Daniel B. Vigneron Lab

Professor Daniel Vigneron's research focuses on the development of advanced functional and metabolic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques for the study of prostate cancer, brain tumors, and diseases. He is also a core member of UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering.

Dr. Vigneron's group of researchers focus on developing new metabolic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques for both basic research and clinical assessments of human diseases. This requires the development of new hardware/software and MR protocols to provide biochemical information in addition to the anatomic information provided by clinical MRI. The Vigneron lab group develops novel coil and software techniques for high field MRI, MR spectroscopy and MR diffusion imaging techniques. The group has optimized these 3T & 7T MR methods for studies of brain, prostate cancer and other organs and diseases. The Vigneron lab, located in Byers Hall on the UCSF Mission Bay campus, are now developing improved acquisition techniques and hardware for multinuclear MR spectroscopy including hyperpolarized carbon-13 metabolic imaging in the Surbeck Laboratory for Advanced Imaging. The group has a particular focus on the development of novel 3T and 7T MR methods and Dr. Vigneron is the Operations Director overseeing the technical operations of the Surbeck Laboratory. Dr. Vigneron is the Director of the NIH-funded Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center (HMTRC) and project leader for the development of novel DNP methology and HP MR acquisition techniques. He also directs the UCSF Advanced Imaging Technologies Specialized Resource Group and the UCSF RRP Human Imaging Services Core.

UCSF MR Imaging Labs Tour Video

Publication #331 Title: Specialized computational methods for denoising, B₁ correction, and kinetic modeling in hyperpolarized ¹³C MR EPSI studies of liver tumors

Authors: Lee PM, Chen HY, Gordon JW, Zhu Z, Larson PEZ, Dwork N, Van Criekinge M, Carvajal L, Ohligher MA, Wang ZJ, Xu D, Kurhanewicz J, Bok RA, Aggarwal R, Munster PN, Vigneron DB

Purpose: To develop a novel post-processing pipeline for hyperpolarized (HP) ¹³C MRSI that integrates tensor denoising B₁⁺ correction to measure pyruvate-to-lactate conversion rates (k_PL) in patients with liver tumors.

Publication #330 Title: Denoising of hyperpolarized ¹³C MR images of the human brain using patch-based higher-order singular value decomposition

Authors: Kim Y, Chen HY, Autry AW, Villanueva-Meyer J, Chang SM, Li Y, Larson PEZ, Brender JR, Krishna MC, Xu D, Vigneron DB, Gordon JW

Purpose: To improve hyperpolarized ¹³C (HP-¹³C) by image denoising with a new approach, patch-based higher-order singular value decomposition (HOSVD).

Publication #321 Title: Characterization of serial hyperpolarized ¹³C metabolic imaging in patients with glioma

Authors: Autry AW, Gordon JW, Chen HY, LaFontaine M, Bok R, Van Criekinge M, Slater JB, Carvajal L, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Chang SM, Clarke JL, Lupo JM, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Li Y

Purpose: To characterize serial dynamic HP-¹³C imaging using a kinetic modeling approach (Larson et al.,2018) in healthy volunteers and patients who received treatment for glioma. Apparent [1-¹³C]pyruvate metabolism within NAWM was compared in volunteers versus patients and evaluated for variation across examinations, while metabolism within tumor lesions was assessed for alterations relative to NAWM.