Free-breathing qRF-MRF with pilot tone respiratory motion navigator for T, T, T*, and off-resonance mapping of the human body at 3 T.

Standard quantitative abdominal MRI techniques are time consuming, require breath-holds, and are susceptible to patient motion artifacts. Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) is naturally multi-parametric and quantifies multiple tissue properties, including T and T. This work includes T* and off-resonance mapping into a free-breathing MRF framework utilizing a pilot tone navigator.

Quantifying 3D MR fingerprinting (3D-MRF) reproducibility across subjects, sessions, and scanners automatically using MNI atlases.

Purpose: Quantitative MRI techniques such as MR fingerprinting (MRF) promise more objective and comparable measurements of tissue properties at the point-of-care than weighted imaging. However, few direct cross-modal comparisons of MRF's repeatability and reproducibility versus weighted acquisitions have been performed. This work proposes a novel fully automated pipeline for quantitatively comparing cross-modal imaging performance in vivo via atlas-based sampling.

Self-calibrated subspace reconstruction for multidimensional MR fingerprinting for simultaneous relaxation and diffusion quantification.

Purpose: To propose a new reconstruction method for multidimensional MR fingerprinting (mdMRF) to address shading artifacts caused by physiological motion-induced measurement errors without navigating or gating.

Methods: The proposed method comprises two procedures: self-calibration and subspace reconstruction. The first procedure (self-calibration) applies temporally local matrix completion to reconstruct low-resolution images from a subset of under-sampled data extracted from the k-space center.

Motion Robust MR Fingerprinting Scan to Image Neonates With Prenatal Opioid Exposure.

Purpose: To explore whether MR fingerprinting (MRF) scans provide motion-robust and quantitative brain tissue measurements for non-sedated infants with prenatal opioid exposure (POE).

Study Type: Prospective.

Population: 13 infants with POE (3 male; 12 newborns (age 7-65 days) and 1 infant aged 9-months).

Polymer Structure and Conformation Alter the Antigenicity of Virus-like Particle-Polymer Conjugates.

Covalent conjugation of water-soluble polymers to proteins is critical for evading immune surveillance in the field of biopharmaceuticals. The most common and long-standing polymer modification is the attachment of methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG), termed PEGylation, which has led to several clinically approved pharmaceuticals. Recent data indicate that brush-type polymers significantly enhance in vitro and in vivo properties.

Sustained release of active chemotherapeutics from injectable-solid β-hairpin peptide hydrogel.

MAX8 β-hairpin peptide hydrogel is a solid, preformed gel that can be syringe injected due to shear-thinning properties and can recover solid gel properties immediately after injection. This behavior makes the hydrogel an excellent candidate as a local drug delivery vehicle. In this study, vincristine, a hydrophobic and commonly used chemotherapeutic, is encapsulated within MAX8 hydrogel and shown to release constantly over the course of one month.

Bimolecular integrin-ligand interactions quantified using peptide-functionalized dextran-coated microparticles.

Integrins play a key role in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Artificial surfaces grafted with integrin ligands, mimicking natural interfaces, have been used to study integrin-mediated cell adhesion. Here we report the use of a new chemical engineering technology in combination with single-molecule nanomechanical measurements to quantify peptide binding to integrins.