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2006 Meeting Home
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Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Imaging
"Seeing" Beyond the Light Alexander Pines Alexander Pines, PhD MIT, Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, is a world-renowned scientist and educator, engaged in areas ranging from physics and chemistry to materials and biomedicine. He is a pioneer in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and its nephew, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He and his research group--the self-dubbed "Pinenuts"--many located in top academic, industrial and policy positions worldwide, have been recognized by numerous honors, including the Wolf Prize for Chemistry, and several Distinguished Teaching Awards. He is Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Paris and the University of Rome. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of the UK, and past-President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance. Abstract The universal desire to "look inside" was accommodated
for centuries by opening up objects and subjects in order to analyze their contents,
morphology, structure, and function. In 1895 Roentgen produced a picture of
the interior skeleton of a hand, and thus was born the omnipresent and powerful
methodology of x-ray imaging, and the resulting emergence of CAT scans and molecular
crystallography. The year 1945 witnessed tumultuous events, including the birth
of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a pioneering method that employs
benign, non-ionizing radio-waves to identify chemical composition and molecular
structure. NMR was subsequently transformed into magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), which ingeniously encodes spatial location into the frequencies of the
radio-waves, thereby forming non-invasive pictures of intact samples. NMR and
MRI are now used for imaging and molecular analysis in various endeavors of
benefit to humanity, including materials research, water and oil exploration,
the pharmaceutical industry, biomedicine, brain function, and monitoring of
security. The lecture will elucidate, in schematic terms, the principles of
NMR and MRI, with illustrative examples from their wide spectrum of contemporary
applications, and will also introduce some novel, forward-looking methodologies
related to molecular imaging. Traditionally, the benefits of NMR and MRI rely
on the immersion of objects or subjects in the bore of a huge magnet that is
typically immobile, costly, and occasionally hazardous. New developments involve
the coupling of magnetic resonance with new pulse sequences, laser technology,
and superconducting detectors, introducing the exciting possibility of ex-situ
and remote NMR and MRI techniques that employ small mobile magnets, or function
even in the absence of magnets--zero-field NMR and MRI! The development of "functionalized"
hyperpolarized NMR/MRI agents opens the possibility of localized molecular imaging
through NMR/MRI and its amplifications by means of remote detection. Applications
range over distance scales from nanometers to meters, in systems from molecules
and materials to organisms and humans. The lecture will conclude with some "signs
of our times."
The Society for Molecular Imaging EUROPEAN OFFICE |
