The Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health provides a rich environment for performing research in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The infrastructure includes a wealth of equipment, support staff, and researchers with clinical and technical expertise. Please see below for a brief overview of the MRI equipment, personnel, and areas of ongoing research. You can also follow the links to the left to see more information about the research program, or to apply for time on the MRI systems to conduct your own research project.
Time is available for conducting research studies on three GE Healthcare MRI scanners, which are primarily dedicated to research, at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR). These are a 1.5T system (Signa HDxt), a 3.0T system (Discovery MR 750), and a PET/MR system (Signa PET/MR). In addition, research time can be arranged on other systems in University Hospital and other UW Health facilities, including wide-bore (70cm) 1.5T and 3.0T systems. A wide variety of RF coils and other hardware is available for use in imaging studies.
Housed within WIMR is a core group of investigators specializing in MRI research. This is a multi-disciplinary group, composed of faculty, post-docs, and students from the Departments of Radiology, Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and others. The main emphasis of the research is developing new acquisition and reconstruction methods for enhancing the capabilities of clinical MR imaging. Current projects focus on rapid imaging, non-Cartesian acquisition methods, anatomic vascular imaging, flow imaging of blood and other fluids, hyperpolarized gas imaging in the lungs and other areas, high temporal resolution imaging of contrast agent kinetics, functional brain mapping, high temporal- and spatial-resolution breast imaging, high spatial-resolution cartilage imaging, pressure mapping, interventional MRI applications, parallel imaging methods, anatomic and functional renal imaging, chemical-shift-based imaging (e.g., fat and water separation), and many other topics.
MRI research is performed by a number of investigators beyond the core group as well. Within the University of Wisconsin and throughout UW Health, there is a long-standing tradition of inter-departmental and inter-disciplinary collaborations that are necessary for advancing clinical and basic science.
