On Saturday 7 August, the University of Malta inaugurated Malta’s first research focussed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner.
The machine is part of the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory being set up through the The Transdisciplinary Research & Knowledge Exchange Complex Project (TRAKE) and managed through the University’s Magnetic Resonance Research Platform (UMRI).
This project is a fruitful collaboration with Mater Dei Hospital, which is hosting the fully-fledged 3 Tesla Siemens Magnetom Vida scanner. TRAKE, made possible through European Regional Development Funds (ERDF.01.0124), is pushing human imaging to new limits and increasing the capacity of collaborative Engineering research.
Imaging the brain's wiring using the university's scanner
Prof. Ing. Andrew Sammut, Dean of the University’s Faculty of Engineering, is the project leader of TRAKE, and has overseen the coming together of an interdisciplinary group, the UMRI, whose aims are to oversee and build a research infrastructure for facilitating high throughput MRI research while ensuring that the rights of human research participants are respected.
“This multi-disciplinary perspective has been key in moving the project forward at a steady pace, and I believe this mode of research also highlights the fact that quality research is underpinned by common interests, or rather the motivation of the common good”, he commented.
University of Malta Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, paid a visit to the new research MRI scanner situated at the Medical Imaging Department of the hospital together with MDH CEO, Ms Celia Falzon.
They were shown around the MRI facility by Dr Claude Bajada, the Chair of the UMRI, who explained some of the implications of this new equipment.
From functional imaging that produces real-time video of activity in the human brain, to diffusion MRI, where the machine can be used to quantify the microstructure of tissues.
The benefits of MRI research are not only medical. This machine will bring together scientists from disparate fields. Medical physicists, radiographers, computer scientists, statisticians and doctors must all work on the same problem
“If we want to build our own tools in medical imaging to benefit our own society, we must be in it together”, Dr Bajada said.
It creates the potential of a new generation of students and researchers who can collaborate on problems that extend well outside their narrow fields of expertise.
UM Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, commented on the huge potential of the project to improve the lives of many individuals, noting that “such a project helps bring the research out of the classroom and the laboratory into the capable hands of practitioners who turn their work into an opportunity to think about our collective future.”
Academics or researchers wishing to join the working group are encouraged to contact the Chair of the MRI Research Platform, Dr Claude Bajada, via email.
The “Setting up of transdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange (TRAKE) complex at the University of Malta (ERDF.01.124)” is being co-financed through the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund 2014 – 2020.
