Koretsky, A.P.: Contributions to Functional, Cellular, and Molecular Imaging with MRI

In 1990, a series of papers were published that used MRI/MRS on animal models to signal the potential for functional, cellular, and molecular imaging with MRI. These included the following: Ogawa and coworkers' first description of BOLD; Moseley and coworkers' first descriptions that diffusion was sensitive to cell damage in stroke and that diffusion was anisotropic in white matter; Lauterbur and coworkers' publication of their long overdue work on tracking neural precursors with iron oxide; and our report on MR of transgenic mice expressing creatine kinase in liver. In the following years, these approaches blossomed for applications to human and preclinical animal models. It is an honor to write a historical perspective on our contributions toward the transformation of MRI to functional, cellular, and molecular imaging. Keywords: arterial spin labeling; perfusion MRI; manganese enhanced MRI; transgenic mice; iron oxide