Dr. Tony Stoecker

Biography

Tony Stöcker studied Geophysics at the Ruhr-University Bochum with focus on theoretical physics and mathematics. In 2000 he finished his PhD thesis about signal analysis and synthesis of tomographic data. In 2001 he joined the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University of Düsseldorf with Dr. Frank Schneider, with focus on methodological developments in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In 2004 he changed to the Institute of Medical Imaging Physics at the Research Center Jülich with Dr. Jon Shah. His main focus was on the development of new MR imaging techniques, especially the theoretical and practical aspects of acquisitions tailored for structural and functional neuroimaging. Here, he was heading the MRI Sequence Development Team from 2007 until March 2012. His research interests are sequence development and optimization by means of MRI-simulation tailored for neuroscience applications, especially in the context of high-field MRI. Tony Stöcker joined the DZNE in April 2012 as group leader of the MR Physics Research Group.

Research Interest

The research group MR Physics investigates novel medical imaging methods for preclinical biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. The early detection of neurodegenerative diseases using medical imaging techniques is a challenging and still unsolved task. Nevertheless, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the method of choice due to its inherently multi-modal character: MRI exploits many different biophysical and biochemical properties and provides quantitative information for brain tissue characterization. Furthermore, the noninvasive nature of MRI offers a great opportunity to perform large-scale longitudinal studies in patient groups as well as in healthy volunteers. However, it is very difficult to detect small changes in brain tissue, as they occur in neurodegeneration.