Pontus Plavén-Sigray

Scientific interests:

My research is primarily focused on developing biomarkers and new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases by applying neuroimaging techniques, such as MRI and PET. My group and I, along with our collaborators, are currently running the ERAP phase IIa trial, where we evaluate the effect of the drug sirolimus/rapamycin on human neurodegeneration and aging.

My work also involves creating and assessing biomarkers of aging that can be used as endpoints in clinical trials of geroprotective compounds. To this end, my group applies machine learning models to large batches of multi-modal imaging data to estimate the biological age of different organ systems in the human body.

Biography:

Supervison of students:

I am the main supervisor of a PhD student working on a research project to develop and validate biomarkers of healthy and pathological aging in humans.

I'm an active co-supervisor of two ongoing PhD students at Karolinska Institutet (KI), and I was the co-supervisor of two PhD students at NRU and one at KI who have now successfully defended their theses. I have also supervised master's and bachelor's students at both KI, the University of Copenhagen, and DTU.

Publications:

A full list of publications can be found at my Google-scholar profile.

Selected publications:

Svensson JE, Schain M & Plavén-Sigray P. (2024): In vivo medical imaging for assessing geroprotective interventions in humans. Research Square preprint.

Dörfel R, Arenas-Gomez JM, Svarer C, Ganz M, Knudsen GM, Svensson JE & Plavén-Sigray P. (2024): Multimodal brain age prediction using machine learning: combining structural MRI and 5-HT2AR PET derived features. GeroScience, Accepted.

Svensson JE, Bolin M, Thor D, Williams PA, Brautaset R, Carlsson M, Sörensson P, Marlevi D, Spin-Neto R, Probst M, Hagman G, Morén AF, Kivipelto M & Plavén-Sigray P. (2024): Evaluating the effect of rapamycin treatment in Alzheimer’s Disease and aging using in vivo imaging: the phase IIa ERAP clinical study protocol. BMC Neurology, 24.

Dörfel RP, Arenas‐Gomez JM, Fisher PM, Ganz M, Knudsen GM, Svensson JE & Plavén‐Sigray P. (2023): Prediction of brain age using structural magnetic resonance imaging: A comparison of accuracy and test–retest reliability of publicly available software packages. Human Brain Mapping, 44.

Laurell GL, Plavén-Sigray P, Johansen A, Raval NR, Nasser A, Aabye-Madsen C, Madsen J, Hansen HD, Donovan LL, Knudsen GM & Schain M. (2023): Kinetic models for estimating occupancy from single-scan PET displacement studies. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 43(9). Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism., 43:1544-1556.

Laurell GL, Plavén-Sigray P, Svarer C, Ogden RT, Knudsen GM & Schain M. (2022): Designing drug occupancy studies with PET neuroimaging: Sample size, occupancy ranges and analytical methods. NeuroImage, 263.

Plavén-Sigray P, Ikonen-Victorsson P, Santillo A, Matheson GJ, Lee M, Collste K, Fatouros-Bergman H, Sellgren CM, Erhardt S & Agartz, I, et al. (2022): Thalamic dopamine D2-receptor availability in schizophrenia: a study on antipsychotic-naive patients with first-episode psychosis and a meta-analysis. Molecular Psychiatry, 27(2).

Raval NR, Shalgunov V, Nasser A, Madsen CA, Battisti UM, Herth MM, Jørgensen LM, Plavén-Sigray P & Knudsen GM. (2022): Evaluation of the α-synuclein PET radiotracer (d3)-[11C] MODAG-001 in a protein deposition pig model. Nuclear Medicine and Biology, 114:42-48.

Svensson JE, Schain M, Knudsen GM, Ogden RT & Plaven-Sigray P. (2021). Early stopping in clinical PET studies: how to reduce expense and exposure. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 41.

Plavén-Sigray P, Matheson GJ, Coughlin JM, Hafizi S, Laurikainen H, Ottoy J, et al. (2020): Meta-analysis of the Glial Marker TSPO in Psychosis Revisited: Reconciling Inconclusive Findings of Patient-Control Differences. Biological Psychiatry, 89:e5-e8.

Plavén-Sigray P, Schain M, Zanderigo F, Farde L, Halldin C, Forsberg A, et al. (2019): Accuracy and reliability of [11C]PBR28 specific binding estimated without the use of a reference region. Neuroimage, 188:102-110.

Plavén-Sigray P, Matheson GJ, Collste K, Ashok AH, Coughlin JM, Howes OD, et al. (2018): Positron Emission Tomography Studies of the Glial Cell Marker Translocator Protein in Patients With Psychosis: A Meta-analysis Using Individual Participant Data. Biological Psychiatry, 84:433-442.

Plavén-Sigray P, Matheson GJ, Schiffler BC & Thompson WH. (2017): The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time. ELife, 6.

Science outreach:

Co-host of the popular science podcast “Akademiska Smådåd”, 22 episodes, 2020-2021.

Selected research grants:

Swedish Research Council international post-doc grant

Impetus Longevity grant

Lundbeck Foundation post-doc grant

Swedish Society for Medicine post-doc stipend