Main Research Activities:
Spectral and Dual-Energy Computed Tomography
Photon Counting Computed Tomography
X-ray Imaging with brilliant X-ray sources MUCLS
Dark-field X-ray Imaging
Dark-field CT Imaging
Prof. Dr. med. Daniela Pfeiffer, MHBA, is a physician-scientist and internationally recognized expert in advanced X-ray and CT imaging. She leads the X-Ray & CT Research Unit at the TUM University Hospital, where her interdisciplinary team brings together medicine, physics, engineering, and artificial intelligence to develop innovative imaging technologies and translate them into clinical practice. Her research focuses particularly on spectral CT, dark-field imaging, and AI-assisted image analysis. Alongside her scientific leadership, she serves as Managing Senior Physician at the Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and as Deputy Chair of the TUM Ethics Committee. She is principal investigator of major collaborative research projects, including an ERC Synergy Grant, and is dedicated to combining technological innovation with meaningful improvements in diagnostic imaging and patient care.
Group Members
Senior:
PD Dr. med Andreas Sauter
PD Dr. Dr. Florian Gassert
Post-Doc:
Dr. Lorenz Birnbacher
MD/PhD students:
Henriette Bast
Ashley Benne
Sofia Demianova
Tina Dorosti
Alexandra Karrer
Lennard Kaster
Ariane Keppler
Luisa Kirchner
Kevin Knuth
Maximilian Lochschmidt
Elizabeth Nesterov
Johannes Thalhammer
Collaborators
Local Collaborators
Daniel Cremers, Faculty of Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Julia Herzen, Chair for Biomedical Physics & Munich School of BioEngineering, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Tobias Lasser, Faculty of Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Karl-Ludwig Laugwitz, Department of Cardiology, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Franz Pfeiffer, Chair for Biomedical Physics & Munich School of BioEngineering, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Munich School of BioEngineering
International Collaborators
Philippe Douek, Claude Bernard University Lyon, Lyon, France.
Anushri Parakh, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, United States.
Dushyant Sahani, University of Washington, United States, Seattle, United States.
David Maintz, University of Cologne, Colone, Germany
Philips Healthcare
Top 10 Publications
Pfeiffer, D., & Thalhammer, J. B. (2026). Who’s on First? Prioritizing Radiology Examinations in the Emergency Department. Radiology: Artificial Intelligence, 8(5), e260778.
Dorosti, T., Schultheiß, M., Schmette, P., Heuchert, J., Thalhammer, J., Gassert, F. T., ... & Pfeiffer, D. (2025). Estimating total lung volume from pixel-level thickness maps of chest radiographs using deep learning. Radiology: Artificial Intelligence, 7(4), e240484.
Thalhammer, J., Schultheiß, M., Dorosti, T., Lasser, T., Pfeiffer, F., Pfeiffer, D.*, & Schaff, F.* (2024). Improving automated hemorrhage detection at Sparse-View CT via U-Net–based artifact reduction. Radiology: Artificial Intelligence, 6(4), e230275.
Schaff, F., Jud, C., Dierolf, M., Günther, B., Achterhold, K., Gleich, B., ... & Pfeiffer, D. (2024). Feasibility of dark-field radiography to enhance detection of nondisplaced fractures. Radiology, 311(2), e231921.
Urban, T., Sauter, A. P., Frank, M., Willer, K., Noichl, W., Bast, H., ... & Pfeiffer, D. (2023). Dark-field chest radiography outperforms conventional chest radiography for the diagnosis and staging of pulmonary emphysema. Investigative Radiology, 58(11), 775.
Urban, T., Gassert, F. T., Frank, M., Willer, K., Noichl, W., Buchberger, P., ... & Pfeiffer, D. (2022). Qualitative and quantitative assessment of emphysema using dark-field chest radiography. Radiology, 303(1), 119-127.
Gassert, F. T., Urban, T., Frank, M., Willer, K., Noichl, W., ..., Pfeiffer, D.* & Pfeiffer, F.* (2021). X-ray dark-field chest imaging: qualitative and quantitative results in healthy humans. Radiology, 301(2), 389-395.
Willer, K., Fingerle, A. A., Noichl, W., De Marco, F., Frank, M., ..., Pfeiffer, D., ... & Pfeiffer, F. (2021). X-ray dark-field chest imaging for detection and quantification of emphysema in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a diagnostic accuracy study. The Lancet Digital Health, 3(11), e733-e744.
Pasa, F., Golkov, V., Pfeiffer, F., Cremers, D., & Pfeiffer, D. (2019). Efficient deep network architectures for fast chest X-ray tuberculosis screening and visualization. Scientific reports, 9(1), 6268.
Muenzel, D., Bar-Ness, D., Roessl, E., Blevis, I., Bartels, M., Fingerle, A. A., ... & Noël, P. B. (2017). Spectral photon-counting CT: initial experience with dual–contrast agent K-edge colonography. Radiology, 283(3), 723-728.