INNOVATION
Imaging Excellence
Glasgow’s new Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE)
will benefit patients, medical research, and the city
O
pened in Spring 2017,
The Imaging Centre of
Excellence (ICE) is the latest
investment by University of
Glasgow at the Queen
Elizabeth University Hospital, the
largest acute hospital in Western
Europe. Professor Dame Anna
Dominiczak explains how ICE will
expand the University’s Clinical
Innovation Zone and help Glasgow in
its development of modern precision
medicine for patients, for research,
and for links with industry.
What is your role at The Imaging
Centre of Excellence (ICE)?
Ideas, fundraising, making it happen!
Having built an entirely new academic
campus to meet the needs of Queen
Elizabeth University Hospital, five or
so years ago we began creating a major
teaching and learning centre for our
students, as well as a focus for medical
research and industry engagement.
Imaging is a hugely important
part of what we do and what medicine
is moving towards, enabling more
accurate, personalised disease
diagnoses. Hosting 11,000 sq ft of
space for industry, ICE will expand
the University’s Clinical Innovation
Zone to a total area of 22,000 sq ft
and house a 7-Tesla (7T) ultra-high-
resolution MRI scanner.
What are the benefits of the
7-Tesla MRI scanner?
The 7-Tesla MRI scanner offers several
orders of magnitude more detail than
currently available scanners. This
provides researchers with a lot more
detail in every image. Everybody
benefits, from those investigating
basic science to understanding normal
physiology, to clinical researchers who
want to have better diagnostics and
better treatments for diseases.
What impact will ICE and the
7-Tesla have on patients?
By placing the new imaging facility
in the middle of a busy hospital, it
is easily accessible, even for sick
patients with stroke or other brain
disorders. It will provide unique
opportunities in brain imaging in
the first instance, then for other
parts of the body. Links with the
NHS databases will support better
diagnostics of brain disorders and
other conditions.
This isn’t a routine technology
yet and is still under development.
Currently experts are being recruited
and specialist components are
4 0 | U K S PA b r e akt h r o u g h | S U M M E R 2 0 17
How will ICE benefit Glasgow?
Glasgow will become a centre for
development of advanced medical
techniques and functional MRI (fMRI).
We have professors and entire groups
of scientists interested in becoming
better at diagnosing and treating
devastating diseases such as stroke,
dementia and brain tumours. We have
colleagues interested in basic function
of the brain, where very detailed
imaging is very important.
7-T e s l a M R I S c a n
r e s o l u ti o n
Comparative MRI
scans of Professor
Keith Muir’s brain
(7T at bottom)
T h e 7-T e s l a M R I s c a n n er o f f er s
s e v er a l o r d er s o f m a g n it u d e
m o re d eta i l t h a n o t h er s c a n n er s
c u rre n t ly ava i l a b l e
being sourced. The main work
begins this summer and the MRI
manufacturer, Siemens, and our
experts will work together to make
it the best it can be, but ultimately
it will serve patients.