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Developing hardware and software to improve Magnetic Resonance Neuroimaging

Lead supervisor: Dr James Grist 

Co-supervisors: Prof. Damian Tyler, Prof. Gabriele De Luca

Commercial partner: GE Healthcare

 

This project presents an exciting opportunity for a student to develop skills in hardware (design and construction of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) coil to image the brain and spine) and software (development of new approaches to image brain blood flow and improve image reconstruction methods) in collaboration between GE Healthcare and the University of Oxford.
MRI coils are built to image protons, but here at Oxford we have been pioneering a technique known as ‘hyperpolarised MRI’ to image carbon-13, which has shown damage in the brains of people with a condition known as ‘Multiple Sclerosis’ (MS) that we can’t easily detect with proton MRI.

However, we know (from post-mortem data) that the damage wrought by MS also affects the spine.

Therefore, there is an opportunity to develop a novel coil that can will enable brain and spine imaging. To complement this hardware development, we have also started to investigate new ways to collect and reconstruct data to detect changes in blood flow in the brain due to MS. Coupling the new coil with new ways to more sensitively collect the blood flow data will provide a holistic project for the student, with novelty found in the following ways:

1) Construction of a novel coil that can be used to image the brain and cervical spine of people with Multiple Sclerosis.

2) Development of new ways to acquire, reconstruct, and post-process blood flow and metabolism data from the brain, including new methods to reconstruct the data to provide better image quality than is currently available.

3) Application of 1 and 2 to image blood flow and metabolism in the brain and spine in people with Multiple Sclerosis.

The results from the project will be publishable in leading journals in the field (Radiology, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine) and the student will be well integrated into the research teams.

 

 

Apply using course: DPhil in Medical Sciences 

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