Colloquium: Prof. Alayar Kangarlu
Thursday, 20th February 2020, at 17.15 - 18.30
ETH Zurich, UNO B 11, Universitätstrasse 41
Ultra-High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides exquisite images of anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of human body. The magnetic field of MRI scanners has a decisive role on the information obtained from the body. As such there has been a relentless race to build scanners with higher field strengths. In 1998, construction of 8 Tesla MRI scanner gave birth to ultra high field (UHF) technology which was quickly adopted by manufacturers who offered commercial 7 Tesla scanners.
Today, more than 50 institutions around the world have installed UHF MRI scanners. Research on these scanners has proven that this powerful technology could finally offer sensitivity and specificity for various pathologies and provide insight to the inner working of complex physiological functions such as the human mind. The UHF MRI has the potential to revolutionize medicine and through that greatly impact healthcare policy. Specifically, UHF MRI has the potential to offer image of the mind in addition to the brain, functional viability of heart muscles and chemistry, in-vivo non-invasive biopsy of brain tumors, etc. A UHF technology called resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) along with a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with the potential to show structural connectivity could reveal profound knowledge about the inner working of the human brain.
In this presentation, an account will be given of some of the technologies that within the next ten years will roll out of the research labs with great public policy implications that might require new healthcare policies. In addition, a closer look at the potentials of these scanners to go beyond imaging of body parts and become an organ-specific, tissue-specific, and ultimately a tool for cellular and molecular imaging will bring molecular medicine to bear. The presentation will close with a brief discussion of other technological achievements of UHF MRI and their applications and their potential in different field of medicine as well as their collective impact on healthcare delivery.
About Prof. Alayar Kangarlu
Alayar Kangarlu is the Director of the physics and engineering group at NYSPI MRI research center at Columbia University in New York City. He is also an associate professor of neurobiology at the department of Psychiatry and a senior physicist with the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI).
Alayar was trained in experimental physics with emphasis on spectroscopy. His research is concentrated on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and its affiliated technology and its application in medicine. He is responsible for development of new imaging, spectroscopic and functional techniques which are carried out in MRI at this department.
NYSPI owns a GE 3T MR750 MRI/S scanner for which Alayar and his team develop specialized radio frequency (RF) coils and pulse sequences to help scientists to explore their neurosciences ideas in the human brain. The role of MRI in unraveling mysteries of brain is well established and in this regard Columbia Psychiatry is a frontier in the use of this tool in research in etiology of neuropsychiatric diseases. Alayar and his colleagues are improving the imaging tools for brain research to further expand potentials of NMR in unraveling the inner working of the human brain and mechanism of neuropsychiatric disorders.
- You can read a Summary of the Colloquium Talk on our Reports page.