Technical and scientific expertise
The NEST Platform uses various magnetic resonance technologies for the study of biological samples and small animals.
These technologies allow for the monitoring of biomarkers involved in various pathologies.
Main equipment
- Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR): Bruker Ascend 600MHz equipped with a broadband cryoprobe
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): Bruker Biospec 11.7T
- Dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP): Hypersense (Oxford Instruments)
- Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR): various spectrometers (X and L band: for in vitro and in vivo applications)
Applications (non-exhaustive list)
- NMR
- Metabolomic study on biological samples (plasma, urine, etc.)
- 2D homonuclear and heteronuclear correlation (such as J-RES, COSY, TOCSY, etc.)
- HRMAS experiment on biopsies
- MRI
- High-resolution in vivo anatomical imaging
- Metabolism studies (spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging)
- Parametric imaging: perfusion, diffusion, pH, etc.
- DNP
- Study of metabolic fluxes using hyperpolarised carbon-13 spectroscopy as a biomarker of response to cancer therapy (in vitro and in vivo)
- Use of hyperpolarised carbon-13-enriched pyruvate and its metabolites (13C-lactate and 13C-alanine) as a biomarker of tumour metabolism and glycolysis
- EPR
- Characterisation of free radicals, redox state
- Quantification of melanin/melanoma cells in tissues
- Measurement of tissue oxygenation and oxygen consumption (cells and mitochondria)
Services available to
- UCLouvain students, clinicians and researchers
- Researchers working in partnership with UCLouvain; industries
