Dr.-Ing. Gudrun Wagenknecht
Scientific Degree: Dr.-Ing. Electrical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University
Position
Current position: Senior Scientist and PI Neuromorphic Computing at ICA | PGI-4
Previous positions: Senior Scientist at ZEA-2; Senior Scientist and Head of the research group “Multimodal Image Processing” and Tenure-Track position at ZEA-2/ZEL FZJ; Scientist at EECS and Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, RWTH Aachen University
Research fields and interests
AI4Imaging for brain imaging and analysis at different scales
Artificial & bio-inspired neural networks; combination: neural networks & knowledge-based methods,graphs, …; energy-efficient AI/NC at the edge (algorithm development)
- spatio-temporal tomographic image acquisition & processing (e.g., ultrafast TOF-PET, fPET, dPEI, MRI, multimodal)
- analysis of personalized in-vivo structure-function relationships (e.g., parcellation & connectivity, hierarchies, inter-individual variability, plasticity)
Quantitative multimodal 3D image processing methods for personalized brain imaging (previous work)
Adaptive feature extraction; ANNs; combination: knowledge (graph)- and ANN-based segmentation and classification; evaluation methods; translation into university medicine (algorithm development)
- 3D segmentation of brain target structures in MRI data for quantitative PET (with novel tracers for AD, MCI)
- Correction methods for MR and MR-PET (e.g., noise, inhomogeneity, attenuation correction)
Projects, grants and collaborations
Project grants: ACA project (task); Helmholtz HVF project NikotinPET (joint project, own subproject); BMBF NCFHEB (joint project, own subproject); EU NoE EMIL (joint project, own subproject); T-Fonds (project); FZJ Tenure-Track program (successfully completed): Qualification program for leadership functions in science, grant for building and heading a research group (“Nachwuchsgruppe”) on own research topic, associated careerbuilding program “Coaching - Training – Mentoring”; IZKF-ZNS projects at RWTH Aachen University (two projects)
Supervisor of scholarship students granted by different 3rd party research programs: NIC guest student program; DAAD granted PhD student; NRW: Short-time Israeli student scholarship program
Interdisciplinary national or international collaborations: FZJ internal (INM-6, INM-4), HGF internal (HZDR), external (RWTH Aachen University, UK Leipzig, MPI & UK Tübingen, Univ. of Antwerp, Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin, DKFZ & Univ. of Heidelberg)
Staff members within projects: at RWTH & FZJ from different disciplines (computer science, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, mathematics) and career stages (scientists, PostDocs, PhD students, students, guest students)
Teaching at RWTH Aachen University and supervising
Teaching at RWTH faculties: Medical (MED); Math., Comp. Science & Natural Sciences (MCN)
“Physikalische Grundlagen“ within “Qualifikationsprofil “Praktische onkologische Diagnostik mit PET/CT (Bench to bedside)“ (MED)
Previous activities: Lectures “Multimodal Image Processing I, II“ as part of “Ringvorlesung Medical Image Processing“ (MCN); Theoretisches Hauptseminar “Medizinische Bildverarbeitung” (MED, MCN); Lectures “Modalitäten der Bildgebung“, “Multimodale Bildverarbeitung“ within “Präklin. Molekularbiologie u. molekulare Bildgebung i. d. Nuklearmedizin“ (MED)
Supervision of students: 35 theses and internships, Mentor within “mentoring³ Programm für Ingenieurinnen“ of TU Dortmund
Awards, Committees, Reviews, Editorials, Memberships
Awards: Tenure-Track program (FZJ), Young Investigator Award (SNM), Poster Award (BVM)
Conference Committees: PET Electronics & Technologies 2023 (PETtech23), Interdisziplinäres Bildverarbeitungskolloquium (2004), Multimodale medizinische Bildverarbeitung (2001), Fusion of Multimodality Images (Post-Congress Meeting of EANM94)
Conference Program Committees: German Conference on Medical Image Computing (BVM) since 2010, PSMR 2013, WMIC 2010, HBM 2007, RPT&MNRV 2007, Informatik 2006-2011, IEEE ICMLC 2003-2004
Editorial Board: Journal Biomedical Engineering / Biomedizinische Technik
Journal reviewing: i.a., Pattern Recogn, Pattern Recogn Lett, IEEE T Med Imaging, Medical Physics, Phys Med Biol, Biomedical Engineering / Biomedizinische Technik, NeuroImage, J Nucl Med, IEEE T Inf Technol B, Method Inform Med, Comput Med Imag Grap, Comput Meth Prog Bio, IET Image Processing, Image Vision Comput, Inform Sciences
Memberships: DGBMT, ESMI, DGN, VDE, I3AC
Publications and Patents
Publications (h-index: 16): 63 Publications (Journals & Proceedings) & 70 Abstracts (s. Juser, ResearchGate):
Journal publications: i.a., Pattern Recognition, Magn Reson Mater Phy, Nucl Instrum Meth A, Methods Inform Med, Current Medical Imaging Reviews, NeuroImage, Brain
Conference publications: i.a., IEEE MIC, IEEE ISBI, MICCAI, SPIE Medical Imaging, SPIE Electronic Imaging, BVM, SNM, EANM, DGN
Patents: 2 DE, 1 US, 1 JP, 1 EP
Exemplary publications (see full publication list at link Publications)
[1] Sabri O, Meyer PM, Gräf S, Hesse S, Wilke S, Becker GA, Rullmann M, Patt M, Luthardt J, Wagenknecht G, Hoepping A, Smits R, Franke A, Sattler B, Tiepolt S, Fischer S, Deuther-Conrad W, Hegerl U, Barthel H, Schönknecht P, Brust P. Cognitive correlates of alpha 4 beta 2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in mild Alzheimer's dementia. Brain 2018; 141(6): 1840-1854. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awy099
[2] Wagenknecht G, Kaiser HJ, Mottaghy FM, Herzog H. MRI for attenuation correction in PET: methods and challenges. Magn Reson Mater Phy Methods 2013; 26(1): 99-113. DOI: 10.1007/s10334-012-0353-4
[3] Wagenknecht G, Rota Kops E, Mantlik F, Fried E, Pilz T, Hautzel H, Tellmann L, Pichler B, Herzog H. Attenuation Correction in MR-BrainPET with Segmented T1-weighted MR Images of the Patient’s Head – A Comparative Study with CT. IEEE NSS/MIC 2011; Conf. Record: 2261-2266. DOI: 10.1109/NSSMIC.2011.6153858
[4] Wagenknecht G. A contour tracing and coding algorithm for generating 2D contour codes from 3D classified objects. Pattern Recognition 2007; 40(4): 1294-1306. DOI: 10.1016/j.patcog.2006.09.003
[5] Wagenknecht G, Kaiser HJ, Buell U, Sabri O. MRI-Based Individual 3D Region-of-Interest Atlases of the Human Brain. A New Method for Analyzing Functional Data. Methods Inf Med 2004; 43(4): 383-390. DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1633890