Research Summary

Daniel B. Vigneron, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences and Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also Director of the Advanced Imaging Technologies Specialized Resource Group, the UCSF Research Resource Programs’s (RRP) Human Imaging Core Services recharge and,the P41 NIH/NBIBI Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center. He is also the Operations Director of the Surbeck Laboratory for Advanced Imaging, Chair of the Radiology Research Safety & Compliance Committee, and a core member of the UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering at UCSF. Dr. Vigneron’s professional activities aims on the advancement of biomedical MRI research.

Dr. Vigneron’s research focuses on the development of advanced functional and 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. This research has been reported in over 330 publications resulting in over 33,000 citations and has been funded by 20+ NIH grant awards as PI and 6 NIH awards as the primary Mentor.

Dr. Vigneron’s research was initially focused on developing 3D MR spectroscopic imaging for the non-invasive assessment of brain tumor metabolism. Another major research interest of Dr. Vigneron’s is the characterization of prostate cancer using novel MR metabolic imaging techniques. Developing specialized acquisitions techniques for prostate cancer MRSI has been a major project for Dr. Vigneron and his group. These techniques have now been used in over 8000 research and clinical studies at UCSF. He also has led technical development aspects for the UCSF Hyperpolarized (HP) Carbon-13 MR molecular imaging program and is the PI for 6 projects including NIH P41 center grant, 2 RO1's, a P01, and a Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP U01) focused on this new stable isotope molecular MR imaging approach. This exciting new technology detects not only the uptake of the HP molecule but also its metabolism in vivo.

Dr. Vigneron obtained his BA in Chemistry from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1983, and he received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from UCSF in 1988 for his graduate work on applying new MRI techniques for characterizing disease and therapy response. In 1990, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and in 1991 he completed a postdoctoral fellowship from UCSF.

Expertise:
Radiology and Biomedical Imaging

Specialty:
MRI, hyperpolarized MRI techniques, brain tumor, prostate cancer

Professional Interests:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Molecular Imaging, Metabolic Imaging, Diffusion tensor imaging, Oncologic Imaging, Prostate Cancer Imaging, Pediatric Imaging, Radiology.

Education and Training:
• Bachelor of Arts: Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut - Chemistry, Pre-Med Studies
• Doctor of Philosophy: University of California, San Francisco - Pharmaceutical Chemistry
• Research Fellow: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia
• Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar: University of California, San Francisco - Department of Radiology

Research Funding

  • July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2026 - Hyperpolarized C-13 MRI Techniques to Monitor Radiation Therapy Response in Prostate Cancer Patients , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA238379
  • December 1, 2020 - November 30, 2025 - Measuring Metabolic Activity in Prostate Cancer Bone Metastases Using Hyperpolarized 13C Pyruvate MRI for Improved Targeted Therapy Monitoring , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA256740
  • December 1, 2005 - July 31, 2024 - Noninvasive Metabolic Signatures to Improve Management of Molecular Subtypes of Glioma , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P01CA118816
  • April 11, 2019 - March 31, 2024 - Hyperpolarized C-13 MRI for Early Detection of Aggressive Prostate Cancer in Active Surveillance Patients , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01CA232320
  • June 1, 2019 - February 29, 2024 - Development and Translation of Hyperpolarized C-13 Prostate Cancer MRI Methods , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01EB026412
  • March 6, 2017 - February 28, 2022 - CLINICAL TRANSLATION OF HYPERPOLARIZED 13C-UREA FOR CANCER MR MOLECULAR IMAGING , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA214554
  • August 1, 2011 - July 31, 2021 - Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH/NIBIB, Sponsor Award ID: P41EB013598
  • July 1, 2011 - May 31, 2021 - Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P41EB013598
  • April 15, 2020 - April 14, 2021 - Upgrade of an Obsolete 3.35T DNP Polarizer to enable new HP C-13 Technology Development , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: S10OD025077
  • May 12, 2014 - February 29, 2020 - Translating HP 13C MRI as a Novel Paradigm for Assessing Drug Target Inhibition , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA183071
  • August 15, 2013 - July 31, 2019 - Development and Translation of Hyperpolarized C-13 Prostate Cancer MRI Methods , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01EB017449
  • September 30, 2012 - July 31, 2018 - Novel Hyperpolarized MR Markers of Advanced Prostate Cancer Therapy , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA166655
  • July 15, 2013 - May 31, 2018 - New Instrumentation and Techniques for Hyperpolarized Metabolic and Perfusion MRI , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01EB013427
  • August 9, 2010 - June 30, 2016 - Translation and Evaluation of a Multiparametric Prostate Cancer 3T Exam , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA137207
  • May 20, 1993 - February 28, 2014 - METABOLIC IMAGING OF THE PROSTATE USING 3-D MRSI , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA059897
  • September 27, 2006 - July 31, 2013 - Morphologic, Metabolic and Functional Prostate Imaging , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA111291
  • June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2012 - Hyperpolarized C-13 MR Exploratory Studies of Liver Cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21CA137298
  • August 15, 2007 - April 30, 2012 - TECHNIQUE DEVELOPMENT FOR HYPERPOLARIZED C-13 MR STUDIES , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01EB007588
  • April 12, 2006 - February 28, 2012 - MR Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Prostate Cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA103934
  • February 5, 2001 - January 31, 2007 - 3D MR SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING OF THE NEWBORN BRAIN , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01NS040117
  • April 20, 2001 - March 31, 2004 - MR Metabolic Brain Imaging of the Infant Brain , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21NS040382

Education

Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, BA, 1983, Chemistry/Pre-Med
University of California San Francisco, CA, PhD, 1988, Pharm. Chemistry
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, 1990, Research Fellow
UCSF Dept. of Radiology, 1991, Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar

Honors & Awards

  • 1983
    Wesleyan University – Hawk Prize for Most Effective Work in Biochemistry
  • 1990
    NCI/NIH National Research Service Award
  • 1998-2000
    CaP Cure Foundation – Prostate Cancer Research Award
  • 2001
    American Society of Neuroradiology – Outstanding Presentation Award in Pediatric Neuroradiology
  • 2007
    American Society of Neuroradiology – Outstanding Presentation Award
  • 2007
    Elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
  • 2009
    International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine – Fellowship Award
  • 2011
    International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine – Distinguished Service Award
  • 2013
    Academy of Radiology Research – Distinguished Investigator Award
  • 2014
    World Molecular Imaging Society – Gold Medal Award

Selected Publications

  1. Larson PE, Bernard JM, Bankson JA, Bøgh N, Bok RA, Chen AP, Cunningham CH, Gordon J, Hövener JB, Laustsen C, Mayer D, McLean MA, Schilling F, Slater J, Vanderheyden JL, von Morze C, Vigneron DB, Xu D, Group THCMC. Current Methods for Hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate MRI Human Studies. ArXiv. 2023 Sep 07.  View on PubMed
  2. Hu JY, Vaziri S, Bøgh N, Kim Y, Autry AW, Bok RA, Li Y, Laustsen C, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Chang S, Vigneron DB, Gordon JW. Investigating cerebral perfusion with high resolution hyperpolarized [1-13 C]pyruvate MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2023 Sep 04.  View on PubMed
  3. Chung BT, Kim Y, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Autry AW, Lee PM, Hu JY, Tan CT, Suszczynski C, Chang SM, Villaneuva-Meyer JE, Bok RA, Larson PEZ, Xu D, Li Y, Vigneron DB. Hyperpolarized [2-13C]Pyruvate MR Molecular Imaging with Whole Brain Coverage. Neuroimage. 2023 Aug 25; 120350.  View on PubMed
  4. Autry AW, Vaziri S, LaFontaine M, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Kim Y, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Molinaro A, Clarke JL, Oberheim Bush NA, Xu D, Lupo JM, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Chang SM, Li Y. Multi-parametric hyperpolarized 13C/1H imaging reveals Warburg-related metabolic dysfunction and associated regional heterogeneity in high-grade human gliomas. Neuroimage Clin. 2023 Aug 18; 39:103501.  View on PubMed
  5. Christensen NV, Vaeggemose M, Bøgh N, Hansen ESS, Olesen JL, Kim Y, Vigneron DB, Gordon JW, Jespersen SN, Laustsen C. A user independent denoising method for x-nuclei MRI and MRS. Magn Reson Med. 2023 Aug 01.  View on PubMed
  6. Xu Z, Michel KA, Walker CM, Harlan CJ, Martinez GV, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Vigneron DB, Bankson JA. Model-constrained reconstruction accelerated with Fourier-based undersampling for hyperpolarized [1-13 C] pyruvate imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2023 04; 89(4):1481-1495.  View on PubMed
  7. Agudelo JP, Upadhyay D, Zhang D, Zhao H, Nolley R, Sun J, Agarwal S, Bok RA, Vigneron DB, Brooks JD, Kurhanewicz J, Peehl DM, Sriram R. Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Metabolic Characterization of Patient-Derived Xenograft Models of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma. Metabolites. 2022 Nov 15; 12(11).  View on PubMed
  8. Vaziri S, Autry AW, Lafontaine M, Kim Y, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Hu JY, Lupo JM, Chang SM, Clarke JL, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Bush NAO, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Li Y. Assessment of higher-order singular value decomposition denoising methods on dynamic hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate MRI data from patients with glioma. Neuroimage Clin. 2022; 36:103155.  View on PubMed
  9. Chen HY, Bok RA, Cooperberg MR, Nguyen HG, Shinohara K, Westphalen AC, Wang ZJ, Ohliger MA, Gebrezgiabhier D, Carvajal L, Gordon JW, Larson PEZ, Aggarwal R, Kurhanewicz J, Vigneron DB. Improving multiparametric MR-transrectal ultrasound guided fusion prostate biopsies with hyperpolarized 13 C pyruvate metabolic imaging: A technical development study. Magn Reson Med. 2022 Dec; 88(6):2609-2620.  View on PubMed
  10. Hu JY, Kim Y, Autry AW, Frost MM, Bok RA, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Xu D, Li Y, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Gordon JW. Kinetic analysis of multi-resolution hyperpolarized 13 C human brain MRI to study cerebral metabolism. Magn Reson Med. 2022 11; 88(5):2190-2197.  View on PubMed
  11. Liu X, Tang S, Mu C, Qin H, Cui D, Lai YC, Riselli AM, Delos Santos R, Carvajal L, Gebrezgiabhier D, Bok RA, Chen HY, Flavell RR, Gordon JW, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J, Larson PEZ. Development of specialized magnetic resonance acquisition techniques for human hyperpolarized [13 C,15 N2 ]urea + [1-13 C]pyruvate simultaneous perfusion and metabolic imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2022 09; 88(3):1039-1054.  View on PubMed
  12. Lee PM, Chen HY, Gordon JW, Wang ZJ, Bok R, Hashoian R, Kim Y, Liu X, Nickles T, Cheung K, Alas FL, Daniel H, Larson PEZ, von Morze C, Vigneron DB, Ohliger MA. Whole-Abdomen Metabolic Imaging of Healthy Volunteers Using Hyperpolarized [1-13 C]pyruvate MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2022 Dec; 56(6):1792-1806.  View on PubMed
  13. Bøgh N, Gordon JW, Hansen ESS, Bok RA, Blicher JU, Hu JY, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Laustsen C. Initial Experience on Hyperpolarized [1-13C]Pyruvate MRI Multicenter Reproducibility-Are Multicenter Trials Feasible? Tomography. 2022 03 01; 8(2):585-595.  View on PubMed
  14. de Kouchkovsky I, Chen HY, Ohliger MA, Wang ZJ, Bok RA, Gordon JW, Larson PEZ, Frost M, Okamoto K, Cooperberg MR, Kurhanewicz J, Vigneron DB, Aggarwal R. Hyperpolarized 1-[13C]-Pyruvate Magnetic Resonance Imaging Detects an Early Metabolic Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in Prostate Cancer. Eur Urol. 2022 02; 81(2):219-221.  View on PubMed
  15. Geng H, Tsang M, Subbaraj L, Cleveland J, Chen L, Lu M, Sharma J, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J, LaFontaine M, Luks T, Barshop BA, Gangoiti J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Rubenstein JL. Tumor metabolism and neurocognition in CNS lymphoma. Neuro Oncol. 2021 10 01; 23(10):1668-1679.  View on PubMed
  16. Li Y, Vigneron DB, Xu D. Current human brain applications and challenges of dynamic hyperpolarized carbon-13 labeled pyruvate MR metabolic imaging. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021 12; 48(13):4225-4235.  View on PubMed
  17. Qin H, Tang S, Riselli AM, Bok RA, Delos Santos R, van Criekinge M, Gordon JW, Aggarwal R, Chen R, Goddard G, Zhang CT, Chen A, Reed G, Ruscitto DM, Slater J, Sriram R, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J. Clinical translation of hyperpolarized 13 C pyruvate and urea MRI for simultaneous metabolic and perfusion imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2022 01; 87(1):138-149.  View on PubMed
  18. Lee PM, Chen HY, Gordon JW, Zhu Z, Larson PEZ, Dwork N, Van Criekinge M, Carvajal L, Ohliger MA, Wang ZJ, Xu D, Kurhanewicz J, Bok RA, Aggarwal R, Munster PN, Vigneron DB. Specialized computational methods for denoising, B1 correction, and kinetic modeling in hyperpolarized 13 C MR EPSI studies of liver tumors. Magn Reson Med. 2021 11; 86(5):2402-2411.  View on PubMed
  19. 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. Denoising of hyperpolarized 13 C MR images of the human brain using patch-based higher-order singular value decomposition. Magn Reson Med. 2021 11; 86(5):2497-2511.  View on PubMed
  20. Lv X, Walton JH, Druga E, Wang F, Aguilar A, McKnelly T, Nazaryan R, Liu FL, Wu L, Shenderova O, Vigneron DB, Meriles CA, Reimer JA, Pines A, Ajoy A. Background-free dual-mode optical and 13C magnetic resonance imaging in diamond particles. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 05 25; 118(21).  View on PubMed

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