What does the brain actually look like during the onset of a disease?
Can the changes be detected before the first symptoms appear? Tobias Granberg researches how advanced imaging can reveal early signs of neurological disorders such as MS, ALS, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and epilepsy.
Text: based on Karin Tideström text, for KI’s installation ceremony booklet 2025
By developing new MRI techniques and applying the latest generation of computed tomography, his research group is able to show and measure inflammation, metabolic disturbances, loss of myelin (the protective sheath around nerve fibres), and other such changes in brain structure and function, with the aim of producing markers that can be used by both doctors and researchers. The techniques also make it possible to monitor how the diseases progress more precisely and determine the efficacy of treatments. One concrete goal is to help doctors choose and follow up therapies for Alzheimer's disease, for which new drugs are being produced. For Tobias Granberg, the vision is clear: to combine the development of new medical imaging techniques with clinical practice, thereby expediting the path from research progress to patient benefit.