Research
- Research Topics
- Cell Biology and Tumor Biology
- Stem Cells and Cancer
- Inflammatory Stress in Stem Cells
- Experimental Hematology
- Molecular Embryology
- Signal Transduction and Growth Control
- Epigenetics
- Redox Regulation
- Vascular Oncology and Metastasis
- Clinical Neurobiology
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- Molecular Neurobiology
- Mechanisms Regulating Gene Expression
- Molecular Biology of Centrosomes and Cilia
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- Pediatric Leukemia
- Tumour Metabolism and Microenvironment
- Personalized Medical Oncology
- Molecular Hematology - Oncology
- Cancer Progression and Metastasis
- Translational Surgical Oncology
- Neuronal Signaling and Morphogenesis
- Cell Signaling and Metabolism
- Cell Fate Engineering and Disease Modeling
- Cancer Drug Development
- Cell Morphogenesis and Signal Transduction
- Functional and Structural Genomics
- Molecular Genome Analysis
- Molecular Genetics
- Pediatric Neurooncology
- Cancer Genome Research
- Chromatin Networks
- Functional Genome Analysis
- Theoretical Systems Biology
- Neuroblastoma Genomics
- Signaling and Functional Genomics
- Signal Transduction in Cancer and Metabolism
- RNA Biology and Cancer
- Systems Biology of Signal Transduction
- Areas of Interest
- Advancement of clinical proteomics for systems medicine
- Bridging from the single cell to the cell population – Epo-induced cellular responses and erythroleukemia
- Deciphering tumor microenvironment interactions determining lung cancer development
- Mechanisms controlling the compensation of liver injury and towards model-based biomarkers for early detection of liver cancer
- Application of dynamic pathway modelling for personalized medicine
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- Molecular thoracic Oncology
- Proteomics of Stem Cells and Cancer
- Computational Genomics and System Genetics
- Applied Functional Genomics
- Applied Bioinformatics
- Translational Medical Oncology
- Metabolic crosstalk in cancer
- Pediatric Glioma Research
- Cancer Epigenomics
- Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research
- Artificial Intelligence in Oncology
- Mechanisms of Genomic Variation and Data Science
- Neuropathology
- Pediatric Oncology
- Neurooncology
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- Translational Control and Metabolism
- Soft-Tissue Sarcoma
- Precision Sarcoma Research
- Brain Mosaicism and Tumorigenesis
- Mechanisms of Genome Control
- Translational Gastrointestinal Oncology and Preclinical Models
- Translational Lymphoma Research
- Mechanisms of Leukemogenesis
- Genome Instability in Tumors
- Developmental Origins of Pediatric Cancer
- Brain Tumor Translational Targets
- Translational Functional Cancer Genomics
- Regulatory Genomics and Cancer Evolution
- SPRINT
- Cancer Risk Factors and Prevention
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- Biostatistics
- Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research
- Health Economics
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- Preventive Oncology
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- Digital Biomarkers for Oncology
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- Molecular Oncology of Gastrointestinal Tumors
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- Medical Physics in Radiology
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- Multiparametric methods for early detection of prostate cancer
- Molecular Mechanisms of Head and Neck Tumors
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- Immunotherapy and Immunoprevention
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- Chronic Inflammation and Cancer
- Microbiome and Cancer
- Cell Plasticity and Epigenetic Remodeling
- Experimental Hepatology, Inflammation and Cancer
- Infections and Cancer Epidemiology
- Tumorvirus-specific Vaccination Strategies
- Mammalian Cell Cycle Control Mechanisms
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- Episomal-Persistent DNA in Cancer- and Chronic Diseases
- Cell Biology and Tumor Biology
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NMR with Hyperpolarized Spin Systems

Dynamic ¹³C MRS after the administration of hyperpolarized Pyruvate (signal at 172 ppm, with its hydrated form at 180 ppm) into living tissue to assess enzymatic activity in vivo. After transport via Monocarboxylate Transporters (MCT) into cells, Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) transfers hyperpolarization to Lactate (signal at 184 ppm), and Alanine-Aminotransferase (ALT) to Alanine (signal at 176 ppm). The hyperpolarization decays after a few minutes.
© dkfz.de
The NMR signal in living tissue is fundamentally limited by the available thermal polarization of P ≈ 10-6. Outside tissues, though, polarization levels can be manipulated to values of P ≈ 0.5 using hyperpolarization techniques, e.g. dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), yielding a tremendous gain in NMR signal by about five orders of magnitude. Following the administration of substances carrying hyperpolarized spins, highest NMR signal is also exploitable in living tissue for the lifetime of polarized states (on the order of minutes), enabling NMR applications of unprecedented sensitivity.
One such application is metabolic MR using hyperpolarized 13C (see Figure): 13C-enriched, endogenous substrates (e.g. 1-13C-Pyruvate) are hyperpolarized and subsequently administered into living beings, where cellular metabolism 'transfers' the hyperpolarized 13C nuclei to other substances. As a consequence, the NMR signals of downstream metabolic products (e.g. 1-13C-Lactate) are also enhanced and become detectable. Utilizing dynamic 13C NMR techniques, each hyperpolarized metabolite can be identified by its individual 13C resonance frequency (chemical shift), and tracking the time course of hyperpolarized signals enables to quantify enzymatic activity (e.g. Lactate Dehydrogenase) in real time.
This way, the metabolic alterations of cancer tissues can be assessed, e.g., the increased activity of Lactate Dehydrogenase leading to an increased flux of Pyruvate to Lactate compared to healthy tissues. To realize assessment of cancer metabolism via hyperpolarized 13C also in humans, our research group currently establishes this cutting-edge technology using a SPINlabTM DNP system for clinical application.