Heike Elisabeth Daldrup-link PhD

Heike Elisabeth Daldrup-Link is a clinician-scientist in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University with subspecialisation in pediatric radiology, pediatric oncology imaging, and molecular imaging. Dr. Daldrup-Link trained at the University of Münster and the Technical University of Munich, Germany. She worked as an Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco from 2003 to 2010, before joining Stanford Radiology in 2010. Her research interest focuses on the development of novel pediatric molecular imaging techniques, which interface observations of living cells with nanoparticle development and multimodality imaging technologies

Dr. Daldrup-Link developed several novel concepts for pediatric oncology imaging, such as tumor characterization through the EPR effect. MR imaging of tumor associated inflammation with iron oxide nanoparticles, image-guided cancer therapy without side effects through tumor-enzyme activatable theranostic nanoparticles and radiation-free whole body staging of children with cancer. Dr. Daldrup-Link’s cellular imaging studies also yielded several new and patented ideas for in vivo imaging of stem cell transplants establishing immediately clinically applicable technologies for: in vivo stem cell tracking with FDA-approved nanoparticles, in vivo imaging of stem cell rejection processes with immune-cell targeted tracers, and MRI-detection of stem cell apoptosis with enzyme-activatable contrast agents. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Daldrup-Link's team has received 77 honors and awards for innovative cellular imaging research.