Ricerc@Sapienza

MRI is a fundamental tool for non-invasive study of the human brain and body in life sciences and in clinical practice. With appropriate combinations of pulse sequences, it alters the atomic spins of the body to gather information about multiple physiological parameters, including molecular motion, temperature, pH, chemical environment, water diffusion, neural morphometry and activation, and many others.
The availability of high performance 3 tesla (T) platforms enabled the diffusion of new approaches, substantially increasing the potential for quantitative in vivo investigations in life sciences, and for multimodal integration with complemental techniques. The potentials of MRI for innovative applications need a multidisciplinary approach to be fully developed.
The aim of our project is to develop a Research Center for life sciences focused on the development and application of advanced MRI techniques, exploiting the integration of multidisciplinary expertise available locally and fostering excellence in biomedical research, a trademark of the Sapienza community.

Research will integrate research in neuroscience and cardiology, from medical engineering and information technologies for the development of a high performance, flexible platform, integrating cutting-edge data acquisition and innovative processing, which can be translated to experimental neuroscience, medicine, psychology, and human cognition.

Applications will include integrated research approaches focused on the study of functional aspects in human physiology, pathophysiology and psychology. The development of innovative MRI and quantitative image processing approaches will be integrated synergistically.
The platform will be a substantial improvement of the regional scientific infrastructure, allowing significant synergy with the biomedical industry, via the implementation of a flexible and advanced research infrastructure open to collaborations for the development of new treatments and drugs.