TWO Scottish firms have collaborated to produce a ground-breaking magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner which aims to provide new insights into brain disease research.

Both based in Glasgow, Wideblue, a product design consultancy, has linked up with with MR CoilTech, to create the high-density radiofrequency (RF) head coil technology which it is claimed has successfully completed its first trial at the University of California, Berkeley.

The project aims to provide new insights into brain disease research and will provide a large visual field for the neuroscientists to carry out functional-MRI studies.

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Russell Overend, chief executive of Wideblue, said: “When completed, the project will break through barriers in the field of brain disease research by introducing unprecedented levels of detail in brain imaging which could lead to innovative new treatments.”

Dr Shajan Gunamony, MR CoilTech director, said: “We are delighted with the work Wideblue did on the CAD design of the prototype and with the excellent initial results. It allowed us to meet the deadline for an important abstract submission and we look forward to making more progress with this ground breaking new product.”

The head coil design, a first of its kind, uses 16-channel transmit and 96-channel receive RF architecture.

The firm said the new prototype high-density head coil combines with “the NexGen 7T scanner capabilities to enable high resolution full brain imaging to support studies of the cerebal cortex at an unprecedented microscale resolution, boosting the image resolution by a factor of 20 than current 7T MRI”.

Wideblue became part of Pivot International in April 2018 after being acquired by the Kansas-based company for an undisclosed sum.

It has a multi-disciplinary workforce of 20 engineers.

MR CoilTech was established in 2016 and is ideally based within the Imaging Centre of Excellence in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Campus