Anne Birk Frahm has been employed as a PhD student at Center for Hyperpolarization in Magnetic Resonance (HYPERMAG).
Anne will work on the project Metabolomics using dissolution Dynamic Nuclear Polarization – Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (dDNP-NMR).
Metabolomics represent a new approach to obtaining metabolic parameters important in human diseases, particularly metabolic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity.
The insensitivity of NMR has become limiting for many sophisticated biological applications of metabolomics. Anne will use the hyperpolarization technique dissolution Dynamic Nuclear Polarization to increase NMR sensitivity.
The hypothesis is that the biochemical state of a biological system (eg. cells or tissue) provide a close representation of the overall health status of the system, and that this state can be mapped into a metabolic profile (chemical fingerprint). Thus the metabolic profile provides a quantifiable readout of the biochemical state – from noral physiology to diverse pathophysiology. The metabolic profile is influenced by internal factors (eg. the genome) and external factors (diet, environment and gut micro flora).
Hyperpolarized Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is a powerful new method for monitoring biochemical reactions directly in cells which due to its sensitivity and selectivity has a unique potential for observing metabolic pathways.
Anne holds a BSc in Physics from Copenhagen University and a MSc in Systems Biology and Bioinformatics from Technical University of Denmark.
She did her master thesis in Analysis of metabolic data from cancer cells obtained by dDNP NMR, and already has a first publication to her name based on work from her thesis (http://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/stable-isotoperesolved-analysis-with-quantitative-dissolution-dynamic-nuclear-polarization(5be1958f-222b-4ef7-8868-3f9b04d1d887).html).
Her project is funded by Danish National Research Foundation as part of the Center for Hyperpolarization in Magnetic Resonance (HYPERMAG Center of Excellence) (DNRF124).
HYPERMAG’s Mathilde Hauge Lerche and Pernille Rose Jensen are Supervisors.