As head of the MR Cancer Group, Bathen’s main research interests are focused on personalized medicine and studies of functional and metabolic properties of cancer, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS). By developing, optimizing, and applying advanced MR (in combination with other molecular methods) to characterize cancer, the group’s goal is to establish better diagnostic tools for the stratification of patients to treatment and treatment monitoring. Current research activities mainly focus on breast and prostate cancer, enabled by a close collaboration with St. Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim. Although clinical research has high priority, the broad spectrum of systems for cancer studies provides translational research, covering ex vivo as well as in vivo MRI and MRS of cancer cells and laboratory animals. Bathen’s group also maintains several large biobanks of human tissue and biofluid samples.