Project description
MRI technology for improved brain imaging
The EU-funded M-ONE project aims to demonstrate a breakthrough innovative MRI coil for ultra-high field (UHF) MRI brain imaging at 7 Tesla (7T), resulting in homogeneous images of better quality. UHF allows a better deciphering of brain mechanisms and a better diagnostic of brain diseases. However, some radio frequency field inhomogeneities that appear at 7T result in dark areas on the brain images, making diagnosis in specific brain regions inconclusive or even impossible. A previous project, M-CUBE, established two metamaterial-based technologies to obtain homogeneous brain images. The key objective of the current project is to develop a 7T metamaterial head coil with the best homogeneity and higher signal-to-noise ratio than the standard 7T head coils on the market.
Objective
M-ONE project aims to demonstrate a breakthrough innovative MRI coil for brain imaging at 7 Tesla (7T) enabling a homogeneous and better quality of the image.
Starting from the promising results of the M-CUBE FET-OPEN project n°736937 (MetaMaterial antenna for ultra-high field MRI), the young SME Multiwave Technologies, coordinating the M-ONE project, will with its interdisciplinary consortium (CEA, AMU-Fresnel Institute and UCLouvain) develop a prototype of a MRI head coil that will enable the first artefact-free entire brain images, hence reaching TRL6 at the end of the project.
There is a race to a highly competitive global position in ultra-high field (UHF) MRI. For brain images, the UHF allows a better understanding of brain mechanism and hence a better diagnostic of brain disease. Nevertheless, some issue of radio frequency field inhomogeneities appears at 7T on transmit magnetic field B1+ images. They are translated on brain imaging by three dark areas on brain images, the two temporal lobes and the cerebellum, making diagnosis either impossible or non-conclusive in these regions. During the M-CUBE project, two technologies based on metamaterials have been established to homogenize the brain images. Some partners of the M-CUBE project that constitutes the M-ONE consortium decided to combine these two patented technologies taking the best of each one in order to develop the M-ONE coil. The main objective of the M-ONE is to develop a 7T metamaterial head coil with the best B1+ homogeneity on the market with an equivalent or higher signal-to-noise-ration that the standard 7T head coil. To achieve these coil characteristics, the 7T metamaterial head coil 1Tx/32Rx will be constituted of a metamaterial birdcage coil in transmission (1Tx) combined with a receive array coil (32Rx).
This innovation will place a European SME, Multiwave Technologies, at the pole position of the global MRI Market.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
1228 Plan-Les-Ouates
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.