Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the inner body. The contrast provided between different soft tissues makes MRI useful for detailed imaging of the brain, muscles, heart and spine, for example, and to diagnose diseases in these organs.
Strong magnetic fields and radiowaves are used to make the atomic nuclei vibrate during scanning. It makes them emit radio wave signals that reveal a wide range tissue properties such as water mobility, molecular composition, blood flow velocities and the oxygen content of blood. The latter measure is used to map brain activity.
Current group research is focused on acquisition methodology, in particular metabolic profiling, multi-modal acquisition, and motion correction. It is a focus to use MRI for improving the precision of direct brain stimulation with magnetic or electrical fields, and using the latter to improve functional MRI studies.
A trailblazing initiative is our new MR research lab for hyperpolarization in close collaboration with GE Healthcare and a range of Danish and international MR centers. The lab develops a groundbreaking new method in MRI which allows doctors to non-invasively follow biochemical pathways in e.g. cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The lab is equipped with two unique prototype polarizers for research on hyperpolarization of nuclear spins and has a 400 MHz NMR and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance at 1.3 and 10 GHz. The research aims at hyperpolarizing biological molecules with relevance for metabolic studies.
The group is active in the national Danish ultra-high field MRI initiative. Scanning at the highest magnetic fields is very challenging, but shows great potential. The MRI group at DTU is key in establishing methods for the new 7 tesla MRI to be installed at Hvidovre Hospital in 2014.
The Magnetic Resonance Group:
Adjunct Professor Jan Henrik Ardenkjaer-Larsen
Associate Professor Axel Thielscher
Associate Professor Lars G. Hanson.
Postdoc Sean Bowen
Postdoc Oleksandr Rybalko
Phd student Hans Kasper Wigh Lipsø
Phd student Abubakr Eldirdiri