University of Minnesota Foundation

Legacy

Spring 2019
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Synopsis

Mighty MRI

The U’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research keeps inventing better ways to diagnose, treat, and monitor disease

By Nicole Endres
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Detailed views of the body’s most complex functions without a single incision. That’s the wonder of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). 

Experts at the University’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) have been at the forefront of developing MRI technology for decades. Today they are demonstrating how imaging can significantly expand knowledge about the ways we diagnose, treat, and monitor disease.

The beautiful brain

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University of Minnesota scientists created and refined the technology used to carry out the most ambitious brain imaging study ever conducted—the national Human Connectome Project.
VU, A.T., AUERBACH, E., LENGLET, C., MOELLER, S., SOTIROPOULOS, S.N., JBABDI,S., ANDERSSON, J., YACOUB, E., UGURBIL, K., 2015. HIGH RESOLUTION WHOLEBRAIN DIFFUSION IMAGING AT 7T FOR THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT.NEUROIMAGE 122, 318-331.
The Center for Magnetic Resonance Research specializes in high-field imaging of brain function and connectivity. Even the untrained eye can see how much more detail a 7T scan offers when compared with a standard 3T scan.
VU, A.T., JAMISON, K., GLASSER, M.F., SMITH, S.M., COALSON, T., MOELLER, S., AUERBACH, E.J., UGURBIL, K., YACOUB, E., 2016. TRADEOFFS IN PUSHING THE SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF FMRI FOR THE 7T HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT. NEUROIMAGE.
ENGINEERING DISCOVERY
“It’s not just about developing the next instrument,” says CMRR director Kamil Ugurbil, Ph.D., who will receive the 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology in May for his pioneering imaging work. “It’s about how we are going to use it to extract the biological information we are looking for.”
PHOTO BY SCOTT STREBLE
HOW IT WORKS
An MRI scanner uses a powerful magnetic field and radio waves to generate signals from hydrogen atoms in the body. The signals are detected by a radio antenna and then translated by a computer into clear, 3D images of the scanned area.
WE'VE GOT THE POWER
MRI strength is measured in Tesla. The higher the number, the more detailed the resulting image. Most hospitals today use 1.5-Tesla or 3-Tesla MRI technology. The CMRR’s experts introduced a 7-Tesla scanner for human studies in 1999, and in 2019 they will use their pioneering technology not only for clinical research but also for diagnosis and condition management.

The CMRR is also home to the most powerful human scanner in the world at 10.5 Tesla and was the first site to produce a human image with it, in December 2017.

A versatile instrument

MRI is used for a variety of purposes in medicine today. It can give structural detail down to the millimeter scale, and unlike X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans, there is no exposure to radiation.

Innovative imaging: How philanthropy allows researchers to test new ideas

The CMRR’s Michael Garwood, Ph.D., is working to make the detailed images produced by conventional, room-sized MRI scanners also available via a small, lightweight machine. And gifts from the Schott Foundation and Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation are allowing Garwood’s team to build a prototype of a tabletop MR scanner to evaluate the success of a bioartificial pancreas for treating type 1 diabetes.

Supported by Minnesota Masonic Charities, Masonic Cancer Center scientist Silvia Balbo, Ph.D., aims to determine the extent of DNA damage caused by chemotherapy and other environmental toxins. Instead of the standard approach of zeroing in on one modification at a time, Balbo is using high-resolution mass spectrometry to reveal all DNA modifications caused by an exposure—accelerating the discovery of new ways to prevent the damage and development of new tools to identify those at higher risk.

With support from the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance, CureFA Foundation, and Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center, the CMRR’s Pierre-Gilles Henry, Ph.D., and Christophe Lenglet, Ph.D., are using MR spectroscopy and imaging to measure energy production in the brains of people who have Friedreich’s ataxia, a neurodegenerative disease, and healthy volunteers. They hope to find a way to measure levels of the protein frataxin in the brain, which could ultimately help to determine whether new therapies are working.

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