Noninvasive Visualization of Molecular Signatures of Liver Fibrosis Progression by Collagen Targeted Protein MRI Contrast Agent

Motivation: Hepatic fibrosis can develop in patients with any type of chronic liver disease which increase the risk of death for an estimated 1–2% of the world’s population. Goal(s): Our goal is to develop novel MRI contrast agents for liver diseases which enable us to detect the liver diseases at early stages. Approach: We developed the novel MRI contrast agent for precision MRI. We achieved the molecular imaging on different animal models with liver diseases. Results: Our results shows that our protein based MRI contrast agent can target the small lesions and fibrotic areas in the liver. Impact: The Protein based contrast agent with specific targeting capabilities is able to stage the liver diseases accurately.