Development and implementation of high-resolution imaging techniques and post-processing methods for hyperpolarised magnetic resonance imaging

Hyperpolarised magnetic resonance imaging is a cutting-edge technology that enables us to non-invasively map lung function (Xenon-129) and metabolism (carbon-13) in a way that is beyond the ability of any other current clinical imaging technology.
We have demonstrated the ability of these technologies to detect otherwise invisible pathology in the lungs of breathless patients post-COVID (Grist et al, 2021, Radiology) and they hold great promise to provide a rapid read out drug efficacy in oncology and neurology (Grist et al, JCBFM, 2020). Early readout of drug efficacy allows for multiple cost-saving measures for the NHS, with patients being quickly moved to more appropriate therapies if either otherwise invisible pathology or a lack of therapeutic response is detected. In turn, this will provide a large improvement in the quality of care an individual patient receives - moving us further toward personalised medicine. We have partnered with GE Healthcare for several years to translate both techniques from the pre-clinical to the clinical arena, and now there is a golden opportunity to push them both further into the clinical environment.
Key to the clinical adoption of these techniques is the development and validation of new ways of both acquiring (to either increase spatial resolution or understand temporal dynamics of the signals that we detect) and processing data (applying novel post-processing methods such as metabolic clearance mapping) - with the eventual aim that the high quality images obtained are readily available for radiological staff on the hospital PACS system.
This project will involve the development of novel data acquisition strategies (for example acceleration through under sampling or 3D encoding strategies to boost the signal to noise ratio in our images) as well as post-processing methods (such as kinetic modelling and automated non-rigid co-registration with conventional imaging data). Strategies will be employed in volunteers and patients, which we already have funding to scan. The student will work across both the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR, where the carbon-13 hyperpolariser is based) and the Churchill Hospital (where the Xenon hyperpolariser is based), providing a varied and well supported learning environment.