Curriculum vitae - Heiko Backes

Education and Professional Experience

  • 1992-1999
    Undergraduate study of physics), University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 1999
    University degree in physics (in collaboration with the University of Campinas and one year residency in Brasil)
  • 2004
    PhD in physics, Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
  • 2005-2007
    Postdoc, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne
  • 2006-2008
    Postgraduate study of medical physics at Charité, Humboldt University, and Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany
  • Since 2007
    Senior scientist, PET physicist, Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research (now Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research), Cologne, Germany
  • Since 2014
    Research Group Co-Leader for Multimodal Imaging of Brain Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research (formerly Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research), Cologne, Germany

Key Scientific Expertise

Positron Emission Tomography, kinetic modeling, optical imaging, cerebral metabolism, stroke

Selected Publications

  1. Feuerstein D*, Takagaki M*, Gramer M, Manning A, Endepols H, Vollmar S, Yoshimine T, Strong AJ, Graf R*, Backes H* (2014) Detecting tissue deterioration after brain injury: regional blood flow level versus capacity to raise blood flow. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 34: 1117–1127.
  2. Walberer M*, Backes H*, Rueger MA, Neumaier B, Endepols H, Hoehn M, Fink GR, Schroeter M, Graf R (2012) Potential of early [(18)F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography for identifying hypoperfusion and predicting fate of tissue in a rat embolic stroke model. Stroke 43: 193–198.
  3. Backes H, Walberer M, Endepols H, Neumaier B, Graf R, Wienhard K, Mies G (2011) Whiskers area as extracerebral reference tissue for quantification of rat brain metabolism using (18)F-FDG PET: application to focal cerebral ischemia. J Nucl Med 52: 1252–1260.
  4. Rueger MA*, Backes H*, Walberer M, Neumaier B, Ullrich R, Simard M-L, Emig B, Fink GR, Hoehn M, Graf R, et al. (2010) Noninvasive imaging of endogenous neural stem cell mobilization in vivo using positron emission tomography. Journal of Neuroscience 30: 6454–6460.
  5. Backes H, Ullrich R, Neumaier B, Kracht L, Wienhard K, Jacobs AH (2009) Noninvasive quantification of 18F-FLT human brain PET for the assessment of tumour proliferation in patients with high-grade glioma. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36: 1960–1967.
  6. Backes H, Neubauer FM, Dougherty MK, Achilleos N, André N, Arridge CS, Bertucci C, Jones GH, Khurana KK, Russell CT, et al. (2005) Titan’s magnetic field signature during the first Cassini encounter. Science 308: 992–995.

(* equal contribution)

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