Clinical and pre-Clinical Imaging Laboratory

The “Clinical and pre-clinical Imaging Laboratory” is a translational imaging laboratory, focused on the study of the heart and brain, with a pre-clinical scope.

The mission of the group is the development and application of advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods, aimed at improving the diagnosis and evaluation of cardiovascular and neurological diseases.

The laboratory’s research activity is carried out in close collaboration with the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the CNR, and with numerous partners in both the academic and research and industrial fields.

The laboratory is a facility within the Italian molecular imaging node Eurobioimaging, of which the Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio is a partner.

• Identification of imaging biomarkers specific to disease progression.
• Development of coils for magnetic resonance imaging.
• Development and optimisation of magnetic resonance sequences.
• Tissue characterisation of the myocardium through T1, T2, and T2* mapping.
• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging during pharmacological stress, for the work-up of patients with ischaemic heart disease.
• Early diagnosis and characterisation of rare diseases involving the cardiovascular system.
• Cerebral spectroscopy with magnetic resonance imaging.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and tractography (DTI), for the work-up of patients with neurological diseases and to investigate brain connectivity.
• Molecular imaging, for the study of cardiac metabolic activity with the use of non-ionising tracers obtained with the hyperpolarised 13c method.
• Development of new hyperpolarised contrast media (1H-water and 13C-urea), for the study of myocardial perfusion by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR).
• Development of innovative high-sensitivity tracers, based on the technique of hyperpolarisation through Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP).
• Characterisation and application of innovative contrast media for MRI, for applications of nanomedicine and theranostics (THERApy + diagNOSTICS).
• Study and characterisation of pathological models on experimental models, using high field magnetic resonance micro-imaging approaches (7 T).
• Development of signal analysis techniques for noise reduction in imaging, spectroscopy and magnetic resonance relaxometry applications.
• Development of algorithms for the quantification of spectral parameters of the magnetic resonance signal for spectroscopy and relaxometry applications.