We are working with clinicians and PIs to develop new clinical applications for PET-MR, where we possess the only scanner in the north-west.

We are scanning on a range of simultaneous research studies aiming to bring this novel imaging modality into the clinic, including multi-centre studies and trials with other PET-MR centres in the UK. We are able to facilitate such multi-centre trials. A major part of our in-house physicists’ work is to develop novel sequences for this scanner.

As the funding for the scanner was provided by the Dementias Platform UK initiative, the focus has been on dementia research, but we also image on other disease areas such as cardiology, respiratory medicine and urology.

We have recently extended our provision at the PET-MR suite to include MR-only paediatric research scanning with participants undergoing general anaesthetic/sedation.

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust is home to the Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences and a new Philips Elition 3T MR scanner that the University has access to. The scanner focuses on neuro research, with a full complement of research keys and coils.

The 3T MR scanner at the Clinical Research Facility focuses on imaging within experimental medicine. It has a comprehensive cardiac imaging package that is also used for diagnostic scanning for an NHS Trust.

Researchers can apply to perform chargeable scanning on healthy volunteers in an in-house approved study to develop new methods and sequences. This enables researchers to do so without having to secure their own regulatory approvals.

This study covers the 3T MR scanner at the Clinical Research Facility and the PET-MR scanner at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. It will soon also cover the 3T MR scanner at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

There is a biannual call for proposals for University staff to apply for 20 hours of free MR scanning to develop pilot data for new grant applications. This is particularly important for early career researchers in imaging.

We own and operate Philips 3T Achieva MR scanners, located at the NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility.

We also have dedicated time on a new Philips Elition 3T scanner located at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (Salford). The University’s scanning sessions are operated by our radiographers.

The University’s MR scanners offer a broad range of MR techniques, including:

• Structural MRI
• Cardiac imaging
• 32 channel head coil
• [²³Na] head coil
• Small joint coils and dedicated musculo-skeletal coils for knee, foot and shoulder
• Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)
• Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
• Eye-tracker
• Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI)
• Oxygen-enhanced MRI (OE-MRI)
• Pharmacological MRI (pMRI)
• Diffusion and perfusion MRI
• State of the art cardiac MRI
• Arterial spin labelling (ASL)
• Carbon-13 imaging

The University was awarded £5.3 million from the Dementias Platform UK initiative via the Medical Research Council to buy and install the north-west’s first PET-MR scanner, which is primarily used for dementia-based research.

The scanner is located in a dedicated suite on the ground floor of St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and is one of only eight in the UK.

The suite has three treatment rooms, two of which have:

• bedhead services;
• a research office;
• a consulting room;
• a fully-equipped dispensing room for drawing up radiotracers, with grade A laminar air flow cabinets.

The scanner is a fully integrated 3T PET-MR system with time of flight technology and a 60cm single bore. The system is capable of simultaneous PET-MR in the same field of view at the same time. The images are presented as co-localised datasets.

As well as simultaneous PET-MR scanning, the scanner can also be used for stand-alone MR scanning (3T).

The scanner can be used for a variety of imaging needs, including oncology, neurology, and cardiology, and supports imaging for brain/spine, musculoskeletal, breast, vascular, and whole body imaging.

We also offer fMRI and multi-nuclear imaging at this site.

Preclinical PET imaging is based at WMIC. We have a Siemens Inveon Multimodality PET-CT scanner, which uses a range of commercial radiotracers.

The 7T MRI scanner is a Bruker Avance III console interfaced to a 7T, 16cm internal bore Magnex magnet. It is equipped with:

• 740mTm-1 gradients
• a range of RF coils
• physiological monitoring
• an anaesthetic delivery system.

It is located in the Stopford Building on the University’s main Oxford Road campus.

We also have a 3T MRI scanner in WMIC. This is a benchtop system (MRS 3000 Series MRI System, MR Solutions, UK) and is equipped with:

• mouse and rat head and volume coils
• physiological monitoring
• an anaesthetic delivery system.

The animal bed (Minerve Small Animal Environment System Bioscan, France) is interchangeable between the 3T MRI scanner and the PET-CT scanner, allowing PET and MRI scans sequentially on the same animal and excellent co-registration.

Image-guided micro-irradiation for studies is provided via the SARRP research platform (Xstrahl) in WMIC, which incorporates CT imaging with precise radiation delivery to anatomical sites, mimicking facilities used in the clinic.

Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 2022.

• DOI: 10.1177/0271678X221108841

Nature Molecular Psychiatry, 2022.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01685-6

Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2021.

• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.28842

Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2021.

• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.28789

Theranostics, 2021.

• DOI: 10.7150/thno.56059

NMR in Biomedicine, 2021.

• DOI: 10.1002/nbm.4510

Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2021.

• DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa128