Daniel Lundqvist

Hi Daniel, what research do you do at MedTechLabs?

My main research expertise and research activities are within brain imaging. My project at MedTechlabs too focuses on brain imaging, and aims to enhance the detection, characterization, and localization of epileptogenic brain activity in patients with refractory epilepsy. In the project we – me and professor Val Zwiller at KTH – are integrating superconducting nanowire single photon detectors, SN-SPD, and optically pumped magnetometers, OPM-MEG. The first technique being Val’s and the second being my area of expertise. This combination leverages the latest advances in both two quantum sensing technologies to co-register abnormal neural firing and metabolism. Thereby we are aiming for improving the identification and localization of the Seizure Onset Zone, SOZ.

What impact do you hope to achieve with your research?

Refractory epilepsy affects about 30% of epilepsy patients globally, posing significant health risks. Current pre-surgical evaluations include various imaging techniques like MRI, PET, SPECT, MEG, and EEG. However, these methods often fail to precisely locate the SOZ, especially in patients without clear structural abnormalities on MRI. This project addresses this gap by combining the high temporal resolution of OPM-MEG with the metabolic insights from SN-SPD, aiming to improve epilepsy diagnostics. Approximately 25 % of refractory epilepsy patients are MRI negative which means that structural abnormalities from MRI cannot assist in localizing the SOZ. In Sweden, this translates to approximately 50 patients yearly. The proposed hybrid sensing solution, that registers and localizes abnormal neuronal activity with unique sensitivity and resolution, OPM-MEG, co-registered to uniquely sensitive registration of abnormal metabolism, SN-SPD, holds the potential to assisting the identification and delineation of the SOZ in these 25 % patients. It also has the potential to help affirming and delineating the SOZ in those 75% patients who are MRI positive – as there is not a perfect overlap between structural abnormalities and the SOZ. Furthermore, the additional information that helps the neurosurgeon to delineate the SOZ has a potential benefit to the planning and outcome.

When would this research come to practical use for the patients?

The purpose of this project is to achieve a more precise identification of the seizure onset zone in epilepsy patients evaluated for surgical resection of the SOZ. The main clinical significance of the project is the potential to more accurately and precisely guide a neurosurgeon to the SOZ during presurgical planning. The significance to patients is the potential to a surgical procedure that results in an improved long-term seizure freedom while preserving as much of the brain as possible from resection. The research team includes neurologists Benno Mahler and Kristina Lidström, and neurosurgeon Ulrika Sandvik, all at Karolinska University Hospital). The projects thus include the clinical users and expertise in epilepsy evaluation and surgery, and include measurements on epilepsy patients already at an early phase.

What is your professional background and your motivation as a researcher?

I am a neuroscientist, and a professor in neuroimaging at Karolinska Institutet. As a researcher, I am deeply fascinated by the brain: how the structure, function and neurochemistry of the human brain shapes the functioning of the human mind – our consciousness, perceptions, decisions, and actions. With a background in neuroscience, brain imaging, and experimental psychology, I have dedicated my career to exploring the relationship between the brain and the mind, and between cognition and emotion, using neuroimaging methods such as MEG, EEG, MRI, and PET. I lead a research group focusing on brain imaging in healthy and in neurological disorders, and I am the Director of CIR – Centre for Imaging Research, which entails an exceptional collection of facilities for cutting-edge structural, functional, and metabolic in vivo imaging of all organs, in humans, non-human primates, small and large animals.

Contact Daniel Lundqvist: daniel.lundqvist@ki.se