The Martinos Center’s Peter Caravan and Kenneth Kwong were welcomed to the ranks of ISMRM Fellows at the 2019 annual meeting of ISMRM held in May in Montreal. The honor recognizes the incalculable contributions each has made to the field of biomedical imaging.
Both researchers have played significant roles in shaping the field. Caravan, Director of a multidisciplinary and translational molecular imaging group at the Center (the Caravan Lab) and co-director of the Institute for Innovation in Imaging (I3) at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a world leader in the development of novel molecular probes and their application in a host of areas – including cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal and hepatic diseases, as well as cancers. Among his recent advances are a gadolinium-free MR contrast agent to improve the safety of contrast enhanced MRI as well as a fibrin-targeted PET radiotracer and a collagen-targeted PET radiotracer. The two PET radiotracers are currently under evaluation in six clinical trials.
Kwong has played a central role in the development of MR imaging over the past 30+ years. Among his accomplishments: He and his team presented the first MR human diffusion anisotropy results in 1988; he conducted the first successful human functional MRI experiment using endogenous contrast in 1991; and he was the first to apply MRI selective and nonselective inversion pulses for arterial spin labeling for perfusion imaging. His current work includes developing new imaging techniques to discover brain markers for traumatic brain injury, atrial fibrillation and many other challenging disorders.