About the episode
Radboud UMC is building an MRI scanner that will allow us to see things in the human body that we have never seen before. Rumor has it that this scanner can even read your thoughts.
Neuro-radiologist Anja van de Kolk cannot wait for the device to be installed. It will be a scanner with a 14 Tesla magnet. That far surpasses the 11.7 Tesla from Paris. Van der Kolk can work with it and do research with it, but she doesn’t know yet what she can see in the brain with this super sensitive scanner. “We have all kinds of theories, we have all kinds of research ideas for when it is there, but whether it is possible remains to be seen.”
Building
Professor of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Tom Scheenen may build the magical machine. A meadow near the Radboud UMC has been made available for this purpose. A building must be built on that field where the device will be installed.
The special thing about this MRI is that it is a completely different way of building. This MRI does not need to be cooled with helium and that is why the MRI has a higher strength than the 11.7 Tesla that can be made with current techniques.
Dementia
Because it has such a high magnetic strength, the images that this scanner makes are much sharper. That is why Van der Kolk expects that they will discover how certain brain diseases such as epilepsy and dementia arise. Not only can you see better what is happening in and between cells, you can (in theory) also make pictures that move. This way you can see how certain substances move from one brain area to another.
To test
In October, the researchers will test whether the new technology works and whether the material they use can withstand the forces they want to exert on it. If the project passes that test, it will take about three years before the MRI is in Nijmegen and the first tests can be done. It will have to be a while before people lie in it, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
