The Centre for Magnetic Resonance has the most comprehensive range of magnetic resonance instrumentation in the southern hemisphere. Research interests within the Centre are diverse and include a range of disciplines, such as Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science and the Biological and Chemical Sciences. Through CMR, the University offers a postgraduate teaching program in Magnetic Resonance Technology (MRT) using an award winning flexible delivery designed course. 

As a result of a new joint venture between the University of Queensland and the Royal Brisbane Hospital and The Wesley Hospital, three new Siemens MRI scanners have been installed within the respective hospitals. Two 1.5 T Sonata’s were installed within the Department of Diagnostic Imaging (RBH) and Centre for Advanced MRI (TWH) at the end of 2001. A 4T Siemens whole body MRI scanner, the first of it’s type in the world, will be installed within the new imaging facility at The Wesley Hospital in January 2003. This system is being developed through a collaboration between Siemens, Bruker Medical and CMR.

MRI Research

- Investigating infarct evolution in acute Stroke using diffusion and perfusion imaging.

- Study of cardiac function and myocardial viability using first pass and delayed enhancement perfusion imaging.

- Investigation of the integrity of white matter fibre tracts in the brain of patients with mild cognitive impairment (pre-Alzheimer’s disease) and traumatic head injury with diffusion tensor imaging.

- Investigating the neural correlates of normal and disordered cognitive systems with fMRI.

- High spatial and temporal resolution studies of muscle anatomy and function.

- Studying knee cartilage viability in patients with Osteoarthritis using high-resolution 3D imaging.

- Development of optimised proton and duel tuned multi-nuclear probes for high field MRI applications.

- Pulse sequence development: Optimised diffusion tensor pulse sequences for studying white matter anisotropy and novel 3D twisted projection sequences for Sodium imaging.

Contacts