Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Imaging

This is the first textbook dedicated to CEST imaging and covers the fundamental principles of saturation transfer, key features of CEST agents that enable the production of imaging contrast, and practical aspects of preparing image-acquisition and post-processing schemes suited for in vivo applications. CEST is a powerful MRI contrast mechanism with unique features, and the rapid expansion it has seen over the past 15 years since its original discovery in 2000 has created a need for a graduate-level handbook describing all aspects of pre-clinical, translational, and clinical CEST imaging. The book provides an illustrated historical perspective by leaders at the five key sites who developed CEST imaging, from the initial saturation transfer NMR experiments performed in the 1960s in Stockholm, Sweden, described by Sture Forsén, to the work on integrating the basic principles of CEST into imaging by Robert Balaban, Dean Sherry, Silvio Aime, and Peter van Zijl in the United States and Italy.

The editors, Drs. Michael T. McMahon, Assaf A. Gilad, Jeff W. M. Bulte, and Peter C. M. van Zijl, have been pioneers developing this field at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Kennedy Krieger Institute including contributions to Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Materials, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As recognition for their initial development of the field, Drs. van Zijl and Balaban were awarded the Laukien Prize in April 2016, established in 1999 to honor the memory of Professor Gunther Laukien, a co-founder of Bruker Biospin GmbH.

Michael T. McMahon, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Research Scientist in the F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Dr. McMahon earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999 and was awarded a fellowship to continue his training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before taking a Research Associate position with Peter van Zijl in 2003. His research at Johns Hopkins University and Kennedy Krieger Institute is focused on the development of diaCEST contrast agents for medical applications and imaging schemes to maximize their potential. Dr. McMahon has been elected to the position of Program Director for the Cellular and Molecular Imaging Study Group at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and together with Drs. Gilad, Bulte and van Zijl organized the third CEST imaging workshop (OctoberCEST) in Annapolis, MD.

Dr. Jeff W.M. Bulte, Ph.D, is a Professor of Radiology in the Division of MR Research, with joint appointments in Oncology, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. He serves as the Director of the Cellular Imaging Section in the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1991, Dr. Bulte obtained his Ph.D. summa cum laude from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He then spent 10 years in the Laboratory of Diagnostic Radiology Research at the National Institutes of Health before moving to Johns Hopkins University in 2001. He has won several awards, including an ISMRM Gold Medal and the Torsten Almén Award for Pioneering Research in Contrast Media.

Assaf A. Gilad, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Institute for Cell Engineering. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel in 2003, he received his postdoctoral training under the supervision of Drs. Jeff Bulte and Peter van Zijl at Johns Hopkins University. In 2007 he joined the Radiology department as junior faculty and has continued to develop new genetically encoded technologies for cellular and sub-cellular molecular CEST imaging.

Peter C.M. van Zijl, Ph.D., is a Professor of Radiology in the Division of MR Research of the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the founding Director of the F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging at Kennedy Krieger Research Insitute. Dr. van Zijl received his Ph.D. in mathematics and physics (Physical Chemistry) from the Free University, Amsterdam in 1985. He did fellowships in Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University (1985-87) and in vivo spectroscopy (National Cancer Institute, NIH from 1987–1990) and was Assistant Professor at Georgetown University from 1990–1992. He moved to Johns Hopkins University in 1992. Dr. van Zijl is a Fellow of both the ISMRM and the ISMAR. He received the Gold medal of the ISMRM in 2007 for contributions in MR spectroscopy, diffusion imaging, and functional MRI. He is a distinguished Investigator of the Academy of Radiology Research (2012) and in 2016, together with Robert Balaban, received the Laukien Prize for his contributions to developing the CEST field.