European Network on NMR Relaxometry

My research interests are the development and application of NMR, (rheo-)MRI and MRS methods to study and understand transport processes and dynamics at different time and length scales in porous bio-systems to unravel structure-function relationships. We developed a first portable NMR flowmeter for flow in plants in 1982-1986 and a dedicated 3T vertical (50 cm diameter) bore intact plant MRI system in 2002. In addition, we have a number of high field MRI systems (7 – 22.3 T). Applications are intact plants (xylem and phloem flow, source-sink relations under different environmental conditions (drought, light, anoxia) in relation to plant water status), development of methods to study sucrose transport in phloem), plant-like materials (in vivo detection of age-related mechanisms in dry seeds), biofilms (high-field MRS and MRI for molecular monitoring) and foods (composition, processing, structure, function).