Erwin L. Hahn Institute for MRI

Outlook

The Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging has established itself in recent years as an international centre of excellence for research in ultra high field MRI. The intensive interdisciplinary collaboration at the ELH between engineers, natural scientists, psychologists and physicians opens up opportunities for unique scientific cooperation and research activities and is set to be extended further in the future.

Development of methods for systematic investigation of the principles of cognitive processes in the healthy brain, the physiology of the human cerebellum, and pain research by means of UHF MRI will continue as the research priorities of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute.

Installation of the new 32-channel RF transmit/ receive coil and accompanying RF components directly in the 7-Tesla MRI system marks a technological breakthrough that puts the ELH in a unique position in UHF MRI worldwide. Thanks to this breakthrough, the Institute’s researchers are able to also exploit the benefits of UHF MRI beyond neuroimaging in the entire human body. Especially cancer diagnosis with high-resolution UHF MRI and the use of nano-MRI contrast agents can now be improved further and, based on experience with prostate cancer diagnosis, extended to other organs and types of tumour.