Better Health Through Better Hardware
Better Health Through Better Hardware: Boosting MRI Technology to Map the Brain and Improve Diagnosis Options for Patients Worldwide
Professor Dr. Boris Keil, Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences, is dedicated to advancing medical imaging technologies, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to address global health challenges posed by neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease. His research focuses on enhancing diagnostic processes and developing effective treatment options for millions affected by these conditions. He leads two innovative initiatives. The first, ADMIT (Advanced Medical Physics in Imaging and Therapy), is a cross-university collaboration that integrates advanced imaging techniques with therapeutic strategies to facilitate early diagnoses and effective treatments for various cancers and neurological diseases. A key focus of ADMIT is improving MRI usability for patients with deep brain stimulation (DBS) implants by minimizing interference from magnetic fields. The second initiative, “Brainmapping Technology,” aims to transfer research innovations into practical applications. Prof. Keil’s team develops new hardware architectures for MRI systems, enhancing the acquisition of high-quality neuronal brain imaging data. This work supports the Human Connectome Project, which maps brain connectivity to better understand its function. Both projects underline the importance of collaboration in driving innovation. Partnerships among Hessian universities and with renowned institutions like Harvard and Yale facilitate the swift implementation of new technologies in clinical practice, ultimately enhancing diagnosis and treatment for patients worldwide.
We interviewed Prof. Keil to better understand the work he is doing. Watch the short version (German with English subtitles) here or read the full version below:
Prof. Dr. Keil, could you please briefly explain what the LOEWE Transfer Professorship “Brainmapping Technology” actually is?
The LOEWE Transfer Professorship “Brainmapping Technology” follows on from my many years of work and research. It aims to transfer the instrument and hardware development that we generate here in our laboratories to industry and clinical processes. We are doing this as part of the Human Connectome Project. This project was launched by the Obama administration as a continuation of the Clinton administration's Human Genome Project in order to map the brain and better understand how it works using new technological translational approaches. Our research group is the only European scientific team involved in the Human Connectome Project. Our task is to develop new hardware MRI system architectures for recording high-quality neural brain image data.
What new opportunities does the new LOEWE transfer professorship offer you?
The opportunities that the transfer professorship offers me are complex: when we develop new hardware or new instruments in the field of imaging or magnetic resonance imaging in my working group under normal conditions, the end point of our research is usually the proof of concept, which we publish. However, putting the whole thing on the transfer path picks up at the point where we normally stop. The reason for this is that the development of innovative medical products with a high level of technological complexity, such as magnetic resonance imaging, is often much more challenging than in some other sectors. This means that the planned transfer results must not only be technically researched and realized, but also clinically tested. Thanks to funding from the LOEWE Transfer Professorship, we are creating a transfer management position at the interface between the research team, industry and the clinic in order to meet this particular challenge.
What goals are you pursuing as part of the LOEWE transfer professorship?
The aim of the transfer professorship is to ensure that the knowledge we have generated in our research leads to applicable products in the first or second healt
hcare market. We are therefore concentrating on transferring the existing knowledge of Connectome MRI technology, which is still far removed from application in many respects, into practical, directly applicable practical knowledge. To this end, we use a network of universities, clinical users and industry. In this way, we want to bridge the gap between initial scientific findings and economic and social usability.
The long-term goal is to transform the MRI technology of the Connectome scanner into a certified medical product. The aim is for this technology to be widely used in clinical practice and to benefit society. As a medium-term goal, partial developments such as signal detectors, MR field monitoring or gradient technology are to be decoupled in a practical manner so that they can be combined with existing clinical MRI scanners, for example.
To what extent does science benefit from this project and your research in particular?
The scientific added value of the “Brainmapping Technology” transfer professorship is initially application-oriented: We are developing new technologies to further develop imaging methods in order to increase data acquisition speed and improve sensitivity at the same time. Initially, this will enable basic research to be further advanced in order to decipher fundamental questions about the functionality of the human brain. “Brainmapping technology” should make it possible to understand how connectivity works in the brain. Ultimately, however, the improved imaging techniques will also be used in clinical applications. With the transfer professorship, we want to build a bridge from the very application-oriented science of instrument development to basic research in the neurosciences.
And what concrete social added value can your research offer as part of the LOEWE transfer professorship?
The concrete social added value of the technologies we are developing is still in the future, because we are still at the beginning of our project and what we think is possible. In my opinion, the potential of our project is very high: we are not only helping to develop a new tool to improve human health, but also to measure our brains in a new way and thus probably also enable new knowledge about us as “mental” people. I also see an analogy here with the Human Genome Project: this also began as a basic research project and has now reached the point in society where most people actually know something about genetics and have at least a basic understanding. I can well imagine that perhaps in 20 or 30 years' time we will be able to create a broad social awareness of how connections in the brain work, what the task of the so-called connectors in the brain are and what we can use this knowledge for.
Learn more about the joint research project "ADMIT": www.admit.medical-physics-hessen.de/en