Brain Research Facility Set to become a Top Neuro-Imaging Research Center in Europe

A new brain research imaging center in Wales, UK, that will employ MRI systems to improve neurology and psychiatric treatments for the human brain, has been officially opened.

Researchers will use the new neuro-imaging research hub to try to find the causes of various neurological and psychiatric conditions, including dementia, multiple sclerosis, and schizophrenia, and also perform general brain research.

Researchers at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC; Cardiff, Wales, UK) will use four Siemens Healthineers (Erlangen, Germany) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems to help find new insights into the structure, chemical composition, and function of living brain tissue. The research will include both imaging and cognitive techniques, including microstructural imaging, functional MRI (fMRI), and brain stimulation, and is expected to improve scientists’ understanding of neurological and psychiatric conditions.

The MRI systems at the hub include Siemens’ Magnetom Skyra Connectom 3T1, the only system of this kind in Europe, a Magnetom 7T2 scanner with ultra-high spatial resolution and more than double the field strength of other MRI scanners, and two Magnetom Prisma 3T systems.

Professor Derek Jones, Director of CUBRIC, comments, "The Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre is unique in Europe and the equal of any facility of its kind in the world. This is the most exciting development in this field in the past decade and the start of a new era in neuro-imaging. The technology will allow us to establish a much better picture of the make-up of the brain, including detailed measurements of the fiber bundles that interconnect different parts of the brain. Ultimately we hope that this will help provide new targets for treatment."

Related Links:
Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre
Siemens Healthineers