Vasilis Ntziachristos Explained

Vasilis Ntziachristos is a Greek American biomedical engineer, scientist, and inventor best known for his development of fundamental and translational research tools for imaging tissues based on fluorescence and optoacoustics.

Biography

Vasilis Ntziachristos is a Full Professor C4/W3 of Medicine and Electrical Engineering and holds the Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich. He is also the Director of the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and Director of Bioengineering at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus.[1] He is a founding member and board member of the translational oncology center TranslaTUM and has led developments leading to the foundation of the Munich School of Bioengineering, where he currently serves as the Speaker of the Study Program.[2]

Ntziachristos studied electrical engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, magnetic resonance as a Research Fellow at the Panum NMR Core Facility of the University of Copenhagen and at the Department of Radiology at Penn Medicine. He matriculated at the graduate program of the bioengineering department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed a master's degree and a PhD in bioengineering. His doctoral work, entitled "Concurrent magnetic resonance imaging and diffuse optical tomography to probe breast cancer", was carried out under the supervision of Britton Chance, Arjun Yodh and Mitchell Schnall.Following graduation Ntziachristos joined the faculty ranks of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, initially as an instructor (2000) and then as an Assistant Professor (2002) and Director of the Laboratory of Bio-optics and Molecular Imaging. In 2007, he was recruited to Munich into a joint call from the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Zentrum München.[3] [4]

In 2013, he founded the open-access research journal Photoacoustics, which is the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated entirely to photoacoustic (optoacoustic) research. He currently serves as an editor of Chief of the journal. The journal is served by a Board of highly prominent researchers in the field.[5]

For his work he has been awarded several prestigious awards, including the 2013 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation, considered to be the top scientific distinction in Germany and the 2015 Gold Medal of the World Molecular Imaging Society. For more information on his awards see the section on Prizes and Awards. His work often appears in the press.[6] [7] [8] The 2018 anniversary report of the Technical University of Munich features a chapter on Vasilis Ntziachristos, naming him as one of three examples of professors that shape the future of the Technical University of Munich.[9]

Research

Ntziachristos is a globally recognized pioneer and entrepreneur in biomedical imaging. One of his focus areas is developing technology for fluorescence-guided surgical procedures for improving the accuracy of tumor removal. He and his collaborators published the first translational study in which a targeted fluorescent agent was systemically injected to distinguish tumor cells from healthy tissue during surgery. This approach is now being validated in several clinical trials . In 2012 Ntziachristos was a founding member of SurgVision, a company that has since commercialized technology from this research. SurgVision was recently acquired by Bracco Imaging S.p.A.[10]

Recently, Ntziachristos and colleagues have demonstrated early detection of esophageal cancer, significantly improving detection over white light endoscopy. Successful application of this performance may mean life-saving curative procedures for tens of thousands of individuals each year and healthcare savings of several billion EUR per year.[11] [12]

Another focus of Ntziachristos' research is developing optoacoustic techniques for breaking thought the penetration barriers of conventional optical imaging methods. His group develops hardware, image reconstruction, spectral unmixing and information processing techniques as well as applications in biology and medicine. Among many other inventions, he is the inventor of multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) and raster scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM), which are non-invasive imaging methods that simultaneously measure different parameters of tissue physiology and pathology non-invasively, allowing new ways to diagnose disease and monitor treatment. MSOT and RSOM are now used in a range of preclinical and clinical studies, including advancing characterization of psoriasis,[13] breast tumors,[14] metastatic melanoma[15] and inflammation in Crohn's disease.[16] MSOT has also been used to visualize metabolism within brown fat,[17] suggesting it may be effective for analyzing muscle energetics and lipid metabolism in a much simpler and more accessible way than with other techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging. Ntziachristos is a founder of iThera Medical GmbH, which currently commercializes optoacoustic technology and has placed systems around the world.[18]

Prizes and awards (selection)

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Greek who makes cancer tissues glow. Ellines. 25 November 2018.
  2. Web site: Vasilis Ntziachristos – Biological imaging. Translatum.tum.de. 25 November 2018.
  3. Web site: Chair for Biological Imaging: Home. www.cbi.ei.tum.de. 18 December 2018.
  4. Web site: IBMI. Helmholtz-muenchen.de. 18 December 2018.
  5. Web site: Photoacoustics Journal. journals.elsevier.com. 19 December 2018.
  6. Web site: Der Spezialist für Bilder. 7 November 2017. 18 December 2018. Sueddeutsche.de.
  7. Web site: Für Alzheimerforschung: Neue Methode soll tief gehende Diagnosen ermöglichen. FOCUS. Online. Focus.de. 18 December 2018.
  8. Web site: Γριμάνη . Αννα . Βασίλης Ντζιαχρήστος: Ο ελληνας που κέρδισε το "γερμανικό Νόμπελ" . Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ . 10 March 2014 . el . 22 February 2024.
  9. Brigitte Röthlein, Pioneers shape the world of technology – 150 years of research at the Technical University of Munich, Publisher: Wolfgang A. Herrmann,
  10. Bracco Imaging acquires SurgVision expanding into the innovative field of fluorescence imaging-guided surgery.
  11. 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-314953 . 29247063 . Near-infrared fluorescence molecular endoscopy detects dysplastic oesophageal lesions using topical and systemic tracer of vascular endothelial growth factor A . Gut . gutjnl-2017-314953 . 2017 . Nagengast . Wouter B. . Hartmans . Elmire . Garcia-Allende . Pilar B. . Peters . Frans T M. . Linssen . Matthijs D. . Koch . Maximilian . Koller . Marjory . Tjalma . Jolien J J. . Karrenbeld . Arend . Jorritsma-Smit . Annelies . Kleibeuker . Jan H. . Van Dam . Gooitzen M. . Ntziachristos . Vasilis . 68 . 1 . 6839834 .
  12. Web site: ESOTRAC. Esotrac2020.eu. 18 December 2018.
  13. 10.1038/s41551-017-0068 . Precision assessment of label-free psoriasis biomarkers with ultra-broadband optoacoustic mesoscopy . Nature Biomedical Engineering . 1 . 5 . 0068 . 2017 . Aguirre . Juan . Schwarz . Mathias . Garzorz . Natalie . Omar . Murad . Buehler . Andreas . Eyerich . Kilian . Ntziachristos . Vasilis . 88356171 .
  14. 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-16-3200 . 28899968 . Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) of Human Breast Cancer . Clinical Cancer Research . 23 . 22 . 6912–6922 . 2017 . Diot . Gael . Metz . Stephan . Noske . Aurelia . Liapis . Evangelos . Schroeder . Barbara . Ovsepian . Saak V. . Meier . Reinhard . Rummeny . Ernst . Ntziachristos . Vasilis . free .
  15. 10.1126/scitranslmed.aad1278 . 26659573 . Metastatic status of sentinel lymph nodes in melanoma determined noninvasively with multispectral optoacoustic imaging . Science Translational Medicine . 7 . 317 . 317ra199 . 2015 . Stoffels . Ingo . Morscher . Stefan . Helfrich . Iris . Hillen . Uwe . Leyh . Julia . Burton . Neal C. . Sardella . Thomas C. P. . Claussen . Jing . Poeppel . Thorsten D. . Bachmann . Hagen S. . Roesch . Alexander . Griewank . Klaus . Schadendorf . Dirk . Gunzer . Matthias . Klode . Joachim . 19501731 .
  16. 10.1056/NEJMc1612455 . 28355498 . Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography for Assessment of Crohn's Disease Activity . New England Journal of Medicine . 376 . 13 . 1292–1294 . 2017 . Knieling . Ferdinand . Neufert . Clemens . Hartmann . Arndt . Claussen . Jing . Urich . Alexander . Egger . Cornelia . Vetter . Marcel . Fischer . Sarah . Pfeifer . Lukas . Hagel . Alexander . Kielisch . Christian . Görtz . Rüdiger S. . Wildner . Dane . Engel . Matthias . Röther . Jens . Uter . Wolfgang . Siebler . Jürgen . Atreya . Raja . Rascher . Wolfgang . Strobel . Deike . Neurath . Markus F. . Waldner . Maximilian J. . free .
  17. 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.02.002 . 29514074 . Non-invasive Measurement of Brown Fat Metabolism Based on Optoacoustic Imaging of Hemoglobin Gradients . Cell Metabolism . 27 . 3 . 689–701.e4 . 2018 . Reber . Josefine . Willershäuser . Monja . Karlas . Angelos . Paul-Yuan . Korbinian . Diot . Gael . Franz . Daniela . Fromme . Tobias . Ovsepian . Saak V. . Bézière . Nicolas . Dubikovskaya . Elena . Karampinos . Dimitrios C. . Holzapfel . Christina . Hauner . Hans . Klingenspor . Martin . Ntziachristos . Vasilis . free .
  18. Web site: Optoacoustic Imaging – an Imaging Revolution. iThera Medical. 18 December 2018.
  19. Web site: Innovator Under 35: Vasilis Ntziachristos, 34. MIT Technology. Review. MIT Technology Review. 18 December 2018.
  20. Web site: ERC Advanced Grant 2008. Erc.europa.eu. 18 December 2018.
  21. Web site: die nächste Generation der Bildgebung . Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – BMBF GO-Bio . 4 October 2009 . de . 22 February 2024.
  22. Web site: Erwin-Schrödinger-Preis. Helmholtz.de. 18 December 2018.
  23. Web site: DFG – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – 404 Seite nicht gefunden. Dfg.de. 18 December 2018.
  24. Web site: Deutscher Innovationspreis für die iThera Medical GmbH – Helmholtz Zentrum München. Helmholtz-muenchen.de. 18 December 2018.
  25. Web site: WMIC 2015 Highlights: Precision Medicine… Visualized. 17 September 2015. Wmis.org. 18 December 2018.
  26. Web site: ERC Advanced Grants 2015 List of principal investigators . Erc.europa.eu. 18 December 2018.
  27. Web site: Chaires Blaise Pascal. Chaires-blaise-pascal.ens.fr. 18 December 2018.
  28. Web site: About the IEEE Fellow Program. IEEE. 9 December 2019.
  29. Web site: Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize 2021 for Vasilis Ntziachristos . Helmholtz Munich . 11 October 2021 . 22 February 2024.

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