Novel hybrid coils for real-time artifact suppression in magnetic resonance imaging

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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of monkeys is useful to further understanding the healthy and pathological**brain and come up with new treatments for stroke, traumatic brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. The**Canadian company Rogue-Research (RR) is a leader in the field of monkey MRI and it engages in various**international collaborations with industrial and academic partners. RR is well-known for their 3D**neuro-navigation system (Brainsight) as well as for the MRI-compatible chair for imaging awake monkeys.**One remaining challenge however is the absence of a radiofrequency coil that is mechanically compatible with**the RR chair. A radiofrequency (or RF) coil is an essential part of an MRI system and is used to record signal**from the brain water molecules, allowing us to reconstruct 3D images of the brain. In addition, imaging**monkeys is challenging, notably because the thickness of their skull and the close proximity of the sinuses to**key regions in the brain produce MRI strong image distortions and signal loss, which are detrimental for the**interpretation of the MRI data. The lab of Dr. Cohen-Adad has been developing innovative RF coils which are**optimized to the structure of interest (here, the monkey's head), which are capable to adapt to any mechanical**structure, and more importantly, which feature a hybrid electronic circuit used to send continuous current in**order to compensate for magnetic field inhomogeneities responsible for the image distortions and signal loss**mentioned above. In this project, we propose to initiate a partnership between the lab of Dr. Cohen-Adad and**RR. The main objective is to design and build an MRI coil prototype, which is compatible with the RR monkey**chair and which features the novel hybrid technology for simultaneous acquisition and artifact compensation.**We anticipate this novel technology will enable researchers to image awake monkeys with unprecedented**image quality and will attract MRI manufacturers for developing similar applications in humans.