New European Project MEGMRI

June 3, 2008 (H26).  We received information on the new EU project, sponsored within the 7th EU Programme (FP7).  Its acronym is MEGMRI, and its purpose is to develop and validate hybrid magnetoencephalography (MEG) and ultralow-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology that will allow simultaneous structural and functional imaging of the human brain.  The kick-off meeting of the project was held last week.  This program of several years duration provides financial support to 13 European project partners from academia, research institutes, industry and clinical medicine in 6 countries.  Among the partners are: the Helsinki Institute of Technology, one of early pioneers of MEG; Electa AB (better known as Neuromag), a leading manufacturer of whole-head MEG systems; PTB-Berlin, which pioneered nanotesla-level NMR; University of Chieti for years actively involved in biomagnetism, and the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa.  The new project’s webpage:https://wiki.tkk.fi/display/megmri contains the complete list of partners.  Note, we published recently the paper by Zotev et al. (ST31) reporting on the first demonstration of ultralow-field MRI of the human brain combined with MEG.  This effort of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) used the same 7-channel SQUID array to sequentially imagine the anatomy & functionality of the brain.  In the new project, also so called “mixed sensors” pioneered by CEA-Saclay will be evaluated as an alternative to low-noise SQUID sensors.