Mayne backs new brain centre

A new Sydney imaging centre is set to improve research opportunities for brain and nervous system specialists.

The Mayne Health Clinical Research Imaging Centre, to be established at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute (PWMRI), will be one of the largest Australian centres for neuroscience.

The centre has been created through a collaboration between Mayne Health, PWMRI and Philips, which has provided a high-performance magnetic resonance imaging system.

PWMRI senior principal research fellow Prof Simon Gandevia said the new equipment would generate maps of the brain and nervous system, as well as performing specialised scans of the body to provide images of the cardiovascular system and joints.

"We will be able to see change taking place in the living human brain in real time, with no injections or ionising radiation," Gandevia said.

"We can follow the activity of the brain in response to thinking about moving the hand or the legs, or to recognising features such as someone's face.

"We can identify the areas within the brain involved in doing the task, and also the chemical reactions that take place while it is performed."

PWMRI executive director Prof Ian McCloskey said the new centre would build on the institute's reputation as having the largest collection of neuroscience researchers in Australia.

"We can hope for better treatments for people who have had strokes, or those suffering from a range of dementia related illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases," McCloskey said.

Head radiologist with Mayne Health Dr Ron Shnier said the partnership would enable the company's radiologists to understand the requirements of researchers, in order to continue to provide useful services.

Shnier said external radiologists and specialists would also be invited to participate in research at the new centre and that arrangements would be made for other NSW institutes and universities to make use of the facility. The MRI to be used at the centre is the Philips Intera 3.0 T.