DYNAMIC: world’s first 14 Tesla MRI scanner for human research

14 Tesla MRI: of global significance for brain disorders, medicine and neuroscience

In the DYNAMIC project, researchers are building the world’s first MRI scanner with a magnetic field strength of 14 Tesla. Thanks to the scanner’s high sensitivity, scientists will be able to visualise the brain in greater detail and gain new insights for research on diseases throughout the body.

National and international science

"The new MRI scanner will be installed on the Radboudumc site in Nijmegen, but will be available to all scientists in the Netherlands. We will also be collaborating with international partners," says David Norris, project leader and professor of MRI techniques at Radboud University's Donders Institute. "With this new high-resolution scanner, we aim to open up new areas of research for the entire scientific community."

Treatment and prevention of diseases

The new scanner is of great importance for research into brain disorders, explains Anja van der Kolk, neuroradiologist and clinical researcher at Radboudumc. "There's a large number of people with brain disorders, and those numbers will only rise in the next few decades. For many conditions, there is still no effective treatment because we do not know exactly how they develop. With the 14T MRI scanner, we can look in great detail at what happens to the brain when people fall ill, even at an early stage, without having to operate on them. We hope this will help us find new methods of treatment, and perhaps even prevention."

World’s most powerful MRI

Speaking about the importance of this new scanner for medicine, Dennis Klomp, professor of High-Precision Structural and Metabolic Imaging at UMC Utrecht, says: "With this, the world’s most powerful MRI, we can gain insight into the metabolism of diseases in humans and how these can be influenced by medication, without the need for surgery or a biopsy. We will use the high spectral and spatial resolution of the 14T MRI to study new treatments for heterogeneous tissues such as tumours."

New, more realistic models

For the neurosciences, "we expect the new 14-tesla MRI scanner to revolutionise non-invasive neuroscience by enabling the mapping of neural circuits in humans with unprecedented spatial resolution. This highly detailed data is essential for developing and refining new, more realistic models," says Elia Formisano, Professor of Neural Signal Analysis at Maastricht University.

Funding

The 14 Tesla MRI project is made possible thanks to a NWO Roadmap grant of 19 million euros. 

Building a unique research facility

The 14 Tesla MRI facility will be located in what is currently a sunken garden on the Radboud University campus in Nijmegen. Central to the design is the 14 Tesla magnet itself: this will ultimately be situated in the middle of the garden, with a building surrounding it.

The building has been designed to support every aspect of research involving ultra-high-field MRI. To enable groundbreaking innovation, the building will house, amongst other things, a laboratory for the in-house development of 14T coils and specialised magnetic resonance (MR) components. There will also be an MR dummy scan chamber for training participants, preparing experiments and testing the coils.

The architectural concept is inspired by traditional glass and wood workshops, combining craftsmanship with advanced technology. At its heart lies the MR room, a unique space where timber construction, carefully designed daylighting and the high-tech Faraday cage come together within a refined glass and climate-controlled façade.

This fusion of natural materials and advanced technology reflects a commitment to sustainability, energy efficiency and climate-conscious design, resulting in a building that is both innovative and environmentally friendly.