Guillaume Madelin, PhD

I am developing a global project of "quantitative metabolic X-nuclei magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in vivo for medical applications". X-nuclei MRI is based on the detection of nuclei other than the nucleus of hydrogen (or proton, ¹H) from water molecules in the body, as is used in standard MRI. MRI of the sodium (²³Na), phosphorus (³¹P), deuterium (²H), or oxygen (¹⁷O) nuclei, for example, can provide brand new metabolic information in tissues as a complement to standard structural ¹H MRI. In particular, imaging of endogenous sodium is a non-invasive quantitative technique that can assess fundamental biochemical information related to the tissue ionic homeostasis, which is not available with any other imaging technique in vivo. Overall, X-nuclei MRI could therefore generate unique imaging biomarkers for detecting early signs of loss of tissue viability due to the disruption of the cellular energetic metabolism in many diseases, but also for monitoring the early effects of therapies targeting different aspects of cellular metabolism, and thus help design personalized treatment protocols.