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Brain Canada investment expands access to national MRI platform
By Emily Leighton
New funding will help researchers across Canada access the specialized expertise, technology and data at the Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping
By Emily Leighton
Researchers across Canada will gain greater access to one of the world’s leading magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research facilities through renewed support for Western University’s Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping (CFMM).
A new $1.4-million investment from Brain Canada, with matching funds from Western, will support the highly specialized scientific and technical expertise behind CFMM’s ultra-high field MRI systems and strengthen its role as a national research platform.
“This funding provides support for the extremely talented and highly technical staff that allow us to develop new solutions for challenging neuroimaging projects,” said Ravi Menon, PhD, founding director of CFMM and professor at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
The grant will also create new opportunities for researchers at other institutions to use CFMM’s imaging capabilities and collaborate on complex neuroscience questions.
The Centre houses one of the world’s most advanced suites of imaging technology, including 3T and 7T MRI systems for human research and 9.4T and 15.2T systems for studying animal models of disease.
“Because of the rarity and uniqueness of the equipment at CFMM, one of the exciting opportunities will be to allow researchers in Canada and around the world to use these capabilities to answer neuroscience questions,” Menon said.
The funding further advances CFMM’s commitment to open science by making its unique brain imaging data sets available to the broader research community.
“The detail available in structural and functional MRI at CFMM is unique,” said Menon. “Allowing other scientists to apply innovative analysis methods to these data will yield important benefits beyond what any one institution could achieve alone.”
The announcement comes as CFMM marks its 30th anniversary, celebrating three decades of pioneering imaging technology that has transformed understanding of the brain, aging and disease.