The HYPERMAG Center of Excellence has employeed Arthur Pinon as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
Arthur Pinon will be working on transportable hyperpolarized metabolites for Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging via Photo Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP).
The project is a continuation of ongoing HYPERMAG efforts to overcome a significant challenge of hyperpolarization through Photo Induced DNP. Through its signal enhancement allowing a realtime and non-invasive window into the processes of living cells, Hyperpolarized MR has the potential to fundamentally change the way we examine the human body and how we approach diagnoses and drug discovery. But the techniques to produce hyperpolarized metabolites today are limited by the fast decay of the hyperpolarized signal and the long time required to reach hyperpolarization.
Arthur will combine a novel technique, Low Field Thermal Mixing, with Photo Induced DNP. The aim is to hyperpolarize metabolites in a few minutes and produce hyperpolarized samples with decay times of over several hours. This will allow fast polarization, as well as transport of the samples such that the detection of the hyperpolarized sample can occur in a different location from the polarizing apparatus. This will have a tremendous impact on hyperpolarized MRI: a single polarizer could serve many MRI facilities.
Arthur holds an MSc degree from École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France and a PhD degree in DNP from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Arthur has been awarded a H. C. Ørsted COFUND fellowship to fund his research at DTU. The program awards postdoctoral funding for highly talented PhDs who have achieved outstanding results in their research. The program is named after Hans Christian Ørsted, discoverer of electro-magnetism and founder of DTU, and is co-funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (H2020).