The images above show the brain of a patient with multiple sclerosis. The two images on the left show iron content, with the top image displaying a whole brain slice and the bottom magnifying a lesion. The images on the right show oxygen extraction fraction, with the top image depicting a whole brain slice and the bottom magnifying a lesion.
UB Awarded $1.77 Million Grant to Create Tool Set for Oxygen Metabolism Mapping
By Cory Nealon
Published May 14, 2024
As blood circulates throughout our bodies, cells extract oxygen from it. This process, known as oxygen metabolism, helps groups of cells called tissue grow and carry out other essential functions.
Being able to precisely measure how much oxygen tissues gobble up — a ratio known as oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) — would enable health care professionals to create detailed maps of hard-to-see places, such as our brains.
These maps can ultimately help doctors infer where tissue is healthy and where it is not, which is especially useful when treating people with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.
Unfortunately, there is no widely available and cost-effective method to map OEF. The National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke recently awarded a UB-led research team a five-year, $1.77 million Research Project Grant (R01) to change that.
Providing Accurate and Reliable Data for OEF Maps
Led by Junghun Cho, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, the team will use the award to develop new technology that, when paired with common MRI scanners, provides accurate and reliable data to create OEF maps.
“Medical imaging has improved greatly over the years,” Cho says. “But there is still room for improvement.
“With this grant, we will develop a novel tool set, including new biophysics models and algorithms, to process routine MRI images. The hope is that the toolset will be adopted across the nation, and even the world, greatly improving access to noninvasive medical imaging, as well as bettering our understanding in diagnosing and treating complex cerebrovascular conditions.”
For example, the progressive degeneration of the nervous system is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. What causes this is unknown. One theory suggests it relates to the dysfunction of mitochondria (part of the cell that generates energy) and/or sustained inflammation in MS lesions. Recent work by Cho and colleagues suggests that each can be measured through OEF mapping, which would provide doctors with a more nuanced look at the condition.
Project co-investigators from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are:
- Ferdinand Schweser, PhD, associate professor of neurology, biomedical engineering and radiology
- Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and biomedical informatics
Chang-Xing Ma, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions, is also a co-investigator.
Additional co-investigators come from Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.