Netherlands gets strongest MRI scanner in the world

The Netherlands is getting the strongest MRI scanner in the world. The scanner will be at the Radboudumc and is partly possible thanks to a 19 million euro grant from the NWO.

The MRI scanner is the first of its kind with a magnetic strength of 14 tesla suitable for research with humans. The NWO grant was applied for by the DYNAMIC consortium, where DYNAMIC stands for 'Dutch National 14Tesla MRI Initiative in Medical Science'. The consortium involves about seven partners. They include:

The consortium is led by the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, part of Radboud University.

The consortium is working on the world's first MRI scanner with a magnetic field strength of 14 tesla. This high sensitivity opens up new possibilities. It allows scientists to image the brain in more detail. It also allows them to gain new insights into disease research.

"The new MRI scanner will be placed on the premises of the Radboudumc in Nijmegen, but will be available to all scientists in the Netherlands. We will also collaborate with international partners," says David Norris, project leader and professor of MRI techniques at Radboud University's Donders Institute. "With this new sensitive scanner, we want to enable new areas of research for the entire scientific community."

Anja van der Kolk, neuroradiologist/doctoral researcher at Radboudumc: "The number of people with brain disorders is large and will only increase in the coming decades. For many disorders there is no good treatment yet, because we don't know exactly how they arise. With the 14T MRI scanner, we can, without cutting into people, look in great detail at what happens to the brain when they become ill, even at an early stage. As a result, we hope to find new options for treatment, and maybe even prevention."

Dennis Klomp, professor of high-precision structural and metabolic imaging at UMC Utrecht, says: "With this most powerful MRI in the world, we can gain insight into the metabolism of diseases in humans without surgery or biopsy and how they can be influenced with medication. We will use the high spectral and spatial resolution of the 14T MRI to study new treatment of heterogeneous tissues such as tumours."

The DYNAMIC project is one of the projects included on the National Roadmap for Large-scale Scientific Infrastructure. Nine projects will receive a total of 140 million euros in funding through the National Roadmap. These include two other healthcare-related projects: NL-BioImaging-AM and hDMT INFRA StemCells.

NL-BioImaging-AM is aimed at developing advanced microscopy. It is a project set up by a consortium led by Amsterdam UMC. The consortium receives a 15 million euro grant for the development of new advanced microscopy. In this way, the parties involved aim to better understand diseases such as cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and brain disorders, among others. This should lead to new strategies for prevention, therapy and cure.

The project involves:

hDMT INFRA StemCells is all about using human stem cells to create models that mimic the human body. These models can help understand the mechanisms of healthy and diseased tissues. Both have both strengths and shortcomings. The parties involved want to overcome these shortcomings by combining both stem cell types.

The project involves:

Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Photo: Michal Jarmoluk via Pixabay