Project M-ONE, with a 2 million euros budget allocated for two years, is the logical follow-up of H2020 M-CUBE European project, which has been successfully led by Aix-Marseille University since 2017. M-CUBE has identified two metamaterial technologies to homogenize brain images at 7T using metamaterials, removing image artefacts. M-One's project ambition is now to transform technologies developed within M-CUBE into concrete medical devices that will become the standard in ultra-high field MRI.
Ultra-high magnetic MRIs field represents an unprecedented opportunity for basic neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease research. However, the optimal use of these devices presents challenges, particularly in the field of radio frequency transmission3. Several options, such as parallel transmission, to overcome these challenges are being studied at Neurospin, the neuroimaging research centre of Joliot Institute at the CEA Paris-Saclay.
Alexandre Vignaud, head of the Methodology and Instrumentation Laboratory for ultra-high field MRI4 at Neurospin, explains "Through an initial collaboration with the Institut Fresnel, we have identified the possibility of using metamaterial structures to better conduct the radiofrequency field through the brain. Together, thanks to promising preliminary data, we have filed a patent and initiated, in 2017, a European project called M-CUBE to promote the concept. At the end of the project, we were able to demonstrate in vivo the feasibility of this innovative approach. The M-ONE project, a FETPROACT project5, will focus over the next two years, thanks to the enthusiasm of the company Multiwave Imaging, on making some of the ideas that emanated from M-CUBE better radio frequency antennas for 7 Tesla MRIs and thus offer optimal images of the human brain".
To achieve this, the CEA will work, in particular, on the design of the antennas, the signal reception system and will continue to evaluate the prototypes at Neurospin.
1 Institut Fresnel, a joint unit of AMU, CNRS and Centrale Marseille
2 Neurospin from the Institute of Life Sciences Frédéric Joliot of the CEA
3 In order to obtain a signal from the magnetization stored using the very high magnetic field of the MRI, it is necessary to apply a radio frequency (RF) field that is as homogeneous as possible. The body then returns a very weak signal in the same RF range. Thus the RF antenna is a central element of this medical device, since it causes the signal to be formed and also serves to capture it afterwards.
4 Depending on the BaoBab Mixed Research Unit
5 FET Proactive calls aim to support interdisciplinary breakthrough research for the development of new technologies based on cross-cutting scientific results.