Department of Radiology

The platform provides imaging expertise through imaging collaborations and support to clinical investigators and physical resources, such as desk space, computers/workstations, and software (MATLAB, SPM, FSL, MIPAV, Image, MRIStudio, Olea, SPSS) for new investigators to acquire and analyze pilot neuroimaging data.

The MNP provides expertise in a range of imaging techniques, including:

• Sructural MRI, functional MRI
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
• Small animal MRI
• Computer tomography (CT)
• PET-MRI

For human neuroimaging, platform components include an intra-operative 3T IMRIS/Siemens MRI system which is located at Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine (KIAM). 

• It is based on the Siemens Verio platform, including the high-performance VQ-Engine gradient set and 18 receiver channels).
• Has all routine pulse sequences and several research sequences, including the Advanced Diffusion Package, BOLD and ASL fMRI sequences, and a custom 3D Myelin Water Imaging GRASE sequence.
• Is fully equipped with ancillary equipment for fMRI experiments, including an MRI-compatible LCD visual display, response monitoring buttons and more. 

This facility is located immediately adjacent to an operating theatre, which the magnet can be moved into, and is also less than 100 feet from the Intensive Care Unit, providing direct access to critically ill patients. An additional human platform facility is a 3T Siemens Tim Trio MRI system that has been reopened at former National Research Council (NRC) Institute for Biodiagnostics in Winnipeg. This system is equipped with a 32-channel head coil for advanced neuroimaging applications, has all of the pulse sequences mentioned above for the intra-operative, plus the latest simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) BOLD, pCASL and Diffusion sequences that were developed for the Human Connectome Project, and is also fully equipped with ancillary equipment for audio-visual displays and response monitoring during fMRI experiments.

Platform components used for neuroimaging of small animals include the Small Animal and Materials Imaging Core in the Faculty of Medicine at UM. This is a core facility, located in Central Animal Care Services, joined by interior basement corridors over a distance of less than 100 metres from KIAM, and includes:

• Centralized capabilities in small animal CT (SkyScan 1176 high resolution micro- computed tomography).
• PET (Siemens P4 micro-positron emission tomography).
• Live animal optical imaging (IVIS Spectrum bioluminescence/fluorescence). 

The MNP also includes a 7T small bore MRI for animals, and a two-photon microscopy (TPLSM) system for real time imaging of brain cell function in awake animals.

Overall, using these tools and physical resources, the MNP provides centralized image post-processing analysis capabilities that will empower users across multiple heath research pillars to produce modelling, diagnostic and treatment deliverables they would not otherwise be able to individually achieve. The long-term goal is to create an innovative image post-processing core facility that is sustained by users.