M. Elizabeth (Beth) Meyerand, PHD
Position title: Professor, Medical Physics / Biomedical Engineering
Email: memeyerand@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-263-1685
- Organ System/Disease Focus:
- Neurology
- Aligned Research Focus:
- Development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods to track stem cells in vivo

More information:
Research Description:
My lab has recently begun is developing methods to track stem cells in vivo using MRI. To this end, we have been collaborating with Professor Masatoshi Suzuki to use a reagent consisting of fluorine nanoparticles contained in a coated membrane which is endocytosed by cells. This approach is advantageous because the 19F MRI hardware used for this purpose is sensitive solely to this isotope which does not exist endogenously. So we are able to attribute any signal that we detect to the nanoparticles. We are now in the early stages of performing critical toxicity studies and completing a sensitivity analysis to determine how many of the particles will be required to detect a signal. Through our collaboration with Professor Svendsen, we have also been investigating a genetic manipulation of cells to produce ferritin. Ferritin is an iron storage protein. When cells begin producing it, excess endogenous iron binds the protein allowing for in vivo visualization of the cells of interest. We have recently acquired in vitro MR images to detect ferritin producing cells. The biggest advantage of this approach is that when ferritin is stably expressed, cells can be monitored long term.
Selected References:
- Bernau K, Lewis CM, Petelinsek AM, Benink HA, Zimprich CA, Meyerand ME, Suzuki M, Svendsen CN. (2014) In vivo tracking of human neural progenitor cells in the rat brain using bioluminescence imaging. J Neurosci Methods. J Neurosci Methods. 2014 May 15;228:67-78.
- Lewis CM, Graves SA, Hernandez R, Valdovinos HF, Barnhart TE, Cai W, Meyerand ME, Nickles RJ, Suzuki M. (2015) ⁵²Mn production for PET/MRI tracking of human stem cells expressing divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1). Theranostics. 5(3):227-39.
- Bernau K, Lewis CM, Petelinsek AM, Reagan MS, Niles DJ, Mattis VB, Meyerand ME, Suzuki M, Svendsen CN. (2015) In Vivo Tracking of Human Neural Progenitor Cells in the Rat Brain Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging is Not Enhanced by Ferritin Expression. Cell Transplant. ;25(3):575-92PMID: 26160767.
- Brunnquell CL, Hernandez R, Graves SA, Smit-Oistad I, Nickles RJ, Cai W, Meyerand ME, Suzuki M. (2016) Uptake and retention of manganese contrast agents for PET and MRI in the rodent brain. Contrast Media Mol Imaging 11(5):371-380. PMID 27396476.
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Zhao G, Liu F, Oler JA, Meyerand ME, Kalin NH, Birn RM Bayesian convolutional neural network based (2018) MRI brain extraction on nonhuman primates. Neuroimage. Mar 28;175:32-44.