Faculty of Medicine

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Nationwide collaboration is increasingly recognized as vital to the strengthening of PhD training in Norway. MedIm – Norwegian Research School in Medical Imaging, is promoting networks in medical imaging training. Hosted by the Faculty of Medicine, NTNU, this is a consortium between NTNU and the universities in Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø, with strong links to the university hospitals and SINTEF. MedIm receives funding from the Norwegian Research Council up to 2016.

 

Recently, the 3rd National PhD Conference in Medical Imaging was jointly organized in Oslo by MedIm and the Intervention Centre (Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo). Seventy PhD candidates presented their research through posters or oral presentations.

 

Both the oral presentations and the posters were evaluated by scientific committees. Judit Haász (University of Bergen) was awarded NOK 10.000 for Best Oral Presentation. Haász argues that a precise description of brain morphology changes related to healthy aging is essential to promote our understanding of age-related cognitive changes, and that longitudinal studies have the advantage that the individual subject will function as its own control. The committee evaluated the level of presentations as very good, and ranked at second place was Daniel Høyer Iversen, MI Lab and Dept. of Circulation and Medical Imaging, for his presentation on model based correction of angle-dependencies in navigated 3-D flow imaging during neurosurgical interventions.

 

Emilie Vallée (Dept. of Circulation and Medical Imaging, NTNU) won the NOK 5.000 Best Poster Award, for a project developed in cooperation with Live Eikenes and Asta Håberg (both at Dept. of Neuroscience, NTNU). The evaluation concluded that the poster not only presented important scientific results, but also represents a template for successful communication using the poster format. Her study poses the question 'Diffusion-weighted functional MRI: a new method for localizing brain activity with MRI?' Vallée demonstrates that the method of DfMRI does not have the necessary reliability to be used in brain activation studies, as earlier proposed by LeBihan and colleagues.

 

In addition to these prizes, MedIm awarded 14 Travel and Research Grants of NOK 50.000 each to PhD candidates from all over Norway, four of which are affiliated with NTNU. These are Siv Eggen (Dept. of Physics), Martin Denstedt (Dept. of Computer and Information Science), Páll Jens Erikson (Dept of Circulation and Medical Imaging) and Erik Andreas Torkildsen (Dept of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health). These grants were given on the basis of previously submitted applications.

 

The PhD conference attracted 130 participants. Ole Petter Ottersen, Rector of the University of Oslo, set the agenda with a fascinating full length lecture discussing the role that medical imaging can have in building ties between research and improved healthcare. Later, a panel including four deans (among them Dean Stig Slørdahl), MI Lab director Olav Haraldseth and Erik Fosse from OUS, agreed that cooperation in PhD training across institutional and disciplinary boundaries is crucial to the strengthening of future research in Norway.

 

The fourth MedIm conference will be held in Trondheim in November 2012. The event is increasingly seen as the number-one national meeting place for PhD candidates in the field of medical imaging.

 

Read more about MedIm

Children represent about 15%-20% of all people with lupus. Lupus in children tends to manifest more severely and can result in the need for more aggressive treatments. Both boys and girls had an increased BMI, probably caused by high doses of steroids.

Lupus is a chronic rheumatic disease where different organs can be affected, like the skin, joints, kidneys, heart, blood and brain. Lupus patients have got change in their immune system.

 

- Delayed growth and puberty can cause damage, affect quality of life, and add to the burden of coping with the disease, Marite Rygg at Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health says.

Ryggs study is one of relatively few studies who addressed the effects of lupus and/or its treatments on growth and development in children.

Organized for the seventh time in four years, MI Lab-day is now a well-established event for imaging and innovation research groups in Trondheim. MI Lab's vision is to facilitate cost efficient health care to improve patient outcome through innovation in medical imaging, and MI Lab is working together with NTNU, the university hospital, SINTEF and many other partners from the industry.

 

Social network day

- This event is a meeting point for people working with MRI, ultrasound and image-guided surgery. It's important for these people to meet and talk together, Olav Haraldseth, head of MI Lab, says.

At MI Lab Day, representatives from industry and researchers from NTNU and St. Olav's Hospital meet for an update on what's going on in the field. In addition to ordinary presentations, six PhD candidates and researchers presented their work in the form of Speed Updates.  Based on the idea of speed dating, the audience is divided into groups, rotating between different stations, where they are given quick insights into advances in different MI Lab research projects.

Professor Kevin Brindle from the University of Cambridge, UK, presented in a keynote speech the possibilities of applying novel MR-based molecular imaging  techniques and metabolomics for the detection and prediction of responses to tumor therapy. He also addressed the challenges and potential of bringing this technology into the clinic.

 

New possibilities with new technology

Scientific equipment and research infrastructure are crucial factors in MRI and ultrasound research. Trondheimhas a history of leading the way in MR-technology in Norway. Both the first clinical MR scanner in the country and the first 3 Tesla MR scanner were installed here.

Today clinical MRI studies in Trondheim utilise a 3 Tesla MR scanner, but MR-physicist Pål Erik Goa hopes funding will be provided for a 7 Tesla scanner for clinical research in 2014. Last year,Goa had a 6 month research stay at Erwin L. Hahn Institute in Essen, Germany, to learn more about clinical MR Imaging at 7 Tesla.

- A 7 Tesla MR scanner will open new possibilities in diagnostic imaging and research, in the same way 3 Tesla has already done compared to lower field strengths. In particular, we will be able to study the structure and function of the brain with higher resolution and better accuracy than before, Goaunderlines.

Higher magnetic field also means new technical challenges. Goa continues:

- The history of MR technology development has shown us that these challenges will be met, with new technology and new possibilities as the end result. Trondheim has an ambition to be part of this development, both on the technical and on the application side. This is why we have already started to build competence and networks related to clinical 7 Tesla.

 

A good year for MI Lab

Research in medical ultrasound in Trondheim started over 30 years ago, with the development of ultrasound Doppler blood flow equipment and applications of the technology in non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac function and cardiac valve disease.

- The last year MI Lab received very good evaluations from international expert panels, Haraldseth says.

In 2009 the main success story for MI Lab was the new pocket-size ultrasound scanner, Vscan, from GE Vingmed Ultrasound. Both in the speed update by Ole C. Mjølstad and the plenary lecture by Bjørn Olav Haugen, this Vscan and ongoing research projects to evaluate how this handheld ultrasound scanner can enable new clinical applications of ultrasound in health care was a topic.

Read about the study in The New York Times

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EMBO membership is a lifelong award and Edvard Moser joins the ranks of 1,500 of the best researchers in Europe and around the world, all leaders in their research fields and communities.

 

EMBO counts 57 Nobel Laureates amongst its membership, including Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffman who were awarded the 2011 Novel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in October.

 

About EMBO
EMBO stands for excellence in the life sciences. The organization enables the best science by supporting talented researchers, stimulating scientific exchange and advancing policies for a world-class European research environment.

 

EMBO is an organization of 1500 leading life scientist members that fosters new generations of researchers to produce world-class scientific results. EMBO helps young scientists to advance their research, promote their international reputations and ensure their mobility. Courses, workshops, conferences and scientific journals disseminate the latest research and offer training in cutting-edge techniques to maintain high standards of excellence in research practice. EMBO helps to shape science and research policy by seeking input and feedback from our community and by following closely the trends in science in Europe.

 

For more information: www.embo.org

Professor Paula Pitha Rowe, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, has for more than 40 years studied immune signaling and the interferon response, and will in this guest lecture share with us her insights on interferon regulation with special emphasis on autoimmune diseases.

When: 12.30 pm

Where: MTA at building MTFS (Medisinsk teknisk forskningssenter)

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