American researchers have managed to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology that provides images 64 million times sharper than the machines currently used in hospitals, giving them hope for a better understanding of the disease.
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After decades of research, the team of scientists led by Duke University has shared the most detailed images ever taken of a mouse’s brain.
“It’s the equivalent of going from an 8-bit image to the hyper-realistic detail of a Chuck Close painting,” the university said in a statement.
Although the scientists aimed their new technology at mice rather than humans, the detail contained in the images captured by this new MRI could lead to a “better understanding of changes in the brain with age, diet and even neurodegenerative diseases.” like Alzheimer’s,” we add.
“It’s something that will allow us to do a lot of things,” shares lead author of the study linked to these images, Allan Johnson. We can start to see degenerative diseases in a whole new light.”
Achieving this feat required several advances, most notably the use of a magnet with a power of 9.4 Tesla, that is, a magnet 3 to 6 times stronger than the magnet currently used by MRIs.
It also uses coils 100 times more powerful, in addition to a computer equivalent to 800 laptops running at full power to produce the image of a single brain.
This image is then analyzed using light sheet fluorescence microscopy, which allows them to isolate the different cells with different colors, resulting in an image that “is more accurate in terms of anatomy and gives more detail to the cells and circuits in the brain.”
Researchers from the universities of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Indiana also took part in this feat.