Matthias Gräser

Albert-Einstein-Straße 2

18059 Rostock, Germany

matthias.graeser@uni-rostock.de

Matthias Gräser was born in Neuwied in Germany. He completed his studies in mechatronics with a specialization in biomedical engineering in 2010 as a graduate engineer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In 2016, he received his PhD in medical engineering from the University of Lübeck. His research focused on scientific instrumentation for magnetic imaging and measurement systems, especially in magnetic particle imaging (MPI).

In 2017, he moved to the Bridge Institute for Biomedical Imaging at the Hamburg University of Technology and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf as group leader for hardware development. There he developed a human-sized magnetic particle imaging system for stroke detection within the intensive care unit. His work was awarded a special prize for health care research by the Münch Foundation. In addition, he worked on numerous preclinical application studies together with UKE clinicians and on signal processing and calibration strategies for magnetic measurement systems.

In 2021, he was appointed to the professorship of Instrumentation of Imaging at the Institute of Medical Engineering at the University of Lübeck. At the same time, he took over as head of the Diagnostics Department at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Individualized and Cell-Based Medical Engineering (IMTE), where he was appointed deputy director in 2023.

In 2024, he accepted the call to the W3 professorship of Metrology at the University of Rostock and has headed the Chair of Metrology at the Faculty of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering since 2025. His group develops magnetic measurement and imaging methods along the complete signal chain, from physical modelling and low-noise instrumentation to signal processing and image reconstruction. Current research lines are magnetic particle imaging (MPI) and magnetic particle spectroscopy (MPS), as well as magneto-mechanical resonators (MMR) as passive, battery-free and wireless sensors for tracking and sensing.

news

Jun 19, 2026	The new website of the Chair of Metrology is online: www.mtl.uni-rostock.de.
Jan 1, 2026	Tomographic pH monitoring with multi-contrast MPI and stimuli-responsive hydrogels is published in Communications Engineering.
Jan 1, 2025	Together with the Wald lab at MGH, the design and validation of an MPI system for human brain imaging appeared in Physics in Medicine & Biology.
Mar 1, 2024	The full system characterization of our human-sized 3D real-time MPI brain scanner is published in Communications Engineering.

selected publications

2026

Multi-contrast magnetic particle imaging for tomographic pH monitoring using stimuli-responsive hydrogels

Bruno Kluwe, and 3 more authors

Communications Engineering, 2026

10.1038/s44172-026-00586-8

2025

Design, construction and validation of a magnetic particle imaging (MPI) system for human brain imaging

Eli Mattingly, and 8 more authors

Physics in Medicine & Biology, 2025

10.1088/1361-6560/ad9db0

2024

In situ theranostic platform combining highly localized magnetic fluid hyperthermia, magnetic particle imaging, and thermometry in 3D

Oliver Buchholz, and 12 more authors

Theranostics, 2024

10.7150/thno.86759
System characterization of a human-sized 3D real-time magnetic particle imaging scanner for cerebral applications

Florian Thieben, and 8 more authors

Communications Engineering, 2024

10.1038/s44172-024-00192-6
Resonant inductive coupling network for human-sized magnetic particle imaging

Fabian Mohn, and 6 more authors

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2024

10.1063/5.0192784

2022

System Matrix based Reconstruction for Pulsed Sequences in Magnetic Particle Imaging

Fabian Mohn, and 5 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2022

10.1109/tmi.2022.3149583

2020

Design of a head coil for high resolution mouse brain perfusion imaging using magnetic particle imaging

Matthias Graeser, and 8 more authors

Physics in Medicine & Biology, 2020

Publisher: IOP Publishing

Abs 10.1088/1361-6560/abc09e

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a novel and versatile imaging modality developing toward human application. When up-scaling to human size, the sensitivity of the systems naturally drops as the coil sensitivity depends on the bore diameter. Thus, new methods to push the sensitivity limit further have to be investigated to cope for this loss. In this paper a dedicated surface coil for mice is developed, improving the sensitivity in cerebral imaging applications. Similar to magnetic resonance imaging the developed surface coil improves the sensitivity due to the closer vicinity to the region of interest. With the developed surface coil presented in this work, it is possible to image tracer samples containing only 896 pgfe and detect even small vessels and anatomical structures within a wild type mouse model. As current sensitivity measures require a tracer system a new method for determining a sensitivity measure without this requirement is presented and verified to enable comparison between MPI receiver systems.

2019

Human-sized Magnetic Particle Imaging for Brain Applications

Matthias Graeser, and 13 more authors

Nature Communications, 2019

10.1038/s41467-019-09704-x

2017

Magnetic Particle Imaging for Real-Time Perfusion Imaging in Acute Stroke

Peter Ludewig, and 16 more authors

ACS Nano, 2017

PMID: 28976180

10.1021/acsnano.7b05784
Towards picogram detection of superparamagnetic iron-oxide particles using a gradiometric receive coil

Matthias Graeser, and 9 more authors

Scientific reports, 2017

10.1038/s41598-017-06992-5

2015

Electronic field free line rotation and relaxation deconvolution in Magnetic Particle Imaging

K. Bente, and 5 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging,, 2015

Abs 10.1109/TMI.2014.2364891

It has been shown that magnetic particle imaging (MPI), an imaging method suggested in 2005, is capable of measuring the spatial distribution of magnetic nanoparticles. Since the particles can be administered as biocompatible suspensions, this method promises to perform well as a tracer-based medical imaging technique. It is capable of generating real-time images, which will be useful in interventional procedures, without utilizing any harmful radiation. To obtain a signal from the administered superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particles, a sinusoidal changing external homogeneous magnetic field is applied. To achieve spatial encoding, a gradient field is superimposed. Conventional MPI works with a spatial encoding field that features a field free point (FFP). To increase sensitivity, an improved spatial encoding field, featuring a field free line (FFL) can be used. Previous FFL scanners, featuring a 1-D excitation, could demonstrate the feasibility of the FFL-based MPI imaging process. In this work, an FFL-based MPI scanner is presented that features a 2-D excitation field and, for the first time, an electronic rotation of the spatial encoding field. Furthermore, the role of relaxation effects in MPI is starting to move to the center of interest. Nevertheless, no reconstruction schemes presented thus far include a dynamical particle model for image reconstruction. A first application of a model that accounts for relaxation effects in the reconstruction of MPI images is presented here in the form of a simplified, but well performing strategy for signal deconvolution. The results demonstrate the high impact of relaxation deconvolution on the MPI imaging process.