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Prof. Vasilis Ntziachristos, Msc PhD

Director, Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging and Director, Bioengineering Department
+49 (0) 89 3187 3852Email meBuilding/Room: Building/Room: 56/029

Our research at Helmholtz Munich is driven by our interest to provide solutions that address critical unmet medical need and positively impact healthcare and the well-being of society.

Our research at Helmholtz Munich is driven by our interest to provide solutions that address critical unmet medical need and positively impact healthcare and the well-being of society.

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Academic Career and Research Areas

Vasilis Ntziachristos’ research focuses on the development of new methods for advancing well-being and accelerating discovery. His focus is the development of novel methods for prevention and early detection of disease, also serving as the means of administering more efficient treatment. His expertise span the fields of imaging, sensing and computation and his activities cover the entire spectrum from theoretical and methodological developments and basic discovery to clinical translation and entrepreneurship. Examples of his work involve the development of Fluorescent Molecular Imaging as means to improve guidance in surgery and the performance of diagnostic endoscopy as well as the development of Optoacoustic Imaging and Microscopy methods for advancing discovery and impacting healthcare. He is the founder of several companies including SurgVision BV which commercializes fluorescence imaging solutions for surgery, now under Bracco SpA, and iThera Medical GmbH, a company that commercializes optoacoustic technology.

 

Professor Vasilis Ntziachristos studied electrical engineering at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Following his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, he was then appointed Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Bio-Optics and Molecular Imaging at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. Since 2007, he has served as Professor of Medicine and Electrical Engineering and the Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich and Director of the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging at Helmholtz Munich. Prof. Ntziachristos is also currently Director of Bioengineering at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus and the Head of the Bioengineering Department at Helmholtz Munich.

 

Fields of Work and Expertise

Biomedical Engineering PhotonicsImagingMicroscopyOptoacousticsClinical Translation Computational Methods Machine Learning 
Data Analytics Biological Engineering

Professional Background

2002 - 2002

Instructor, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital

2002 - 2007

Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Bio-optics and Molecular Imaging, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital

Since 2007

Full Professor C4/W3 of Medicine and Electrical Engineering, Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich Director, Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging

Highlight Publications

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The Problem Solver

“As a child, I was opening all toys to see what is inside. Now I build novel sensors for medical applications.”

Vasilis Ntziachristos has not only kept this curiosity for disassembly and building since his childhood but he has further complemented it with a culture of problem-solving: by teaching this problem-solving from a scientific perspective to his students and group members, he fosters a stimulatory environment with the goal to provide integrated solutions for improving healthcare and to drive and develop new technologies for clinical benefit.

The Entrepreneur

Prof. Ntziachristos and his group continue to endeavor to translate their pioneering research efforts to the clinic through the development and commercialization of new medical technologies. In 2010, he founded iThera Medical to produce clinical MSOT and RSOM systems which have been implemented in hospitals and research groups worldwide. His work was also instrumental in founding SurgVision BV in 2013 (acquired by Bracco Imaging S.p.A.), which enables fluorescence-guided surgery. He has also founded i3 (Intravascular Imaging Inc.), a company developing novel cardiovascular imaging technologies focusing on near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging. To date, Prof. Ntziachristos has registered more than 100 patents related to biomedical imaging, and in 2014, he was named one of the world’s top innovators by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology Review.

Media Coverage

Prof. Ntziachristos explains in this interview how optoacoustic imaging has revolutionized the field of biological imaging, and how these methods allow us to ‘listen’ to the human body to gain knowledge about diseases and to visualize biomarkers in vivo

Making the invisible visible

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In 2013, Vasilis Ntziachristos received Germany’s most prestigious research funding prize: the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. He was honored for his internationally-recognized contributions in the field of optical imaging

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Price

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