by
Christina Hwang, Contributing Reporter | June 13, 2016
Center hopes to gain insight
on better developing neurology
and psychiatric treatments
Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), set to be one of the top neuroimaging research facilities in Europe, has officially been opened. Four MR systems from Siemens Healthineers were installed into the facility to give insight on the structure, function and the composition of the brain.
One of the MR systems installed, Magnetom Skyra Connectom 3T, allows physicians to examine tissue in the thousandth of a millimeter range and is six times more powerful than conventional MR systems with 300 mT/m (millitesla per meter) gradient coils, and according to the announcement, physicians would be able to probe tissue microstructure with much better detail and depth.
CUBRIC also has a Magnetom 7T and it is more than double the field strength of most MR systems. According to the announcement, the Magnetom 7T can image previously unseen brain structures with “perfect” contrast for analyzing subtle differences in brain structure and function in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.
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The two other Siemens systems installed is the Magnetom Prisma 3T that are best for running MR research studies on large patient groups, pharmaceutical trials and experimental MR.
“The combination of equipment is unique within Europe, particularly as we have Europe’s first Connectom scanner,” Professor Derek Jones, director of CUBRIC, told HCB News. “We also have MEG, EEG, brain stimulation, [and] near infrared spectroscopy.”
“The technology will allow us to establish a much better picture of the make-up of the brain, including detailed measurements of the fibre-bundles that interconnect different parts of the brain,” said Jones. “Ultimately we hope that this will help provide new targets for [neurology] and [psychiatric] treatments.”
The center will research topics that cause neurological and psychiatric conditions such as dementia, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis, and hopes that the research will have a direct impact on understanding brain conditions, including changes that it may have that result in “disordered” cognitive and mental health.
“[With CUBRIC], we’ve suddenly widened the vista on the brain and have therefore generated significant interest both within Cardiff University, and also across the rest of the UK and Europe,” Jones said.
