Faculty and Staff

You are here

Sebastian Schmitter, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
edit-me-room
612-625-8652
sschmitt@umn.edu

Dr. Sebastian Schmitter is an Assitant Professor at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at the University of Minnesota working on parallel transmission techniques and RF pulse design in cardio- and neurovascular applications at ultra-high fields. He studied Physics at the University of Münster, Germany, from 1999-2005 and graduated with a Master (Diploma) thesis in experimental Physics focusing on interactions of spin-polarized electrons with heavy atoms. In 2005 he moved to the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and performed his PhD in collaboration with the Department of Medical Physics at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, on the development of echo-planar MRI sequences with reduced sound pressure levels for auditory fMRI. He graduated with a PhD in Physics in 2008. As a post-doctoral fellow he worked at the DKFZ on a newly installed 7T MRI machine and developed imaging methods with reduced SAR and improved contrast for MR angiography at 7 Tesla. In 2009 he was awarded with a 2-year research scholarship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and he joined the CMRR at the University of Minnesota as a Postdoctoral fellow. Since 2009 he has been developing B1 shimming and parallel transmission techniques for neurovascular applications at ultra-high field such as Time-of-Flight angiography. In his current position as a Research Associate he is primarily focusing on the development of parallel transmission techniques at 7T for cardiovascular MRI such as cardiac CINE imaging and for neurovascular application such as 4D flow imaging. In addition he has an ongoing interest in using B1 fields to study the electric properties of tissues and to estimate the SAR at ultra-high field.

Research Interests:

  • Parallel transmission (pTX) techniques and RF pulse design for cardio- and neurovascular applications at 7T.
  • Development of novel B1 shimming techniques for brain imaging and cardiovascular imaging.
  • RF excitation techniques for high-resolution time-of-fight MR angiography at 7T with improved contrast and vessel depiction.
  • Velocity imaging techniques such as 4D flow imaging at ultra high field for neurovascular applications
  • Mapping of the electric properties with MRI, estimation and reduction of SAR at ultra high field

Selected Publications:

Schmitter S, Wu X, Adriany G, Auerbach EJ, Uğurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2013). Cerebral TOF Angiography at 7T: Impact of B1+ Shimming with a 16-Channel Transceiver Array. Magn Reson Med. in press. doi: 10.1002/mrm.24749

Zhang X, Schmitter S, Van de Moortele PF, Liu J, He B. (2013). From Complex B1 Mapping to Local SAR Estimation for Human Brain MR Imaging Using Multi-channel Transceiver Coil at 7T. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2013 Jun;32(6):1058-67

Wu X, Schmitter S, Auerbach E, Moeller S, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF 2013). Simultaneous multislice multiband parallel radiofrequency excitation with independent slice-specific transmit B1 homogenization. Magn. Reson. Med. in press doi: 10.1002/mrm.24828

Liu J, Zhang X, Van de Moortele PF, Schmitter S, He B (2013). Determining electrical properties based on B1 fields measured in an MR scanner using a multi-channel transmit/receive coil: A general approach. Phys Med Biol. 2013 in press

Zhang X, de Moortele PF, Schmitter S, He B. (2012). Complex B(1) mapping and electrical properties imaging of the human brain using a 16-channel transceiver coil at 7T. Magn Reson Med. 2013 May;69(5):1285-96.

Schmitter S, Jagadeesan BD, Grande AW, Sein J, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2013) 4D flow measurements in the superior cerebellar artery at 7 Tesla: feasibility and potential for applications in patients withtrigeminal neuralgia. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 21

Schmitter S, DelaBarre L, Wu X, Greiser A, Wang E, Auerbach EJ, Vaughan JT, Uğurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2013). Improved Excitation Fidelity in Cardiac Imaging with 2-Spoke Parallel Excitation at 7 Tesla. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 21

Schmitter S, Auerbach EJ, Adriany G, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2012) Predistorted B1 shimming: a new concept based on mutual enhancement between static B1 shim and 1D spoke RF pulse design. Application for cardiac imaging at 7 Tesla. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 20: 83

Schmitter S, Auerbach EJ, Adriany G, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2012) Neither Flat Profile Nor Black Spots: A Simple Method to Achieve Acceptable CP-like Mode Transmit B1 Pattern for Whole Brain Imaging with Transmit Arrays at 7 Tesla. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 20: 3472

Ellermann J, Goerke U, Morgan P, Ugurbil K, Tian J, Schmitter S, Vaughan T, Van De Moortele PF (2012). Simultaneous bilateral hip joint imaging at 7 Tesla using fast transmit B₁ shimming methods and multichannel transmission - a feasibility study. NMR Biomed. 25(10):1202-8

DeMartino F*, Schmitter S*, Moerel M, Ugurbil K, Formisano E, Van de Moortele PF. (2012). Spin Echo functional MRI in bilateral auditory cortices: an application of B1 shimming. Neuroimage. 2012 Nov 15;63(3):1313-20; *Authors contributed equally to this work

Schmitter S, Bock M, Johst S, Auerbach EJ, Uğurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2012). Contrast enhancement in TOF cerebral angiography at 7 T using saturation and MT pulses under SAR constraints: Impact of VERSE and sparse pulses. Magn Reson Med. 68(1):188-97.

Schmitter S, Wu X, Auerbach EJ, Hamm M, Pfeuffer J, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele PF. (2011) TOF Angiography in the human brain at 7T using 3D Parallel Excitation: Initial results. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 19: 2905

Schmitter S., Bock M. (2010) Acoustic noise optimized VERSE pulses. Magn. Reson. Med. 64(5):1446-52

Peelle J.E., Eason R.J., Schmitter S., Schwarzbauer C., Davis M.H. (2010). Evaluating an acoustically quiet EPI sequence for use in fMRI studies of speech and auditory processing. Neuroimage. 52(4):1410-9.

Schmitter S., Diesch E., Kroll A., Moayer M., Schad LR. (2008). Silent Echo-Planar Imaging for auditory fMRI, MAGMA; 21(5) 317-25