Associate Professor, Research Group Leader in the Magnetic Resonance Methods Group

Prof. Dr. sc. nat.

Biosketch

• 1983, Diploma in Chemistry (“Master”) at ETH Zürich, Switzerland

• 1989, Ph. D. in solid state NMR (Time Domain Zero Field NMR and NQR Spectroscopy with Pulsed Fields) at ETH Zürich with Prof R.R. Ernst

• 1989 Post Doctoral Fellow, ETH Zürich. Programming of data acquisition software

• 1990-1991 Boswell Fellow, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena and Huntington Medical Research Institutes, Pasadena, CA, USA. Work on methods and applications of clinical proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

• 2000 Habilitation in the field “Medical Magnetic Resonance” at the Medical Faculty, University Bern

• 2006 Associate Professor bestowed by University Bern

 Research interests

• Magnetic resonance spectroscopy methods and applications in brain, spine, skeletal muscle, heart, liver, prostate

• Metabolic imaging, incl. heteronuclear MR using ¹³C, ²H, ³¹P

• MR for microstructure analysis

• MR elastrography

• Modelling and machine learning

• MRS in normal physiology and metabolic diseases, including ectopic lipids

Current projects

• 2017-2022 PI of Swiss National Foundation (SNF) project: “Metabolic Fingerprints from Magnetic Resonance: Levels, Maps, and Microstructure”

• 2018-2023 CI and work package manager of Horizon 2020 Innovative Training Network, “Integrating Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Multimodal Imaging for Research and Education in MEDicine (“INSPiRE-MED”)”

• 2020-2022 CI in project “Role of the Liver in Glucose Homeostasis Using Metabolic Imaging (LEMON)” (PI Prof. L. Bally)

• 2020-2023 Project partner in SNF project: “Impact of Phenylalanine on Cognitive, Cerebral and Neurometabolic Parameters in Adult Patients with Phenylketonuria - a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover, Non-inferiority Trial (PICO)“ (PI Prof. R Everts)

• 2020-2024 Project partner in SNF project: “MAPIT - MAgnetic resonance (MR) relaxometry for extracellular volume (ECV) mapPIng combined with elasTography for noninvasive characterization of diffuse liver disease“ (PI Prof. A Huber)

• 2020-2024 Project partner in SNF Excellenza project “DEciphering the Enigma of Postprandial Hyperinsulinaemic Hypoglycaemia after Bariatric Surgery (The DEEP Project)” (PI Prof L Bally)

• 2021-2023 CI in Sitem Support Fund Project “Ultra-high field imaging of brain glucose metabolism in diabetes and mild cognitive impairment” (PI PD J. Peter)

• 2022-2026 Project partner in SNF project: “MISSION Deuterium; Metabolic imaging of the brain at ultra high field MRI: feasibility study of spectroscopic methods for exploration of brain metabolism without ionizing radiation“ (PI Prof. J. Slotboom)

• 2022-2027 Project partner in SNF project within replacement program for advanced ERC grants: “Strengthening memory formation for retrieval despite amnesia“ (PI Prof. K. Henke)

 Funding

• 1995 – present: 20 SNF projects as principle or co-applicant (7 as PI), 2 European projects.

Prizes and awards

• Fellow and Honorary Member of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB)

• Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)

• Young Investigator of the Year, Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (1993)

 Selected publications

Kreis R, Thomas A, Studer W, and Ernst RR.  Low-frequency pulse excitation in zero-field magnetic resonance.  J Chem Phys  89, 6623-35 (1988).

Kreis R, Farrow N, and Ross BD. Diagnosis of hepatic encephalopathy by cerebral 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy.  Lancet 336 (8715), 635-636 (1990).

Kreis R, and Ross BD.  Detection of cerebral metabolic disturbances in patients with sub-acute and chronic diabetes mellitus by 1H MRS.  Radiology 184, 123-130 (1992)

Kreis R, Ernst T, and Ross BD.  Absolute quantitation of water and metabolites in the human brain. Part II: Metabolite concentrations.  J Magn Reson B 102, 9 (1993)

Kreis R, Ernst T, and Ross BD.  Development of the human brain: In vivo quantification of metabolite and water content with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.  Magn Reson Med  30, 424-437 (1993)

Kreis R, and Boesch, C. Spatially localized, one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy and in vivo application to human muscle, J. Magn. Reson. Series B 113, 103-118. (1996)

Kreis R, Arcinue E, Ernst T, Shonk TK, Flores R, and Ross BD  Hypoxic encephalopathy after near-drowning studied by quantitative 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy: Metabolic changes and their prognostic value. J Clin Invest, 97, 1142-1154 (1996)

Boesch C, Slotboom J, Hoppeler H, and Kreis R.  In vivo determination of intra-myocellular lipids in human muscle by means of localized 1H-MR spectroscopy. Magn. Reson. Med. 37, 484-493 (1997)

Kreis R.  Quantitative localized 1H MR spectroscopy for clinical use.  Progress in NMR Spectroscopy 31:155-195 (1997).

Hofmann L, Slotboom J, Boesch C, and Kreis R. Characterization of the macromolecule baseline in localized 1H-MR spectra of human brain. Magn Reson Med. 46, 855-863 (2001)

Kreis R. Issues of spectral quality in clinical 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy and a gallery of artifacts. NMR Biomed 17:361-381 (2004).

Vermathen P, Robert-Tissot L, Pietz, J, Lutz T, Boesch C, Kreis R. Characterization of white matter alterations in phenylketonuria by magnetic resonance relaxometry and diffusion tensor imaging. Magn Reson Med 58:1145-1156 (2007)

Kreis R, Wingeier K, Vermathen P, Giger E, Joncourt F, Zwygart K, Kaufmann F, Boesch C, Steinlin M. Brain metabolite composition in relation to cognitive functioning and dystrophin mutations in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. NMR Biomed. 24:253-262 (2011)

Ith M, Scheurer E, Kreis R, Thali M, Dirnhofer R, Boesch C. Estimation of the postmortem interval by means of 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy of decomposing brain tissue: influence of ambient temperature. NMR Biomed. 24:791-798 (2011)

Homan P*, Vermathen P*, Van Swam C, Federspiel A, Boesch C, Strik W, Dierks T, Hubl D, Kreis R. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy investigations of functionally defined language areas in schizophrenia patients with and without auditory hallucinations. Neuroimage 94:23-32 (2014).

Ith M*, Stettler C*, Xu J, Boesch C, Kreis R. Cardiac lipids show diurnal changes and long-term variations in healthy human subjects NMR Biomed 27(11):1285-1292 (2014)

Kreis R. The trouble with quality filtering based on relative Cramér-Rao lower bounds. Magn Reson Med 75:15-18 (2016)

Fichtner ND, Giapitzakis IA, Avdievitch N, Mekle R, Zaldivar D, Henning A, Kreis R. In vivo characterization of the downfield part of 1H MR spectra of human brain at 9.4T: Magnetization exchange with water and relation to conventionally determined metabolite content. Magn Reson Med 79:2863-2873 (2018))

Kyathanahally SP, Döring A, Kreis R. Deep learning approaches for detection and removal of ghosting artifacts in MR spectroscopy. Magn Reson Med 80:851-863 (2018) 

Döring A, Kreis R. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy extended by oscillating diffusion gradients as a probe for investigation of cell-specific human brain tissue microstructure. Neuroimage 202:116075(2019)

Kreis R, Boer V, Choi I-Y, Cudalbu C, de Graaf RA, Gasparovic C, Heerschap A, Krššák M, Lanz B, Maudsley AA, Meyerspeer M, Near J, Öz G, Posse S, Slotboom J, Terpstra M, Tkáč I, Wilson M, Bogner W and the Experts’ Working Group on Terminology for MR spectroscopy. Terminology and concepts for the characterization of in vivo MR spectroscopy methods and MR spectra: Background and experts’ consensus recommendations. NMR Biomed 34(5):e4347 (2021)

Choi I-Y, Kreis R. Advanced methodology for in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Editorial, Special Issue on Advanced MR Spectroscopy. NMR Biomedicine 34(5): e4504 (2021).

Hoefemann M, Döring A, Fichtner ND, Kreis R. Combining Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer and 1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for simultaneous determination of metabolite concentrations and effects of magnetization exchange. Magn Reson Med 85(4):1766-1782 (2021)

Marjańska M, Deelchand DK, Kreis R and the 2016 ISMRM MRS Study Group Fitting Challenge Team. Results and interpretation of a fitting challenge for magnetic resonance spectroscopy set up by the MRS study group of ISMRM. Magn Reson Med. 87(1):11-32 (2022)

Dziadosz M#, Hoefemann M#, Döring A, Marjańska  M, Auerbach EJ, Kreis R. Quantification of NAD+ in human brain with 1H MR spectroscopy at 3 T. Magn Reson Med. 88(3):1027-1038 (2022)

Şimşek, K. Döring A, Pampel A, Möller HE, Kreis R. Macromolecular background signal and non-Gaussian metabolite diffusion determined in human brain using ultra-high diffusion weighting. Magn Reson Med. 88(5):1962-1977 (2022)

Rizzo R, Dziadosz M, Kyathanahally SP, Reyes M, Kreis R. Reliability of quantification estimates in MR Spectroscopy: CNNs vs. traditional model fitting. Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2022, PT VIII, 13438:715-724, DOI10.1007/978-3-031-16452-1_68

Rizzo R, Dziadosz M, Kyathanahally SP, Shamaei A, Kreis R. Quantification of MR spectra by deep learning in an idealized setting: Investigation of forms of input, network architectures, optimization by ensembles of networks, and training bias. Magn Reson Med 89(5):1707-1727 (2023)

Dziadosz M, Rizzo R, Kyathanahally SP, Kreis R. Denoising single MR spectra by deep learning: Miracle or mirage? Magn Reson Med (2023) (epub 2023, doi: 10.1002/mrm.29762)

Rizzo R, Kreis R. Multi-echo single-shot spectroscopy combined with simultaneous 2D model fitting for fast and accurate measurement of metabolite-specific concentrations and T2 relaxation times. NMR Biomed e5016 (2023) (epub 2023, doi.org/10.1002/nbm.5016)

Full publication list (current h-index: 55, total citations: ~10'000, ~60 citations per peer-reviewd article)