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Dear renalmri.org Community,

We are excited to present the results of your votes for the Vice Chair candidates and the location of the 2027 Renal MRI Meeting.

First, 61.7 % of the renalMRI.org community has chosen to have the next biennial meeting in Uppsala Sweden from Monday, October 11th to Tuesday, October 12th, 2027. Professor Per Liss at the Department of Radiology at Uppsala University will organise the meeting. We will send you regular updates, and you can find further updates and information on our renalMRI.org event page or local conference page.

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Octavia_Bane Second, 59.6 % of the renalMRI.org community has chosen as the next vice char, Octavia Bane, PhD, Assistant Professor in the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII) and the Department of Radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.

Additionally, we want to present a new project: PERSONALISE‑DKD aims to enable early identification of individuals most likely to benefit from SGLT2 inhibitors by developing sensitive biomarkers of disease progression and treatment response. The project focuses on validating renal multiparametric MRI and serum MMP‑10/TIMP‑1 as promising tools to assess kidney pathophysiology and predict early therapeutic effects. The consortium will refine imaging and biochemical methods, validate these biomarkers, and uncover early predictors of SGLT2 inhibitor–mediated nephroprotection.

Furthermore, we want to put the spotlight on some renalMRI.org members who attended the ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting & Exhibition 2026 (May 9th-May 14th, 2026), in Cape Town, South Africa, and virtually:

Mira_Liu Mira Liu, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and Renal MRI Study Group Trainee Representative (2025-2026), received the ISMRM W.S. Moore Young Investigator Award for clinical research, for her research article “Multiparametric MRI Predicting Renal Function Deterioration & Chronic Kidney Disease Development in Patients Undergoing Nephrectomy for Renal Masses: A Pilot Study.” The Moore Young Investigator Award is very prestigious in the MRI community, and we are very proud that this year it went to a renal imager. Heartfelt congratulations, Mira!

The Renal MRI Study Group met on Sunday, May 10th, in a joint business meeting with the MRI in Drug Research Study Group. The 2025-2026 Chair of the Renal MRI study group, Dr. Octavia Bane, presented an overview of the group’s activities in 2025, a recommended Walk-Through-the-Week of ISMRM 2026 presentations, introduced the Trainee Abstract Competition, and the new group leadership. The ISMRM Renal MRI Study group will be led in 2026-2027 by Dr. Iosif A Mendichovszky as Chair, Prof. Sue Francis as Secretary, and Dr. Rebeca Echeverria-Chasco as Trainee Representative. Prof. Sue Francis led a joint discussion of the two study groups, on the topic “Which MRI biomarker is ready for FDA/EMA qualification, similar to TKV in ADPKD?”. The study groups plan to organise joint virtual workshops in the future.

The Renal Study Group members voted among 5 finalists in the Trainee Abstract Competition. Congratulations to our winners and finalists, all members of renalMRI.org!

First Prize

Cemre_Ariyurek Cemre Ariyurek, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. “Diffusion-Exchange MRI for Contrast-Free Renal Function Assessment: A Feasibility Study” Cemre Ariyurek is a researcher focused on motion-robust quantitative MRI for pediatric populations. Her current research investigates diffusion-exchange MRI.

Second Prize

Siria_Pasini Siria Pasini, MS, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy
“Choice of IVIM-DWI fitting substantially impacts parameter estimation in multi-center renal studies” 367-06-006 Siria Pasini is a physicist with a deep passion for medical applications. She is pursuing her PhD in partnership with the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Her doctoral work focuses on the standardization and reproducibility of multi-parametric renal MRI across multi-site and multi-vendor settings.

Third Prize

Alex_Daniel Alex Daniel, PhD, Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. “Parenchymal Tissue Segmentation in a Multi-Vendor Chronic Kidney Disease Cohort” Alex Daniel is a physics research fellow working on the development of quantitative renal MRI methods, specialising in computational analysis and software tools. This work demonstrates accurate automated parenchymal segmentation of a highly heterogenous, multi-vendor, chronic kidney disease cohort.

Finalists (in order of presentation at ISMRM):

Alex_Daniel Rebeca Echeverria-Chasco, PhD, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Navarra, Spain. “Reproducibility of renal PCASL sequences at 3.0 T: preliminary results from a multicenter and multivendor study” Rebeca’s work focuses on MR physics and medical image analysis, applying multiparametric MRI techniques in patients with kidney disease, with a particular interest in Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) technique for measuring perfusion.

Valensia_Anthony Valensia Anthony, MS, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA “Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) MRI for Non-invasive Molecular Imaging in Renal Transplant Recipients” Valensia N. Anthony is a PhD student focusing on Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) MRI. Her research centres on developing CEST methods for noninvasive molecular imaging, with applications in the kidney and brain.

Last but not least, check out the following recent renal imaging publications:

  • Mira M. Liu et al., Multiparametric MRI for Predicting Renal Function Deterioration and Chronic Kidney Disease Development in Patients Undergoing Nephrectomy for Renal Masses: A Pilot Study. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.70213
  • Qing Xiong et al., Automatically Measuring Kidney, Liver, and Cyst Volumes in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease. https://doi.org/10.1681/ASN.0000000904

And here a selected list of publications of 2025 by the core team:

Image analysis:

  • MM. Liu, T. Gladytz, J. Dyke, I. Bolger, J. Jasse, S. Calle, S. Seshan, S. Salvatore, I. Stillman, T. Muthukumar, B. Taouli, S. Farouk, S. Lewis and O. Bane. Estimation of Multi-Component Flow in the Kidney with Multi-b-value Spectral Diffusion. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2025. PMID: 40720675, DOI: 10.1002/mrm.30644
  • Oyarzun-Domeño A, Cia I, Echeverria-Chasco R, Fernández-Seara MA, Martin-Moreno PL, Garcia-Fernandez N, Bastarrika G, Navallas J, Villanueva A. Advancing ASL kidney image registration: a tailored pipeline with VoxelMorph. Neural Computing and Applications. 2025; 37:8347–8369. doi: 10.1007/s00521-025-11000-3.
  • X. Mu, MM. Liu, H. Al-Mubarak, P. Kennedy, P. Robson; J Cuevas, B Kuhn, K Badani, B Taouli, S Lewis, O Bane. Streamlined calculation of kidney function using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI with population-based arterial input function and a whole-kidney model. European Radiology Experimental, 2026. DOI: 10.1186/s41747-026-00704-3
  • Gallinnis PJ, Kamp B, Radke KL, Möller R, Juric A-K, Stabinska J, Herynek V, Antoch G, Wittsack H-J, Ljimani A, Müller-Lutz A. Investigation of Endogenous Renal CEST Contrast and the Influence of Respiratory Motion on a Clinical 3 Tesla MRI: An In Vivo and In Vitro Study. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2026;95(4):2194-206. doi:10.1002/mrm.70210.
  • Daniel AJ, Francis ST. 3DQLayers: Volumetric Layer Based Analysis for Quantitative Renal MRI. Journal of Open Source Software, 10(111), 8121, DOI: 10.21105/joss.08121

Reproducibility:

  • Garcia-Ruiz L, Echeverria-Chasco R, Aramendía-Vidaurreta V, Solis-Barquero SM, Garcia-Fernandez N, Mora-Gutiérrez JM, Vidorreta M, Bastarrika G, Fernández-Seara MA. Influence of Field Strength, Sex, and Age on Pseudo-Continuous Arterial Spin Labeling and T1 Mapping in the Kidney. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2025 Oct;62(4):1180-1195. doi: 10.1002/jmri.70009.
  • Pasini S, Ringgaard S, Vendelboe T, Garcia-Ruiz L, Strittmatter A, Villa G, Raj A, Echeverria-Chasco R, Bozzetto M, Brambilla P, Aastrup M, Hansen ESS, Pierotti L, Renzulli M, Francis ST, Zoellner FG, Laustsen C, Fernandez-Seara MA, Caroli A. Multi-center and multi-vendor evaluation study across 1.5 T and 3 T scanners (part 1): apparent diffusion coefficient standardization in a diffusion MRI phantom. MAGMA. 2025;38(3):593-609. Epub 20250509. doi: 10.1007/s10334-025-01256-0. PubMed PMID: 40343571; PMCID: PMC12255562.
  • Pasini S, Ringgaard S, Vendelboe T, Garcia-Ruiz L, Strittmatter A, Villa G, Raj A, Echeverria-Chasco R, Bozzetto M, Brambilla P, Aastrup M, Hansen ESS, Pierotti L, Renzulli M, Francis ST, Zollner FG, Laustsen C, Fernandez-Seara MA, Caroli A. Multi-center and multi-vendor evaluation study across 1.5 T and 3 T scanners (part 2): T1 and T2 standardization in the ISMRM/NIST MR phantom. MAGMA. 2025;38(3):611-27. Epub 20250517. doi: 10.1007/s10334-025-01260-4. PubMed PMID: 40380988; PMCID: PMC12255571.
  • Daniel AJ, Francis ST. Assessing the Impact of Imaging Parameters on MRI Measurement of Kidney T2. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2025 63 (2), 508-522. doi: 10.1002/jmri.70127

Translational research:

  • MM. Liu, J. Dyke, T. Gladytz, J. Jasse, I. Bolger, S. Calle, S. Pavuluri, T. Crews, A. Kimm-Drapeau, S. Seshan, S. Salvatore, I. Stillman, T. Muthukumar, B. Taouli, S. Farouk, S. Lewis and O. Bane. Detecting Early Kidney Allograft Fibrosis with Multi-b-value Diffusion MRI. Scientific Reports, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-24701-5
  • Berchtold L, Huber A, Aslam I, Crowe LA, Brito W, de Perrot T, de Seigneux S, Pruijm M, Vallée J-P. Assessing kidney fibrosis via multiparametric MRI in native kidney and allografts. Clinical Kidney Journal. 2026;19(4). doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfag044.
  • MM. Liu, O. Bane, X. Mu, H. Al-Mubarak, G. Abboud, P. Kennedy, P. Robson, K. Meilika, L. Zuluaga, A. Horowitz, B. Kuhn, T.H. Thin PhD, M. Garcia-Barros, R. Brody, K. Badani, B. Taouli, S. Lewis. Immuno-Oncologic Profiling of Renal Masses using Multiparamtric MRI: A Pilot Study. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2025. PMCID: PMC12684148, DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2025-012833.
  • Aramendia-Vidaurreta V, et al. Renal Clinical Study Participants Support Data Sharing and Use of Artificial Intelligence. Kidney International Reports. 2026; 11,106354. doi: 10.1016/j.ekir.2026.106354
  • Zhu D et al. Effects of Empagliflozin on Kidney and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measures in Patients With CKD: An EMPA-KIDNEY Mechanistic Substudy. American Journal of Kidney Diseases. 2026 87(4), 564-568. DOI: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2025.09.022

Editorials, review articles and book chapters:

  • Pruijm M, Belmar N, Bjornstad P, Cherney DZI, Das V, Gunnarsson T, Hodgin JB, Schytz PA, Tuttle KR, Kretzler M. REMODELing mechanistic trials for kidney disease: a multimodal, tissue-centered approach to understand the renal mechanism of action of semaglutide. Kidney Int. 2026;109(1):6-16. Epub 20251107. doi: 10.1016/j.kint.2025.10.005. PubMed PMID: 41207620.
  • Pasini S, Perico N, Caroli A. Time-dependent diffusion MRI: clinical potential in renal transplantation. EBioMedicine. 2026;123:106115. Epub 20260103. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.106115. PubMed PMID: 41485456; PMCID: PMC12805287.
  • S. Rauh, E. Sigmund, C. Federau, D. Hernando, M. Iima, O. Jalnefjord, J. Jansen, J. Jasse, NP. Jerome, M. Kaandorp, S. Kurugol, FB. Laun, MM. Liu, A. Ljimani, T. Niendorf, DA. Reiter, MS. Shazeeb, A. Shukla-Dave, J. Stabinska, A. Wetscherek, PT. While, D. Wu, D. Le Bihan, O. Gurney-Champion. Towards Clinical Translation of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion MRI: Acquisition and Analysis Guidelines. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2026. DOI: 10.1002/jmri.70278
  • P. van Houdt, L. Vaclavu, S. Sourbron, E. Shalom, C. Federau, M. Iima, MM. Liu, L. Knuttson, R. Wirestam, M. van Osch, M. Gunther, R. van der Heijden. ESR Essentials: Perfusion MRI—practice recommendations by the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology. European Radiology, 2026. PMID: 41591472, DOI: 10.1007/s00330-025-12306-5

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Best wishes,

renalMRI Coreteam

© Copyright, 2026

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