which influenced the clinical use of MRI for imaging diagnostics .

The license income from the patents ensures full and sustainable financing of the non-profit Biomedical NMR Research GmbH founded in 1993. In 1994 Frahm completed his habilitation in physical chemistry at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. At the same time he was appointed to an independent research center of the Max Planck Society .

In 1997 he was appointed adjunct professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Since 2011 he has been an External Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen.

Frahm's scientific work focuses on the methodical further development of spatially resolved nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) - in particular imaging MRT - and the application of corresponding processes in neurobiology ( brain research ) and cardiovascular research. The goals of the interdisciplinary team are innovative approaches for non-invasive examinations of the central nervous system of humans and animals ( insects to primates , focus on mice ). The possibilities range from fast three-dimensional MRI with high isotropic resolution to measurements of brain metabolism to visualizations of the nerve fiber tracts of the brain and functional mapping of the cortex.

Current methodological work deals with the use of iterative algorithms for the image reconstruction of non-Cartesian location codes (e.g. radial MRT) and parallel MRT recordings with multiple radio frequency coils. The developments relate to dynamic MRT processes that allow artifact-free representation of moving objects in real time . This applies, for example, to the functional representation of joints (jaw, knee, ankle) or the direct filmic representation of the heart without synchronization with the ECG and with free breathing. With a combination of FLASH technology with radial spatial coding, extreme undersampling and image reconstruction by nonlinear inversion with temporal regularization, MRI images can be obtained with a recording time of only 10 to 30 milliseconds - depending on the application and spatial resolution. The recording speed of such films with real-time MRI , for example of turbulent currents , of mouth and jaw movements when speaking and swallowing or of the beating heart, is up to 100 images per second. Various examples can be found on the Biomedical NMR website. Real-time MRI processes expand the diagnostic potential of MRI through completely new, previously impossible scientific and clinical examinations and shorten and simplify existing processes.

In the meantime, the algorithm for the regularized nonlinear inversion (NLINV) has been supplemented by so-called model-based reconstructions, which calculate quantitative parametric maps directly from the raw MRI data. Relevant physical or physiological parameters are, for example, the T1 relaxation times of the tissues in the body or the flow rates of the blood or the cerebrospinal fluid. These novel approaches integrate the corresponding signal model into the MRT signal equation, so that a non-linear inverse reconstruction problem always results. As with real-time MRT, the considerable computing effort can be solved by a graphics card computer that is invisible to the user and that can be easily retrofitted to an existing MRT device. The results offer advantages over conventional methods that are based on serial image calculations with subsequent pixel-by-pixel adaptation.

Frahm's scientific work includes over 500 scientific publications, reviews and book chapters (2019). The Hirsch index is 94.

FLASH technology is the Max Planck Society's most successful patent to date, with revenues of 155 million euros. These funds serve u. a. also to finance Frahm's research at the MPI in Göttingen.

Awards

Frahm has been an honorary member of the Greek Radiological Society since 1987 and a Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine since 1995. Since 2005 he has been a full member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.biomednmr.mpg.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=132&Itemid=39
  2. ↑ http://scholar.google.de/citations?user=v50FCyQAAAAJ&hl=en
  3. ↑ How knowledge becomes business. Max Planck Society, accessed on August 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ^ Awardee of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
  6. ^ Lower Saxony State Prize
  7. ↑ Stifterverbandpreis 2013 for Jens Frahm at the Science Information Service (idw-online.de); Retrieved June 4, 2013
  8. ↑ Inventor Award for Göttingen MRT researcher Frahm at ndr.de on June 7, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Frahm, Jens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldenburg