Living Laboratory partners develop world-first technology to facilitate high resolution brain imaging
Published: 28 July 2021
MR CoilTech, partners on the Advanced Imaging Coil Development project, partnered with Glasgow-based product design consultancy Wideblue, to create a world-first specialised coil device for a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner that will enhance advanced imaging and help improve brain research.
MR CoilTech, partners on the Advanced Imaging Coil Development project, partnered with Glasgow-based product design consultancy Wideblue, to create a world-first specialised coil device for a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner that will enhance advanced imaging and help improve brain research.
MR CoilTech and Wideblue collaborated to design and develop a specialised radiofrequency (RF) coil specifically created for functional MRI of the brain. The bespoke device is a 16-channel transmit, 96-channel receive head coil, the first of its kind to be developed, that works with the scanning capabilities of next generation 7 Tesla (7T) MRI scanners to produce high-resolution images of the brain.
7T MRI is an extremely powerful scanning technology that has the capability to produce highly detailed images of the body’s internal organs and tissues. Specialised RF coils are essential to capture this advantage and improve the quality of images produced by 7T MRI, in order to advance brain imaging research and increase diagnostic capabilities of the technology.
The head coil is now installed in the NextGen 7T MRI scanner at the University of California, Berkeley after successful safety tests. It will enable researchers to study extremely high-level detail of human brain structure and function, leading to new insights into brain disease.
Dr Shajan Gunamony, Director of MR CoilTech and senior research fellow at the University of Glasgow said: “We are delighted to have successfully developed a novel head coil device that will be integral in enhancing the capabilities of the NextGen 7T scanner. Our device will support studies of the brain and brain disease at a mesoscopic level, improving the resolution of images and overall diagnostic ability.”
The Living Laboratory will see the coil development project build on MR CoilTech’s success to establish a pipeline of new body-part-specific coils using the £10m 7T MRI scanner within the University of Glasgow’s Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE).
Successful initial trials at ICE have already seen the delivery of a novel ‘dual-mode 7T head coil’ prototype that will progress into a second-generation head coil and further commercialisation phases. This novel coil has an open-faced design to improve the user experience and will ultimately produce high quality images for research and clinical studies.
This success will set in motion the delivery of new coils for body parts that are not covered by standard product options, increasing the capability of 7T MRI scanning to more body regions than currently possible. The commercialisation of these coils will increase the clinical use of next-generation MRI technology, leading to better diagnosis and improved patient outcomes.
First published: 28 July 2021