Workgroup Neuroimaging
Clinic of Neurology and Polyclinic
Faculty of Medicine
Bergmannsheil University Hospital
Bürkle-de-la-Camp-Platz 1
44789 Bochum
Phone:
+49 (0)234 302-3449
Email:
lara.schlaffke@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
While studying brain plasticity in a learning brain using various MR techniques during my PhD, my research focuses now on development and evaluation of quantitative MRI-based biomarkers for muscles in rare neuromuscular diseases. The main goal of my research is to identify quantitative MR outcome measures that allow non-invasively and repeatable to i) monitor disease progression, ii) evaluate novel treatment strategies and iii) facilitate diagnosis.
The incidence of neuromuscular disorders is about 1 in 800 but with more than 400 variants the incidence of most disease types is very rare. Since novel treatment strategies like gene-therapies are emerging, it is of enormous interest to quantify the success non-invasively and all encompassing. To identify biomarkers other than invasive biopsies, I am investigating patients with different neuromuscular disorders in a longitudinal approach. With this, I can not only identify and evaluate predictive biomarkers objectively and non-invasively, but also investigate the disease dynamics which are varying among different disease types. Using translational approaches I am investigating qMRI in mouse disease models, which allows the direct comparison of qMRI to histology.
Enax-Krumova, E., Forsting, J., Rohm, M., Schwenkreis, P., Tegenthoff, M., Meyer-Frießem, C. H., & Schlaffke, L. (2023). Quantitative muscle magnetic resonance imaging depicts microstructural abnormalities but no signs of inflammation or dystrophy in post-COVID-19 condition. European Journal of Neurology, 30(4), 970–981. https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15709
Rehmann, R., Froeling, M., Rohm, M., Forsting, J., Kley, R. A., Schmidt-Wilcke, T., Karabul, N., Meyer-Frießem, C. H., Vollert, J., Tegenthoff, M., Vorgerd, M., & Schlaffke, L. (2020). Diffusion tensor imaging reveals changes in non-fat infiltrated mu nscles in late onset Pompe disease. Muscle & Nerve, 62(4), 541–549. https://doi.org/10.1002/mus.27021
Schlaffke, L., Friedrich, S., Tegenthoff, M., Güntürkün, O., Genç, E., & Ocklenburg, S. (2020). Boom Chack Boom-A multimethod investigation of motor inhibition in professional drummers. Brain and Behavior, 10(1), e01490. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1490
Schlaffke, L., Rehmann, R., Rohm, M., Otto, L. A. M., Luca, A. de, Burakiewicz, J., Baligand, C., Monte, J., Harder, C. den, Hooijmans, M. T., Nederveen, A., Schlaeger, S., Weidlich, D., Karampinos, D. C., Stouge, A., Vaeggemose, M., D'Angelo, M. G., Arrigoni, F., Kan, H. E., & Froeling, M. (2019). Multi-center evaluation of stability and reproducibility of quantitative MRI measures in healthy calf muscles. NMR in Biomedicine, 32(9), e4119. https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.4119
Schlaffke, L., Golisch, A., Haag, L. M., Lenz, M., Heba, S., Lissek, S., Schmidt-Wilcke, T., Eysel, U. T., & Tegenthoff, M. (2015). The brain's dress code: How The Dress allows to decode the neuronal pathway of an optical illusion. Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, 73, 271–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.08.017
Schlaffke, L., Lissek, S., Lenz, M., Brüne, M., Juckel, G., Hinrichs, T., Platen, P., Tegenthoff, M., & Schmidt-Wilcke, T. (2014). Sports and brain morphology - a voxel-based morphometry study with endurance athletes and martial artists. Neuroscience, 259, 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.11.046
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