A powerful body scanner for an advanced imaging facility

The University of Queensland’s (UQ) Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) has acquired an $11 million 7 Tesla MRI scanner, said to be the most powerful body scanner in the Southern Hemisphere. The Siemens Healthcare Magnetom 7 T whole-body MRI scanner provides an opportunity for scientists and engineers in Queensland to play a significant role in the next generation of medical technology.

UQ’s Centre for Advanced Imaging captured these images on its 7 Tesla whole-body magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

CAI Research and Technology Director Professor Ian Brereton said the scanner’s ultrahigh field strength could measure tissue metabolism non-invasively at a spatial resolution not previously possible. CAI Director Professor David Reutens added that the scanner’s capabilities will “benefit important research programs into neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and disabling diseases such as arthritis”.

Image credit: Chris Frederick Jones.

But the scanner is by no means the only significant piece of technology at the CAI, which contains over $50 million worth of imaging and spectroscopy equipment. According to Professor Reutens, “The CAI has the most comprehensive collection of equipment for nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic resonance imaging in animals and humans, molecular imaging with PET-CT and MR-PET, radiochemistry and cyclotron, and electron paramagnetic resonance.”

Image credit: Chris Frederick Jones.

The equipment is spread over three floors of laboratories which accommodate 112 researchers from a range of disciplines, including engineering, synthetic and radiochemistry, physics and computer science, biology, medicine and psychology. These researchers work on innovations in imaging technology, imaging biomarker development and biomedical research disciplines.

Image credit: Chris Frederick Jones.

The CAI was created to reflect the growing role of imaging in cutting-edge biotechnology and biomedical research at UQ. The $53 million, five-storey building was funded by the Federal Education Investment Fund in 2010 and completed in late 2013. The building’s official opening will be held in late June.