Biography
Dr Andreas Wetscherek is leading the new Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Radiotherapy Group at the Institute of Cancer Research. He joined the ICR as a postdoctoral training fellow in 2015 and has been working in the Radiotherapy Physics Modelling Group prior to his current appointment.
During his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, he was the first to characterise microvasculature using flow-compensated diffusion-weighted MRI. To accelerate the technique, he spent six months at the Centro de Imágenes Biomédicas in Santiago de Chile. Dr Wetscherek has led several projects in diffusion-weighted MRI, characterising the diffusion of blood, fat and employing oscillating diffusion gradients.
Following his PhD, Dr Wetscherek continued to work as a postdoc at DKFZ developing 4D MR imaging techniques to quantify regional lung motion in fibrotic lung diseases within a multi-disciplinary project connecting medical physics, radiology and medical informatics.
Dr Wetscherek’s research is focused on developing magnetic resonance imaging techniques for radiotherapy with particular application to the UK’s first MR-Linac, which has been treating patients at the ICR since September 2018. He is interested in characterising day-to-day anatomical variations for treatment adaptation and aims to develop functional imaging techniques to inform cancer therapy by predicting treatment response.
After joining the ICR in 2015, Dr Wetscherek’s research focus shifted towards the applications of MR imaging in radiotherapy, optimising the visibility of both tumour and radiosensitive risk organs. He led the development of several high-contrast T2-weighted 4D MR imaging techniques and their implementation on the Elekta Unity MR-Linac. A particular challenge in this context is to shorten acquisition and reconstruction times to enable integration into the clinical workflow.
Recently, Dr Wetscherek’s group has started working on the development of MR imaging techniques, which are tailored to creating synthetic CT images for adaptation of MR-guided radiotherapy to the patient’s exact position and anatomy of the day.
Andreas enjoys running and playing football within the ICR’s team, if he is not suffering from the rough British climate or the rough English football. If forced indoors, he enjoys a competitive board game, in particular Power Grid or chess. As of April 2019, his FIDE rating sits at 2315.
Dr Wetscherek is a member of the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre, which brings together leading researchers in engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and medicine to develop innovative ways to address challenges in cancer.
Convergence Science Centre