Dr. Lenkinski grew up in Toronto, Canada where he finished his elementary school, high school and University education. After graduation from the University of Toronto, he was trained as a chemist and performed his doctoral work at the University of Houston focusing on the use of lanthanide shift reagents in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). As part of this work, he determined the mechanism of how the paramagnetic lanthanides produced so-called lanthanide induced shifts in organic solution. During a post-doctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he continued to study of the effects that lanthanide ions had in aqueous solution.

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Dr. Lenkinski grew up in Toronto, Canada where he finished his elementary school, high school and University education. After graduation from the University of Toronto, he was trained as a chemist and performed his doctoral work at the University of Houston focusing on the use of lanthanide shift reagents in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). As part of this work, he determined the mechanism of how the paramagnetic lanthanides produced so-called lanthanide induced shifts in organic solution. During a post-doctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he continued to study of the effects that lanthanide ions had in aqueous solution.

Part of this work involved determining the mechanisms by which these lanthanides shortened NMR relaxation times of water and other ligands. Although this work was carried out between 1970 and 1975, the approaches and results are relevant to understanding the behavior of Gadolinium based contrast agents in MRI and the potential utility of PARACEST agents that are currently being developed in collaboration with Dean Sherry at UTSW. Dr. Lenkinski continued to work on lanthanides at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and at the University of Guelph in Canada.

In 1986, Dr. Lenkinski was recruited to the MRI section in the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, despite have no formal training in MRI. While the notion of me working in a Radiology Department seemed a bit odd a first, he recognized the potential to have impact through his science on a different level. Charged with a primary goal to create and implement in vivo MR spectroscopy of clinical whole-body scanners, he developed a clinical MR neuro-spectroscopy program that resulted in a number of grants and publications in HIV, schizophrenia, head trauma, brain tumors, lead exposure and MS. His group was one of the first to apply proton MRS to the characterization of breast lesions. While the majority of this work was carried out at 1.5T, studies were also pursued at 4T, offering theoretical advantages for MRS studies, but requiring intense efforts for its optimization. As the group was one of the first to receive a whole-body GE 4T scanner Dr. Lenkinski’s team also carried out early studies on Na-23 MR imaging. While at the University of Pennsylvania he was also fortunate to also participate in the development of several organ specific MR coils including an endo-rectal coil for imaging of the prostate, a multi-coil array for imaging of the shoulder, and a bilateral array for imaging breasts.

This work lead to an ability to image organs and structures with spatial resolution that was previously impossible to achieve in reasonable scan times. In these pursuits he worked closely with many clinicians in establishing translational programs that applied technical advances in MRI and MRS to study human disease. In this respect, Dr. Lenkinski has served as a program builder who can provide expertise in the context of interdisciplinary teams, and, in the appropriate cases, lead these efforts. In 1999, Dr. Lenkinski was recruited to the Department of Radiology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He assumed the position of Director of Experimental Radiology and the Director of a 3T MRI/MRS program. He worked closely with GE on the development of a 3T scanner that had the first commercial RF body coils at this field strength. He recruited a team of technical investigators who demonstrated that improved image quality could be obtained at 3T. This team in collaboration with GE scientists collected the clinical data used in an FDA submission for approval of body imaging at 3T. In 2000, Dr. Rofsky was recruited to the position of Director of MRI at the BIDMC with a key part of his mission to facilitate making 3T imaging a clinical reality.

Dr. Lenkinski worked closely with Dr. Rofsky to accomplish that mission and during the 10 years working together they built an MRI division that spanned technical development, translational research, and first-rate clinical body MRI. Perhaps the best example of this effort is the interdisciplinary program in prostate MRI. Major accomplishments included developing an endo-rectal coil at 3T, implementing and assessing DCEMRI at 3T for the prostate, correlation of MRI/MRS with a whole mount pathology program and beginning a program for determining the relationship between gene-expression profiles and MR features of prostate cancer. In addition to these clinical/translational programs, Dr. Lenkinski, together with Dr. John V. Frangioni, established a small animal imaging facility and a molecular imaging program. In building these three programs, he involved investigators from many diverse disciplines and departments. In 2011, Dr. Lenkinski was recruited to the Department of Radiology at UTSW Medical Center. He assumed the position of Vice-chair of Research. Dr. Lenkinski was awarded a “Missing Link” award by CPRIT.

This award carries with it the designation of a CPRIT Cancer Scholar in Residence. He was named both the Charles A. and Elizabeth Ann Sanders Chair in Translational Research and the Jan and Bob Pickens Distinguished Professorship in Medical Science. Dr. Lenkinski has initiated several new research projects at UTSW that are described under the research tab. Dr. Lenkinski’s major achievements in include: 1) Being one of the four co-inventors of the endo-rectal coil for MR imaging of prostate disease. This coil is currently marketed by Medrad and is the standard of care in prostate MR throughout the world. 2) Building a multi-coil array for MR imaging of breast cancer. Using this coil for MR imaging and localized MR spectroscopy of breast lesions to improve the diagnostic accuracy of lesion. 3) Implementing dynamic contrast enhanced MRI of the prostate at 1.5 and 3T in order to improve staging and detection of prostate cancer. 4) Showing the potential for correlating genetic expression profiles with phenotypes of human prostate cancer. 4) Developing multi-modality, targeted contrast agents for imaging malignant micro-calcifications in human breast cancer. 5) Began MRI program for characterizing lung cancer. 6) Initiated a Clinical research program in Spectral CT.

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