Molecular Medicine Ireland linked with the HRB-funded Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAMI) at St James’s Hospital, Dublin to deliver a half-day workshop that highlighted the opportunities and advantages of using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in clinical and translational research. Applications include tumour imaging, investigation of cardiovascular function and imaging of neural activity. MRI techniques can progress research from animal models through to human clinical application, and the absence of ionising radiation faciltates serial/repeat imaging in patients and the study of healthy volunteers.

	Dr Martin Graves (University of Cambridge) presents his keynote lecture during the workshop

The workshop, which was held on 17 September 2009, assembled seven speakers with a vast experience of applying MRI as a research tool. Dr Mark Watson (MMI Manager of Education & Training) introduced the proceedings, highlighting that CAMI links with MMI are not only in the education and training sphere but also focus on promoting the CAMI technology platform as a national resource. The workshop began with an introduction to CAMI from Director Dr Jim Meaney and ended with guidance on how to access the technology and plan an MRI project from CAMI Physicist Dr Andrew Fagan. In between was a wide-ranging look at how MRI is currently used in research and state-of-the-art diagnostics and the very exciting future applications that will see MR imaging at the molecular level.

Dr Gerard Boyle (Principal Physicist, SJH) described the components and principles of an MRI system with the aid of an excellent graphical presentation. This set the scene for the keynote lecture from Dr Martin Graves, Head of the MR Physics and Informatics Group at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. After consideration of the pros and cons of the technology, Dr Graves took the audience on a tour of various techniques and capibilities of MRI in the research setting. This included the use of Diffusion Weighted Imaging and Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Imaging to visualise cell swelling following stroke and tumour response to chemotherapy, MR Elastography as a non-invasive method to quantify tissue stiffness in liver fibrosis, and use of multi-contrast MRI for biomechanical modelling to study carotid plaque rupture in stroke. Dr Graves concluded with an insight into the latest developments in molecular imaging including MRI mapping of enzyme activity in real time.

The workshop continued with Dr Andrew Fagan providing an overview of animal imaging in MRI, followed by Dr Jim Meaney with a presentation of MRI research tools in human disease. Prof Yurii Gun’ko (TCD) described the development of new magnetic nanoparticle fluids as contrast agents; these have shown good biocompatibility and potential for MRI. Dr Caroline Daly (St James’s Hospital) focused on the use of MRI in cardiovascular disease research and Prof Thomas Frodl (TCD) described its use in the neuroimaging of psychiatric diseases, where current research is on detection of the biological basis of mood disorders and schizophrenia and discovery of biomarkers for treatment response.

This very successful workshop presented current applications of MRI in research, indentified where the technology is heading, and broadcast the availability of a national MRI platform dedicated to research at the Centre for Advanced Imaging. Guest keynote speaker, Dr Martin Graves, commented “Recent developments in hardware, software and contrast agents has allowed magnetic resonance imaging to not only produce exquisite images of organ morphology and function but also to provide some unique capabilities to image cellular and molecular processes”.

For more information on the workshop, including abstracts, see: http://www.molecularmedicineireland.ie/education/course_info/1/145/1

For more information on CAMI see: http://www.3tcentre.com/