Developing MRI technology with Fast Field Cycling
Designed and built by Professor James Hutchison and his team, the first full body MRI scanner scanned its first patient on 29 August 1980. Professor Hutchison helped patent a ‘game-changing’ technique, spin warp imaging, which is still used today, but for the past 10 years the next generation of MRI technology, Fast Field Cycling MRI (FFC-MRI), has been under development at the University of Aberdeen.
Led by Professor David Lurie, the Aberdeen team is leading a nine-strong consortium of research groups from six different countries across Europe as part of the project, IDentIFY. The project was established with a €6.6 million Horizon 2020 research grant, to further develop the imaging technology which can identify disease earlier than current scanners.
Most recently, the FFC-MRI project was given a £600,000 funding boost from The Mary Jamieson Hall and John F Hall Trust. The funding will be used to create an imaging suite where a new FFC-MRI scanner will be built, known as the Hall Family Imaging Suite within Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. A prototype of the FFC-MRI scanner has already been developed and successfully tested on patients and healthy volunteers.
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