Jens Frahm
Jens Frahm ( born March 29, 1951 in Oldenburg ) is a German biophysicist and physical chemist. He is scientific director and managing partner of the nonprofit Biomedical NMR Research GmbH, Max - Planck - Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen.
Life and work
Frahm studied from 1969 to 1974 physics at the Georg-August -Universität Göttingen. Then he made with Hans Strehlow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen dissertation on the use of NMR spectroscopy for molecular dynamics characterization of ions in solvent mixtures, which he in 1977 with a doctorate in the main compartment graduated Physical Chemistry.
Starting in 1977, Frahm worked as a research assistant at Göttingen MPI and deals with the construction of an independent research group that is increasingly focused on the in vivo capabilities of NMR methods and (initially mainly theoretical ) of the until 1974 described by Paul Lauterbur, spatially resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, also called nuclear magnetic resonance imaging known) devoted. 1982 was founded Biomedical NMR, a working group that 1984-1992 by considerable external funding from the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology ( now the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF) funded. The task of the working group included the development of scientific based on the NMR technique, imaging MRI. As early as 1985 it succeeded with the invention of fast imaging method FLASH ( fast low - angle shot ) a revolutionary breakthrough that has significantly influenced the further clinical use of MRI for diagnostic imaging. The royalties from the patents provide complete and sustainable financing of the non-profit founded in 1993, Biomedical NMR Research GmbH. 1994 Frahm his habilitation in physical chemistry at the Georg- August-Universität Göttingen. At the same time he was appointed to an independent Research Centre of the Max Planck Society. 1997 followed the appointment as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Georg- August -Universität Göttingen. Since 2011 he is an External Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self -Organization in Göttingen.
Focus of the scientific work of Frahm form the methodological development of spatially resolved magnetic resonance ( NMR) - in particular the imaging MRI - and the application of any procedure in neurobiology (brain research) and cardiovascular research. Objectives of the interdisciplinary teams are innovative approaches for non-invasive studies of the central nervous system of humans and animals ( insect to primate, mouse focus ). The current options range from fast three-dimensional MRI with high isotropic resolution on measurements of cerebral metabolism to visualizations of the fiber pathways of the brain and functional mapping of the cortex.
Methodological work is concerned with the use of iterative algorithms for image reconstruction of non- Cartesian Ortkodierungen (eg radial MRI) and parallel MRI recordings with multiple radio -frequency coils. Recent developments relate to dynamic MRI techniques that allow for an artifact-free representation of moving objects in real time. This applies for example to the functional representation of joints ( jaw, knee, ankle ) or the direct cinematic representation of the heart without synchronization with the ECG as well as during free breathing. With a combination of the FLASH technique with radial spatial encoding, extreme sub-sampling and image reconstruction by nonlinear inversion to MRI images with a recording time of only 20 milliseconds can be achieved. The recording speed corresponding films with real-time MRI, such as turbulent flows, of the mouth and jaw movements during speech and swallowing, or the beating heart is up to 50 frames per second.
The scientific work of Frahm includes over 400 scientific papers, review articles and book chapters.
Awards
Frahm since 1987 Honorary Member of the Hellenic Radiological Society since 1995 and a Fellow of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Since 2005 he has been a full member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen.