Beyond the Surface: Unveiling Cardiometabolic Pathophysiology through Advanced Imaging and Biomarker Discovery

時間地點：10:00 am, Jan 06 (Mon), 2025; R1-1042 Conference Room

研討講者：Min-Chi Ku, PhD

November 29, 2024

Abstract

Cardiometabolic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity-related disorders, are major global health concerns affecting millions of people. These conditions often lead to cardiomyopathies, contributing to heart muscle dysfunction and significantly increasing the risk of cardiovascular complications such as heart attacks and strokes. What makes these diseases particularly challenging is their insidious nature, often progressing silently without early symptoms. Even when the heart appears to be functioning normally, underlying damage to the heart tissue can be occurring, making early detection crucial for effective intervention.

My research leverages advanced, non-invasive imaging techniques, particularly MRI and quantitative tissue phenotyping, to uncover hidden myocardial changes and disease mechanisms that are often undetectable through conventional methods. The "Beyond the Surface" project utilizes cutting-edge imaging tools—such as ultrahigh-field 7T human scanners and preclinical 9.4T systems—enabling "virtual biopsies" that detect subtle alterations in cardiac and other tissues. This multidisciplinary approach integrates MRI, AI-enhanced analysis, metabolomics, and advanced optical imaging to decode complex metabolic patterns and mitochondrial health, offering insights into the development and etiology of chronic cardiometabolic diseases.

By incorporating data from the German National Cohort, which provides valuable insights into disease progression, and back-translating human findings into animal models, we bridge critical gaps in knowledge. This research uncovers early fibrosis, vascular remodeling, and metabolic shifts that precede clinical symptoms, driving the development of predictive models and personalized diagnostic approaches. Ultimately, this work aims to improve early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment strategies for cardiometabolic diseases, potentially improving outcomes for millions of patients worldwide.


Min-Chi Ku, PhD

Experimental and Translational Cardiac MRI Berlin Ultrahigh-Field Facility (B.U.F.F.)

Max-Delbrück-Center in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) Berlin, Germany

Min-Chi Ku, PhD

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0963-2461 

Contact: min-chi.ku@mdc-berlin.de                


Academic Degrees and Education

• 2013 Doctor of Philosophy            

Medical Neurosciences, Charité Medical University and Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany

Final grade: summa cum laude

• 2005 Master of Science 

Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Institute of Physiology, NDMC, Taipei, Taiwan

• 2001 Bachelor of Science

Medical Nursing, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science, Taipei, Taiwan


Research Fields 

• Since 2022 Principal Investigator / Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.) MDC

Research field: Early-Stage Cardiovascular Imaging and Treatment Interception in Cardiometabolic Diseases Using Advanced MRI Technology

• 2013 – 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow / Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.) MDC

Research field: Advanced Imaging of Kidney Function and Fluorine MRI Tracking of Immune Cells in Brain Tumors for Precision Diagnostics and Treatment Insights

• 2006 – 2008 Research Associate / Functional and Micro-Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Research field: Cutting-Edge MRI Tracking of Stem Cell Fate for Regenerative Medicine and Therapeutic Advancements

• 2001 – 2003 Research Assistant / Chemokine and Immunology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Research field: Unraveling Chemokine Signaling and Immune Dynamics for Targeted Therapies in Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases


Selected Fellowships and Awards 

2023 – 2027 Collaborative research funding from Cedars Sinai Medical Center, LA; Deep learning based physiological modeling for rapid and reliable quantitative cardiac MRI 

2022 – 2025 German Research Foundation (DFG) research grant; Non-invasive monitoring of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using cardiac MR virtual biopsy (cardiacMRBIOPSY) 

2024 – 2025 Berlin Center for translational vascular biomedicine; AI-enhanced multimodal imaging for biomarker and vascular phenotype identification in HCM 

2022 3rd Place Winner of MDC Best Postdoc Prize 

2018 1st Place Winner of Berlin Post-Doc Day Symposium Best Talk Award 

2008 – 2011 Three years NeuroCure Full PhD Fellowship, Berlin, Germany 

2014 – 2020 German Centre for Cardiovascular Research travel grants; International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine educational stipends; German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) lecture stipends 


Invited Scientific Lectures and Seminars

2024 & 2025 Preclinical Imaging Series, Charité Medical University, Germany

2024 NutriTox Seminar Series, Institute for Nutritional Science, University Potsdam, Germany

2024 Cardiovascular seminar series, Bayer AG, Germany

2023 Biomedical Imaging Research Institute Seminar, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, USA

2019 MDC Cancer Club Seminar Series, Berlin, Germany

2018 Center for Magnetic Resonance in Biology and Medicine, Aix Marseille Université, France

2018 Clinical Metabolomics Core (CMC), Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan


Invited Oral Presentations in the International Conferences

2024 Symposium of the Frontiers in Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Taiwan

2022 World Congress of Biomechanics, Taipei/Taiwan

2022 2nd Pulmonary Hypertension I Heart Failure Symposium, Berlin, Germany 

2020 German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (Young DZHK) retreat, Potsdam, Germany

2019 European Society for MR in Medicine and Biology, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2018 ISMRM Workshop: advances in multiscale cancer detection, Dublin, Ireland

2018 9th B.U.F.F. Symposium on Ultrahigh Field MRI, Berlin, Germany

2015 23th ISMRM Annual Meeting, Toronto/Canada

2014 22th ISMRM Annual Meeting, Milan/Italy


Contributions to the Scientific Societies

Since 2023 Faculty: MDC-Weizmann Helmholtz International Research School for Imaging and Data Science from the NAno to the MESo (iNAMES)

2024 – 2025 Committee: 2025 European Society for Molecular Imaging programme team

2023 – 2024 Panel member: PhD recruitment committee of MDC, Berlin, Germany

2018 – 2024 Organizer: Scientific Symposium on Clinical Needs, Research Promises and Technical Solutions in Ultrahigh Field Magnetic Resonance, Berlin

2018 – 2019 Organization assistant: 21st Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance (ISMAR 2019) 

2017 – 2024 Invited editor and reviewer: Frontiers in Physics; Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine; Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery (QIMS); Frontiers in Oncology; Cancers; Journal of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (JCMR); Nanotheranostics; Scientific Reports; Springer Protocols on Kidney MRI; World Congress of Biomechanics (WCB), Taipei; European Society for Molecular Imaging (EMIM)


Educational Service of Early Career Researchers 

Since 2022 Five PhDs from Charité Medical University, Free University Berlin and TU Munich

2012 – 2020 Three master students from: TU Berlin, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, TU Dresden and an Erasmus undergraduate from University of Lisbon, Portugal


Voluntary Service to the Community

2023 – 2024 Committee member: Institutional Health Management, MDC

2023 – 2024 Sports manager: team sports organization for MDC employees in Berlin

2018 – 2020 Committee member: Institutional Anti-Harassment Task Force, MDC

                                                       Institutional Postdoc Career Development, MDC 

2018 – 2019 Representative: Postdoc association representative, MDC and FMP

Selected Publications

Total publications: 31; h-index=15; Total citations: 911 

*equal contribution        #corresponding author

1. Li X, Huang Y, Malagi A, Yang CC, Yoosefian G, Huang LT, Tang E, Gao C, Han F, Bi X, Ku MC, Yang HJ, Han H. Reliable Off-Resonance Correction in High-Field Cardiac MRI Using Autonomous Cardiac B0 Segmentation with Dual-Modality Deep Neural Networks. Bioengineering (Basel). 2024;11(3):210 

2. Ku MC#, Kober F, Lai YC, Pohlmann A, Qadri F, Bader M, Carrier L, Niendorf T. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance detects microvascular dysfunction in a mouse model of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2021;23(1):63.

3. Ku MC#, Fernández-Seara MA, Kober F, Niendorf T. Noninvasive Renal Perfusion Measurement Using Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) MRI: Basic Concept. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2216:229

4. Ku MC, Schreiber A, Delgado PR, Boehm-Sturm P, Kettritz R, Niendorf T, Pohlmann A, Waiczies S. Fluorine (19F) MRI for Assessing Inflammatory Cells in the Kidney: Experimental Protocol. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2216:495

5. Ji Y, Winter L, Navarro L, Ku MC, Periquito JS, Pham M, Hoffmann W, Theune LE, Calderón M, Niendorf T. Controlled Release of Therapeutics from Thermoresponsive Nanogels: A Thermal Magnetic Resonance Feasibility Study. Cancers (Basel). 2020;12(6):1380. 

6. Boehmert L, Waiczies H, Kuehne A, Oezerdem C, Waiczies S, Starke L, Ku MC, Pohlmann A, Seeliger E, Niendorf T. Cardiorenal sodium MRI in small rodents using a quadrature birdcage volume resonator at 9.4 T. MAGMA. 2020;33(1):121. 

7. Periquito JDS, Paul K, Huelnhagen T, Ku MC, Ji Y, Cantow K, Gladytz T, Grosenick D, Flemming B, Seeliger E, Waiczies S, Niendorf T, Pohlmann A. Diffusion-weighted Renal MRI at 9.4 Tesla Using RARE to Improve Anatomical Integrity. Sci Rep. 2019;23;9(1):19723. 

8. Huelnhagen T, Ku MC, Reimann HM, Serradas Duarte T, Pohlmann A, Flemming B, Seeliger E, Eichhorn C, A Ferrari V, Prothmann M, Schulz-Menger J, Niendorf T. Myocardial Effective Transverse Relaxation Time T2* is Elevated in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A 7.0 T Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study. Sci Rep. 2018; 8:3974. 

9. Ku MC#, Huelnhagen T, Niendorf T, and Pohlmann A. Cardiac MRI in Small Animals. Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1718:269.

10. Ku MC, Waiczies S, Niendorf T, and Pohlmann A. Assessment of Blood Brain Barrier leakage with Gadolinium Enhanced MRI. Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1718:395

11. Rathjen T*, Yan X*, Kononenko NL, Ku MC, Song K, Ferrarese L, Tarallo V, Puchkov D, Kochlamazashvili G, Brachs S, Varela L, Szigeti-Buck K, Yi CX, Schriever SC, Tattikota SG, Carlo AS, Moroni M, Siemens J, Heuser A, van der Weyden L, Birkenfeld AL, Niendorf T, Poulet JFA, Horvath TL, Tschöp MH, Heinig M, Trajkovski M, Haucke V and Poy MN. Regulation of Body Weight and Energy Homeostasis by Neuronal Cell Adhesion Molecule 1. Nat Neurosci. 2017;20:1096. 

12. Huelnhagen T, Paul K, Ku MC, Duarte TS, Niendorf T. Myocardial T2* mapping with ultrahigh field magnetic resonance: Physics and frontier applications. Frontiers in Physics, 2017, 5:22 

13. Dithmer S, Staat C, Müller C, Ku MC, Pohlmann A, Niendorf T, Gehne N, Fallier-Becker P, Kittel Á, Walter FR, Veszelka S, Deli MA, Blasig R, Haseloff RF, Blasig IE, Winkler L. Claudinpeptidomimetics modulate tissue barriers for enhanced drug delivery. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2017 ;1397(1):169 

14. Ku MC#, Edes I, Bendix I, Pohlmann A, Waiczies H, Prozorovski T, Günther M, Pagès G, Wolf SA, Kettenmann H, Uckert W, Niendorf T, Waiczies S. ERK1 as A Therapeutic Target for Dendritic Cell Vaccination Against High-grade Gliomas. Mol Cancer Ther. 2016;15:1975. 

15. Niendorf T, Pohlmann A, Reimann HM, Waiczies H, Peper E, Huelnhagen T, Seeliger E, Schreiber A, Kettritz R, Strobel K, Ku MC, Waiczies S. Advancing Cardiovascular, Neurovascular, and Renal Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Small Rodents Using Cryogenic Radiofrequency Coil Technology. Front Pharmacol. 2015;6:255 

16. Feutlinske F, Browarski M, Ku MC, Trnka P, Waiczies S, Niendorf T, Stallcup WB, Glass R, Krause E, Maritzen T. Stonin1 Mediates Endocytosis of The Proteoglycan NG2 and Regulates Focal Adhesion Dynamics and Cell Motility. Nat Commun. 2015; 6:8535. 

17. Pohlmann A, Karczewski P, Ku MC, Dieringer B, Waiczies H, Wisbrun N, Kox S, Palatnik I, Reimann HM, Eichhorn C, Waiczies S, Hempel P, Lemke B, Niendorf T, Bimmler M. Cerebral blood volume estimation by ferumoxytol-enhanced steady-state MRI at 9.4 T reveals microvascular impact of α1 -adrenergic receptor antibodies. NMR Biomed. 2014;27(9):1085. 

18. Hu F*, Ku MC*, Markovic D*, A Dzaye OD, Lehnardt S, Synowitz M, Wolf SA, Kettenmann H. Glioma-associated Microglial MMP9 Expression is Upregulated by TLR2 Signaling and Sensitive to Minocycline. Int J Cancer. 2014; 135:2569. 

19. Ku MC#, Wolf SA, Respondek D, Matyash V, Pohlmann A, Waiczies S, Waiczies H, Niendorf T, Synowitz M, Glass R, Kettenmann H. GDNF Mediates Glioblastoma-induced Microglia Attraction But Not Astrogliosis. Acta Neuropathol. 2013; 125:609. 

20. Chen CC*, Ku MC*, D M J, Lai JS, Hueng DY, Chang C. Simple SPION incubation as an efficient intracellular labeling method for tracking neural progenitor cells using MRI. PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e56125.