Lucio Frydman, PhD

About the Investigator

Frydman earned BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Buenos Aires. He undertook postdoctoral studies at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and joined the faculty of the University of Illinois in 1992, where he became Full Professor in 1999. In 2001 he moved to the Weizmann Institute, where he headed the Helen and Martin Kimmel Institute of Magnetic Resonance for ten years, the Clore Institute for High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy for 8 years, and the Department of Chemical and Biological Physics for 7 years. Frydman is a Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance, of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. He also serves as Chief Scientist in Chemistry and Biology at the US National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida.

About the Research

Early diagnosis remains the most critical challenge in managing “silent” and high-mortality malignancies, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and prostate cancer (PCa). PDAC is projected to become a leading cause of cancer-related deaths by 2035, necessitating advancements in early detection and differentiation from benign conditions like pancreatitis. Similarly, PCa diagnosis is currently hindered by a high rate of “false alarms,” where up to 75% of biopsies following abnormal PSA levels reveal no malignancy, while other aggressive tumors remain undetected.

This project addresses these unmet clinical needs by translating innovative, minimally-invasive MRI methodologies which we have verified in preclinical models, to human application. Our approach monitors the Warburg effect — i.e., the metabolic conversion of glucose into lactate—using deuterium (2H) and 13C-labeled metabolic imaging. While standard field strengths often struggle to resolve the metabolic signatures of these precursors and products of glycolysis, our implementation of proton-enhanced and of steady-state 2H and 13C MRI sequences at high-fields promise to overcome sensitivity problems that have challenged metabolic imaging, while bypassing the “blinding” signals arising in conventional (1H, proton) MRI from water and fat. Our metabolic readouts will be synergistically combined with advanced diffusion-based MRI to quantify increased cellular density and restrictive intracellular volumes. By integrating these complementary metabolic and microstructural contrasts, we aim to establish new diagnostic paradigms. This framework will enable the early identification of high-risk PDAC lesions and provide a reliable assessment of Pca aggressiveness. Ultimately, these globally applicable tools seek to reduce unnecessary biopsies, enhance risk stratification, and transform the management of “silent” cancers through timely, non-invasive intervention.