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Current Medical Student Summer Research Fellows

·	Current Medical Student Research Fellows

Nina Zobenica Institution: Barrow Neurological Institute In Vivo 1H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to Determine Biochemical Markers of Clinically Aggressive Meningiomas Composed of heterogeneous regions, meningiomas contain biochemical and genetic variations that could provide the information needed to predict aggressive behavior. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) is an imaging technique which can determine the quantity of biochemical markers within the brain using a standard MRI scanner. Consequently, regional biochemical heterogeneity within a given tumor can be assessed prior to surgery. We have shown using ex vivo MRS of resected meningioma tissue that biochemical markers may indeed be useful in defining more aggressive meningiomas, and that these biochemical markers are related to specific genetic alterations. We hypothesize that in vivo multivoxel 3D 1H-MRS can detect regional biochemical alterations unique to clinically aggressive meningiomas and suggest that 1H-MRS can detect more aggressive regions within individual meningiomas. Finally, we predict that intratumoral biochemical alterations are correlated with genetic alterations and that this information is definable in vivo and useful for the neurosurgeon intraoperatively.