19F MRI Emerges from the Background
Member-Initiated Symposium

ORGANIZERS: Eric Ahrens, Ulrich Flögel

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

Session Number: MIS-10

Overview
Over the past decade, fluorine (19F) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has garnered significant scientific interest in the biomedical research community due to the unique properties of fluorinated materials and the 19F nucleus. Fluorinated materials can serve as therapeutic agents or drug delivery vehicles, as well as imaging probes that rely on 19F MRI detection. Fluorine has an intrinsically sensitive nucleus for MRI. There is negligible endogenous 19F in the body and thus there is no background signal. Fluorine-containing compounds are ideal tracer labels for a wide variety of MRI applications. Moreover, the chemical shift and nuclear relaxation rate can be made responsive to physiology via creative molecular design.
This symposium presents a snapshot of the current activities surrounding the use of 19F MRI in biomedical research. It covers a breadth of topics surround its use including: MRI pulse sequence development, nuclear hyperpolarization, imaging of the airways, targeted and ‘smart’ probes, tracking therapeutic stem and immune cells, and imaging inflammatory events in the body. Talks will be given by four established investigators and two graduate students.

Target Audience
Advanced students, researchers and clinicians in the life sciences with interest in diagnostics, immunology and cell tracking.

Educational Objectives
As a result of attending this course, participants should be able to:
- Design fluorinated agents and imaging methods tailored towards specific 19F MRI application;
- Describe 19F MRI preclinical and clinical uses and the results to date;
- Review 19F MRI advances in cardiovascular, immunological, and cell tracking research; and
- Describe sensitivity and specificity limits of 19F MRI in vivo.