TCD Physicists Develop New Ultra-Sensitive MRI Technique to Detect Sodium in Cells

Posted on: 01 October 2009

A research team, led by Dr Andrew Fagan of the School of Medicine and the Centre for Advanced Medical Imaging (CAMI) in St James’s Hospital, recently won a prize at an international conference in the UK for its work on the detection of sodium in tissue using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). 

MRI is an imaging technique which produces high quality images of the body by detecting water molecules which are ubiquitous in tissue.  Other biologically interesting elements such as sodium, oxygen, carbon and potassium are also present in the body but in much lower concentrations.  As a result of the team’s study, high quality images of sodium, which is found in higher concentrations in diseased tissue, can now be obtained.  The ability to accurately measure the level of sodium in tissue has the potential to improve the quality of life for both stroke and cancer patients. 

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland’s Research Frontiers programme, the team’s research, which focuses on the development of ultra-sensitive detectors and highly optimised imaging strategies used to detect trace elements in the body, beat off competition from some of the world’s leading authorities in magnetic resonance in medicine and biology.

The findings are the result of a collaboration between the neuroscience team of Professor Mhairi Macrae at the University of Glasgow and Dr Andrew Fagan’s team based in the School of Physics in TCD.  Speaking about their research Dr Fagan noted: “The exploration of complex diseases often requires a multidisciplinary approach.  Once we had developed the physics aspect of the technique we sought the input of specialist neuroscientists who have the biological skills required to probe conditions such as stroke.  For the first time we can visualise the failure of cells resulting from a reduced blood supply.” 

Other possible applications for the new sodium MRI technique will see Dr Fagan’s team address areas such as tumour detection and therapy monitoring, osteoarthritis and Alzheimer’s disease.