Development of new methods for multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging of the spinal cord

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Spinal cord injury is a severe cause of morbidity that can lead to irreversible sensory and motor (paralysis) deficits. Today, 86,000 Canadians are living with spinal cord injury. Although there is no cure, several therapeutic approaches exist such as regenerative medicine and personalized physiotherapy. However, their efficacy strongly depends on the damage to the spinal cord, such as the size of the lesion and the number and type of axonal pathways that have degenerated. Thus, it is crucial to be able to assess spinal cord damage with great sensitivity and accuracy for improving diagnosis and for monitoring structural changes while testing new treatments. Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have shown the possibility to assess structural damage to axons via the use of new quantitative biomarkers. Although these techniques have successfully been validated in the brain for the past years, they still cannot be applied properly in the spinal cord due to the poor sensitivity (low signal) and the presence of artifacts on the images. To overcome these challenges, I propose to develop and validate new MRI hardware and software dedicated to the in vivo characterization of spinal cord structure. Specific objectives consist in (1) developing innovative coils to improve the sensitivity of signal reception and minimize artifacts, (2) creating new algorithms and software to automatically process spinal cord images, which will provide a unique platform that aims to be distributed worldwide and (3) translating the proposed methods in a clinical context and validate them in patients. We anticipate that these developments will improve the diagnosis and prognosis of people suffering from spinal cord trauma and, more generally, from any spinal cord pathology such as multiple sclerosis and tumors. Advanced coil technology, optimized MRI sequences and powerful automated analysis pipelines are very much needed in a future where the demand for clinical applications is in constant growth, in Canada and worldwide.