Dr. Metzger received his B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and his Ph.D. from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1997. His graduate research, conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Xiaoping Hu, focused on novel magnetic resonance chemical shift imaging techniques. After his graduate studies, Dr. Metzger accepted a position with Philips Medical Systems as a clinical scientist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. In this position, he expanded his knowledge in clinical research with specific work on breast, kidney, cardiac and brain MRI applications. In his final two years of his eight year tenure with Philips, he worked at NIH as a senior clinical scientist focusing on diagnostic prostate imaging and MRI guided prostate interventions. With a desire to return to academia, he accepted his current position at the University of Minnesota in 2005 as an associate professor with a joint appointment in the departments of Radiology and Urologic Surgery.

Dr. Metzger’s lab is currently investigating the potential of magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy to non-invasively determine the extent and aggressiveness of prostate cancer. Predictive models based on quantitative MRI methods have are being developed, trained and validated using correlative histopathology.  A second major focus of Dr. Metzger’s lab involves the development of novel RF coils, RF management strategies and imaging methods necessary to enable body imaging at ultrahigh magnetic fields including 7 and 10.5 Tesla. While one aspect of this work is to explore the potential clinical impact of UHF prostate imaging on cancer management, other target anatomies are under exploration including kidney, hips, heart and liver.