To be held in Bangor Gwynedd, in lovely North Wales. We invite all interested neuroscientists and spectroscopists to come join us and discuss the latest research using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to probe brain function and metabolism.
Location: Bangor Gwynedd, on the edge of Eryri, and right next door to Ynys Môn (the Isle of Anglesey), Bangor provides easy access to wonderful beaches, stunning mountains, and a host of outdoor pursuits. It also is home to Bangor University, and the Bangor Imaging Unit, which is hosting this event.
Dates: 3rd – 5th of September 2025.

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Aims of the symposium

• To develop a core community within the field of edited MRS and GABA by
  • sharing novel insights
  • discuss and establish current best practices
  • identifying research priorities
  • and providing opportunities to network and form collaborations.
• To increase the access and relevance to other fields
• To increase the international profile of the edited MRS and GABA field
• To educate and provide skills training and networking opportunities for early career researchers entering the field

Registration details:

We invite all interested neuroscientists and spectroscopists to come join us at the joint fMRS and Edited MRS symposia. You are welcome to come for both, or just one of these two symposia.

Dates:

• Edited MRS symposium – evening of the 3^rd – 5^th of September 2025.
• Joint fMRS and Edited MRS symposia – evening of the 31^st August – 5^th of September 2025

Registration details: –

Attending both the Functional and the Edited MRS symposium –

If attending only the Edited MRS symposium –

• £175 early bird registration (before May 31^st),
• £250 regular registration (June 1^st to July 31^st),
• £350 late registration (August 1-31^st)

We have endeavoured to keep costs and fees as low as possible. Registration covers lunch and coffee breaks on both days, a buffet dinner on the first full conference day, and fees for symposium room hire etc. A welcome dinner, and a closing dinner may be available as optional extras.

Please register using this online form. There is a second link at the end of the registration form that will take you to the payment page, or you can pay here.

Accommodation:

We have a block of rooms available in Student halls if participants wish to book. Otherwise, there are several hotels in the vicinity of Bangor that can be booked. Bookings can be made via the accommodation portal, use the code SYMPOSIA25 for bed and breakfast accommodation at ~£55 per night.

More information on the on campus accommodation.

Submitted Talks:

This year, we aim to offer all submitted abstracts a talk. We anticipate that many attendees will submit one abstract to attend The Joint Functional and Edited MRS Symposia. The submission portals for each symposium are separate. Please note that you may submit a different abstract for each symposium but submitting the same abstract to both symposia is not permitted.

Abstract Submission link

Program Outline

Wednesday, 3rd September 2025

18:00 – Welcome

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Thursday, 4th September 2025

08:30 – Registration (30 mins)

09:00 – Welcome (30 mins)

09:30 – MRS Brain Bioenergetics in Schizophrenia (45 mins)

Laura Rowland, University of Maryland, MD, USA.

10:30 – Refreshment break – Tea and Coffee (30 mins)

11:00 Session 1: Methods and Technical Advances in MRS Research (1 hour 30 mins)

Chairs: Georg and Paul

11:00 Gradient scheme optimization for PRESS-localized edited MRS using weighted pathway suppression (15 mins)

Gizeaddis L. Simegn¹, Zahra Shams¹, Saipavitra Murali-Manohar¹, Dunja Simicic¹, Abdelrahman Gad¹, Yulu Song¹, Vivek Yedavalli¹, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins¹, Aaron T. Gudmundson^1,2, Helge J. Zöllner¹, Georg Oeltzschner¹, and Richard A.E. Edden^1,3

1. The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. The Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
3. F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.

11:15 A Deep Learning Approach to Assessing Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Acquisition Quality (15 mins)

Shuyuan Wang, Aaron T. Gudmundson, Yulu Song, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins, Richard A. E. Edden

Corresponding Author: Richard A. E. Edden (edden@jhu.edu)

1. Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

11:30 MRS fingerprinting combined with multi-dimensional linear-combination modeling for fast and accurate multi-metabolite relaxometry (15 mins)

Helge J. Zöllner¹, Christopher Davies-Jenkins¹, Dunja Simicic¹, Julia Stabinska², Georg Oeltzschner¹, Richard A. E. Edden¹, and Peter B. Barker¹,²

1. The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.

 11:45 Open-source analysis of magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) data in Osprey (15 mins)

Helge J. Zöllner¹, Dillip K. Senapati¹, İpek Özdemir¹, Doris D. M. Lin¹, Georg Oeltzschner¹, and Peter B. Barker¹,²

1. The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.

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12:00 – Lunch break

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13:30 Session 2 – Neurobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience (2 hours)

Chairs: Richard and Keith Jones

13:30 Glutamate- and GABA-targeted Drugs for Co-occurring Bipolar     and Alcohol Use Disorders (25 mins)

James J Prisciandaro¹.

1.  College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, USA.

14:00 The genetic and neurochemical basis of sensory differences in autism across the lifespan (15 mins)

Nick Puts¹

1. Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

14:15 Distinct Sensory Atypicalities Bridge the Gap Between Brain Chemistry and Motor Dysfunction in Autism (15 mins)

Mingrun Shi BS¹, Jason L. He PhD¹, Helen Powell MSc¹, Oliver Lack MSc¹, Georg Oeltzschner PhD²’³, Alyssa Deronda MSc⁴, Deana Crocetti BS⁴, Ericka L. Wodka PhD⁵, Richard A. Edden PhD²’³, Jonathan O’Muircheartaigh PhD¹’⁶, Stewart H. Mostofsky MD⁴’⁷’⁸, Nicolaas A. J. Puts PhD¹’⁶

1. Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK.
2. Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
3. F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
4. Center for Neurodevelopmental and Imaging Research, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
5. Center for Autism Science, Services and Innovation, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
6. MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King’s College London, London, UK.
7. Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
8. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. 

14:30 Exploring the Interrelationships Between GABA and Glutamate Levels, Symptomatology and Treatment Response in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder (15 mins)

Mónica Flores Ramos¹, Lorenzo Bysshe Shelley Larenas²

1. National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz,
2. National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

14:45 MRS and HBCD

Jessica Wisnowski

15:00 Predicting Alzheimer’s Treatment Response to Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Using GABA-edited MRS (15 mins)

Asia Ferrari^1,2,3, Enrico Premi⁴, Valentina Cantoni³, Daniele Corbo⁵, Matthias Kirschner^1,2, Roberto Gasparotti⁵, Barbara Borroni³, Francesca Saviola^5,6

1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
2. Division of Adult Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
3. Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
4. Stroke Unit, Department of Neurological and Vision Sciences, ASST Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.
5. Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
6. Neuro-X Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland.

15:15 The neurochemistry of speech-motor control.

Nia-Wyn Williams¹, Michael Pendlebury₁, Paul Mullins¹, Charlotte Wiltshire¹.

1. Bangor Imaging Unit, Department of Psychology, Bangor University.

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 15:30 – Refreshment break – Tea and Coffee (30 minutes)

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16:00 – Session 3: Advances in Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-MRS) Methodology and Applications (1 hour)

Chairs:

16:00 Into the multiverse: A data-driven algorithm to determine 1H-MRS basis set composition (15 mins)

Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins¹, Helge J. Zöllner¹, Dunja Simicic¹, Seyma Alcicek^2,3,4, Richard A.E. Edden¹, and Georg Oeltzschner¹

1. The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
3. University Cancer Center Frankfurt (UCT), Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
4. Frankfurt Cancer Institute (FCI), Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

16:15 1H-MRS Acquistion methodology for hippocampal metabolite quantification using 3T Siemens: Reproducibility study of multiple size voxels using PRESS and sLASER (15 mins)

Anna Virovka

16:30 – End of days sessions

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Friday, 5^th September 2025

08:30 – Welcome (30 mins)

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09:00 – Session 4: Changes across the lifespan

Chairs: Nick Puts

09:00 Downfield MR spectroscopy: overview and recent developments (15 mins)

Moyoko Tomiyasu¹

1. Russell H Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, John Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD, USA.

09:15 Metabolite T1 and T2 Relaxation Times in Healthy Aging 

Saipavitra Murali-Manohar^1,2, Helge J. Zöllner^1,2, Kathleen E. Hupfeld^1,2, Yulu Song^1,2, Emily E. Carter⁸, Steve C. N. Hui^4,5,6, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins^1,2, Dunja Simicic^1,2, Aaron T. Gudmundson^1,2,7, Gizeaddis L. Simegn^1,2, Vivek Yedavalli¹, Georg Oeltzschner^1,2, Eric C. Porges^3,8, Richard A. E. Edden^1,2

1. Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
3. Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
4. Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National Hospital, Washington, D.C., USA.
5. Department of Radiology, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA.
6. Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA.
7. The Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
8. Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

9:30 The Effect of Aging on Relaxation Times and Its Implications for Metabolite Quantification in PRESS MRS (15 mins)

Yulu Song, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins^1,2, Gizeaddis L. Simegn^1,2, Steve C.N. Hui^3,4,5, Saipavitra Murali-Manohar^1,2, Vivek Yedavalli¹, Helge J. Zöllner^1,2, Zahra Shams^1,2, Abdelrahman Gad^1,2, Dunja Simicic^1,2, Georg Oeltzschner^1,2, Eric C. Porges^6,7, Richard A.E. Edden^1,2

1. The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns
   Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute,
   Baltimore, MD, USA.
3. Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National Hospital, Washington, D.C., USA
4. Department of Radiology, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA
5. Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA
6. Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
7. Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

9:45 New age-dependent relaxation reference values for pediatric MRS (15 minutes)

Saipavitra Murali-Manohar, Abdelrahman Gad, Zahra Shams, Yulu Song, Gizeaddis L. Simegn, Aaron Gudmundson, Helge J. Zöllner, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins, Dunja Simicic, Vivek Yedavalli, Mary Beth Nebel, Georg Oeltzschner, Richard A. E. Edden

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10:00 Refreshment break – Tea and Coffee (30 minutes)

10:30 – Methodology

Chair: Paul Mullins

10:30 Editing MRS. Ready for product implementation. Pros & Cons (25 mins)

Ralph Noeske, GE HealthCare, Berlin, Germany.

11:00 A graphical pipeline platform for MRS data processing and analysis: MRSpecLAB (15 mins)

Ying Xiao^1,2, Antonia Kaiser¹, Matthias Kockisch¹, Alex Back³, Robin Carlet¹, Xinyu Liu^1,2, Zhiwei Huang¹, André Döring¹, Mark Widmaier¹, Lijing Xin¹ 

1. CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
2. Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
3. Department of Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

11:15 Identifying out-of-voxel echoes in edited MRS with phase cycle inversion (15 mins)

Zahra Shams¹, Abdelrahman Gad¹, Aaron T. Gudmundson³, Saipavitra Murali-Manohar¹, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins¹, Gizeaddis L. Simegn¹, Dunja Simicic¹, Yulu Song¹, Vivek Yedavalli¹, Helge J. Zöllner¹, Georg Oeltzschner¹, Richard A. E. Edden^1,2 

1. The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
3. The Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

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11:30 Session 5: Clinical Applications and Biomarkers (1 hour 30 mins)

Chairs: Richard and Nick

11:30 MEGAPRESS Edited GABA as Biomarkers of Treatment Response to Gabapentin in Autistic Adolescents (15 minutes)

David Cochran, MD, PhD¹ Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

            1. Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.

11:45 Regional Neurometabolic Responses to Isocapnic and Hypocapnic Hypoxia (15 mins)

Ferrida Ponce¹, Samuel Leaney¹, Asare Adomako¹, Jamie Macdonald¹, Sam Oliver¹, Paul Mullins¹

            1. Bangor University, Wales, UK.

12:00 Relationship between depressive symptoms, suicide attempt and GABA concentrations in cingulate cortex (15 mins)

Mónica Flores-Ramos¹, Sarael Alcauter Solorzano², Lorenzo Shelley Larenas ²

1. Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico.
2. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.

12:15 Investigating the influence of striatal tTIS on GABA & Glx levels in the putamen (15 mins)

Rebecca Jones¹, Lijing Xin², Friedhelm Hummel¹. 

1. NeuroX institute, EPFL.
2. CIBM, EPFL. 

12:30 Optimising Biomarker Detection for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Childhood Brain Tumours at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) (15 mins)

Lara Worthington¹

1. Regional Radiation Physics & Protection Service (RRPPS), University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, UK.

12:45 Integration of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Interventional Clinics (15 mins)

Tatiana Wolfe, PhD^1,2, Maegan L. Calvert, PhD,¹ Lee Isaac, PsyD,^1,3,4 Laura B. Dunn, MD,¹ Amy Grooms, MD,¹ G. Andrew James, PhD^1,4

1. Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Research Institute, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), USA.
2. Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
3. Reynolds Institute on Aging.
4. Department of Neurology, UAMS.

13:00 IDH inhibitors Ivosidenib and Vorasidenib decrease 2-hydroxyglutarate levels in low-grade glioma: an in vivo MR Spectroscopy study (15 mins)

Dunja Simicic¹, Seyma Alcicek^1,2, Lindsay Blair^3,4, Max Saint-Germain^3,4, Helge J. Zöllner¹, Christopher W. Davies-Jenkins¹, Matthias Holdhoff^3,4, John Laterra^3,4, Chetan Bettagowda⁵, Karisa C. Schreck^3,4, Doris D. Lin¹, Peter B. Barker^1,6, David O. Kamson^3,4, Georg Oeltzschner¹ 

1. Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2. Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
3. Department of Oncology, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
4. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
5. Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
6. F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.

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13:15 – Lunch break

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14:15  – How I got here – Reflections on a career using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to investigate physiology

 Professor Paul G Mullins (and maybe a few others)

15:00 Walk and Talk/Breakout Session (1 hour)

An opportunity to discuss thoughts and ideas about MRS while seeing some of the sights of Bangor.

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16:00 – Refreshment Break – Tea and Coffee (30 mins)

16:30 – Closing Remarks

17:00 – End of Conference