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news release:
Powerful new MRI keeps Queensland scientists at forefront of brain
science
Brisbane, Australia,
25 March 2007:
Neuroscientists at the
Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) are astounded at the detail available to
them in brain images being generated by UQ's new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
spectrometer.
QBI Director
Professor Perry Bartlett said the new MRI represented a quantum advance in
brain-imaging technology.
“This is an extremely exciting development. We've learned a lot about how we
think the brain works, but we've never been able to look at it in real time,”
Professor Bartlett said.
“This imaging capability will allow us for the first time to rapidly identify
and really interrogate the mechanisms controlling brain function and apply these
discoveries to the treatment of disease.
“And it puts Queensland right in front of the pack … leading the world in
discovery in this area.”
Professor Bartlett said QBI scientists were currently using the technology to
look at molecules they believed would help with the regrowth of damaged nerve
cells following trauma such as spinal cord injury.
“If this proves successful in animal models we could conceivably go to trials
within the next 18 months to two years,” he said.
“Imaging technology such as this is vital if we are to address the overwhelming
incidence of neurological disorders on the community.”
Located at The University of Queensland's
Centre for Magnetic Resonance (CMR) and purchased with the assistance of Qld
Government Smart State Funding, the new 16.4T MRI wide-bore spectrometer is one
of fewer than six such machines anywhere in the world.
CMR Acting Director
Professor Ian Brereton said the technology enabled scientists to obtain
exquisitely detailed images of intact biological specimens, at spatial
resolution approaching the cellular level.
“This instrumentation is a key addition to the imaging capacity being built at
this university to support major initiatives in molecular imaging, cognitive and
anatomical neuroscience, biomarker development and nanotechnology,” Professor
Brereton said.
“As part of the Queensland NMR Network, these world-class facilities will
provide all researchers throughout Queensland and the region with access to
state-of-the-art imaging technology and expertise.”
Among the many benefits expected to flow from long-term application of this
technology include the:
• capacity for scientists to study brain function at the cellular level,
allowing researchers to image at high resolution, and better understand how
memory and learning are regulated;
• development of improved diagnostic procedures and treatments for sufferers of
neurological disorders ranging from dementia to Motor Neuron Disease;
• opportunity to study tissue from stroke and other neurological disease models;
• development of new imaging protocols and markers to study cell function and
movement; and
• capacity to conduct clinical trials in the animal model, a vital step in the
development of safe therapeutic treatments for humans.
Leading neuroscientists from Australia, Korea and the United States will attend
an advanced-imaging symposium in Brisbane on Wednesday, March 28.
Queensland Minister for State Development, The Hon. John Mickel, MP, will
officially commission the new MRI at 10 am on Tuesday, March 27.
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