Prof. Dr. Marco Gotte

Biography

Prof. Dr. Marco Jan Wilhelm Götte

Scientific Director, Stephenson Cardiac Imaging Centre

Program Director - interventional Cardiac MRI Research Program

Program Director - Cardiac MRI Fellowship

Professor of Cardiac Sciences

Cumming School of Medicine

Libin Cardiovascular Institute

Division of Cardiology

University of Calgary

Years in cardiology: 30+

Active trials as PI: 4

Lead publication venue Circulation, JAMA, Eur. Heart J - Imaging

“Treating the heart from the inside out: Cardiac MRI is evolving from a purely diagnostic tool into an interventional modality with capabilities that are truly unique — and there is no better place to help define that transition.”

ABOUT

Prof. Dr. Marco Götte is a Dutch cardiologist and medical scientist who joined the University of Calgary in 2025 as Scientific Director of the Stephenson Cardiac Imaging Centre (SCIC) — one of Canada’s leading cardiac imaging facilities. He holds a full professorship in the Department of Cardiac Sciences within the Cumming School of Medicine, and is a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute.

Trained in medicine and cardiology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the VU Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands — where he earned his MD and PhD — Prof. Dr. Götte has dedicated his career to advancing cardiac MRI from a diagnostic tool into a precision instrument for guiding cardiac interventions in real time. His approach replaces ionizing radiation with high-resolution MRI imaging, creating a safer environment for both patients and clinical teams while enabling a new generation of precise interventional cardiac procedures.

Before relocating to Calgary, he served as Director of the Cardiac Research Unit at Amsterdam UMC, where he founded and led CAMRIT — the Cardiac MRI Research Team, an international multidisciplinary team developing, testing, validating and clinically implementing MRI-guided cardiac interventions, including MRI-guided catheter ablation for arrhythmias, across the full bench-to-bedside spectrum. His work spans cardiac MRI integrated with electrophysiology, right ventricular function, pressure-volume analysis, 3D-ECG imaging and AI-assisted image analysis.

RESEARCH FOCUS

• Interventional cardiac MRI — real-time MRI guidance for catheter ablation and cardiac interventions without radiation
• Advanced tissue characterization — late gadolinium enhancement, atrial and ventricular fibrosis assessment, and scar imaging for arrhythmia prediction
• Hemodynamics & cardiac mechanics — MRI-guided right heart catheterisation and pressure-volume loop analysis
• AI & computational modelling — AI-assisted diagnostics, electrophysiological modelling, cardiac MRI – based electrical simulations and ventricular tachycardia pathway prediction
• Diagnostic ECG recording in the MRI environment and MRI-based 3D-ECG-imaging

MENTORSHIP & THE NEXT GENERATION

A defining commitment throughout Prof. Dr. Götte’s career has been cultivating the researchers and clinicians of tomorrow. His philosophy is straightforward: every student and fellow should be given every opportunity to develop their individual strengths and capabilities, in an environment that is simultaneously safe, stimulating, and scientifically ambitious. He sees his role not only as a supervisor, but as an inspirator, guide, and role model — someone who creates the right conditions for pioneering work to flourish.

This commitment is grounded in years of hands-on educational leadership. As former director and chief-trainer of the full six-year cardiology training programme at Haga Teaching Hospital in The Hague, The Netherlands, he developed a deep passion for identifying and nurturing emerging talent. At Amsterdam UMC he continued this work as a daily supervisor for cardiology trainees, a cardiac MRI educator for fellows across Europe, and an organiser of practice-oriented cardiac MRI courses that have trained cardiologists and MR technologists from around the world.

Within his CAMRIT research group, Prof. Dr. Götte built a genuinely multidisciplinary team — bringing together PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, biomedical engineers, and technical medicine students — united by a shared mission of translating cutting-edge science into clinical benefit. His goal for the Stephenson Cardiac Imaging Centre is the same: to build an open, international, and intellectually generative environment where creativity is encouraged, where early-career scientists are given real ownership of meaningful research challenges, and where the boundaries between disciplines dissolve in pursuit of better patient care.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Interventional MRI-guided ablation of left ventricular tachycardia

Circulation, 2026

First-in-human real-time MR-guided ventricular ablation for idiopathic outflow tract premature ventricular complexes

JAMA Cardiol, 2025

Acute lesion visualization following interventional CMR flutter ablation using PATRIOT CMR imaging

Circ Cardiovasc Imaging, 2025

Workflow and imaging strategies for real-time MR-guided atrial transseptal puncture

Eur Heart J Imaging Methods Pract, 2025

Real-time magnetic resonance-guided radiofrequency ablation and lesion evaluation in an magnetic resonance-compatible isolated beating pig heart platform

Heart Rhythm O2, 2025

CMR-guided right heart catheterizations for cardiac pressure-volume loop analyses

European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging, 2024

Predicting post-infarct ventricular tachycardia by integrating cardiac MRI and advanced computational reentrant pathway analysis

Heart Rhythm, 2024

Atrial ablation lesion evaluation by cardiac MR: review of imaging strategies and histological correlations

JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 2023

MRI-guided fibrosis ablation vs conventional catheter ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation

JAMA Cardiol, 2022