The Beat Goes On: developing ultra-fast MRI techniques to measure pulsatile blood flow and arterial stiffness in the brain

A single MRI scan currently takes a snapshot of the brain, but this project will reprogram the scanner to capture a movie of blood pulsing through the smallest vessels. The problem is that stiff arteries in the brain are linked to dementia and stroke, but existing MRI techniques cannot measure pulsatile flow in tiny vessels—they are too slow, with a temporal resolution limited to 15 milliseconds, and too blurry to see the smallest arteries. This fundamental science project aims to break both limits. The student will write new pulse sequences that push temporal resolution beyond 15ms, then apply compressed sensing—a mathematical trick that reconstructs sharp images from sparse data—to resolve smaller vessels. They will also build semi-automated scan planning tools to make the method practical for clinical use. If successful, the technique could give researchers a direct, non-invasive way to measure arterial stiffness in the brain. That would allow earlier detection of vascular changes linked to cognitive decline, and provide a tool to test whether drugs or lifestyle interventions actually improve brain blood flow. For now, the work is squarely in fundamental MR physics—programming sequences on a scanner to see what was previously invisible.