Department of Radiology - Medical Physics

Master's Thesis

The Departments of Radiology - Medical Physics and Radiation Therapy of the University Medical Center in collaboration with the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are looking for a Masters Student in Physics (or a related field) for a research project on

Real-time MRI Tumor Tracking for Proton Therapy

Radiation therapy is the preferred treatment for many tumors, but tumor motion poses a severe problem as the exact location of the tumor can vary during irradiation. In recent years, new radiation treatment systems have been designed that combine an x-ray (photon) radiation source with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, so that the position of the tumor can be monitored in real-time, and radiation is only applied when the tumor is at the correct location.

In this master's thesis a real-time MRI method will be developed for MR-guided proton tumor therapy that can automatically locate the tumor position with new efficient image acquisition strategies. Proton therapy is an alternative to conventional x-ray radiation therapy, which, thanks to the Bragg peak, can deliver the dose in a much more focused way to the tumor. To ensure that the dose is applied at the correct location, proton therapy requires a real-time update on the tumor position, but in addition it also needs to determine the path length of the protons in tissue. Therefore, rapid MRI techniques based on our concepts for orthogonal slice imaging will be developed and combined with 3D real-time reconstruction of the normal tissues in the proton beam path based on prior information.

The successful candidate should have an interest (and, preferably, some experience) in:

• Medical physics
• Programming (C++, MatLab, Python)
• Application in cancer treatment

The candidate will work at the University Medical Center Freiburg in a multi-disciplinary team of physicists and computer scientists with access to clinical MRI systems and pulse sequence programming environments. The candidate will spend one month at the proton therapy center of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

The starting date is negotiable.

Please submit your application and documents by email to:
 

Prof. Dr. Michael Bock
Professor for Experimental Radiology
michael.bock@uniklinik-freiburg.de

Universitätsklinikum Freiburg
Radiologische Klinik - Medizin Physik
Killianstraße 5a
79106 Freiburg
GERMANY

Prof. Dr. Thomas Bortfelt
thomas.bortfelt@mgh.harvard.edu

Massachusetts General Hospital
Department of Radiation Oncology
100 Blossom Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02114
USA

Master's Thesis

The Department of Radiology, Medical Physics, is looking for a master’s student in physics or engineering for

Radio Frequency (RF) Coil Design for Concurrent Excitation and Acquisition MRI

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), RF coils are used both for the excitation of the magnetization and the detection of the MR signal. As the MR signals are very weak, an efficient and optimized RF coil is required to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. Recently we have realized a novel MRI concept called "Concurrent Excitation and Acquisition (CEA)" where the MR signal is excited and detected simultaneously [Özen AC, Atalar E, Korvink JG, Bock M. Scientific Reports 8(1): 10631 (2018)]. CEA facilitates a more time- and power-efficient MRI, and can also detect signal from tissue with extremely short relaxation time such as bone or myelinated neurons

In this master's project, a dedicated RF coil for CEA will be developed. Therefore, a linearly polarized volume coil will be tuned to the MRI resonance frequency (123 MHz at 3 T) to form a CEA transmit coil, and a two-element receive coil array will be constructed to acquire MRI signal simultaneously. Additionally, the interface and decoupling circuits will be constructed to suppress transmit signals during reception

The successful candidate should have an interest and initial experience/background in:

• Electromagnetics
• Radio frequency electronics
• Soldering

We offer:

• An interdisciplinary dynamic research environment
• State-of-the-art lab equipment
• Improvement of RF circuit design and soldering skills
• A better understanding of electromagnetic fields generated by resonators
• A potential extension of the project towards a PhD study.

The starting date is negotiable. Please submit your application and documents by email to:

Dr. Ali Caglar Özen
ali.oezen@uniklinik-freiburg.de

Prof. Dr. Michael Bock
Professor for Experimental Radiology
michael.bock@uniklinik-freiburg.de

Universitätsklinikum Freiburg
Radiologische Klinik - Medizin Physik
Killianstraße 5a
79106 Freiburg
GERMANY

^{Posted: January 25, 2020}