Hyperpolarisation using SABRE as a new tool for imaging.

Diseases of the nervous system, of infectious and non-infectious origin, have global impact on human health and are often associated with neuroinflammation. Approximately 0.5M people in the UK suffer from Alzheimers disease and research shows such classical neurological diseases, may be associated with systemic-inflammation. One core challenge in understanding brain disorders is it remains extremely difficult to non-invasively probe the underlying neurochemistry, the blood-brain barrier and the neuroinflammatory response. During the Award, we will: i) develop and validate new methodologies for spin-hyperpolarised MRI that can theoretically improve a 1.5T clinical-MRI systems response by 200,000-fold; ii) implement the technology for applications spanning molecular and cellular, tissue and organ, system and whole-organisms; iii) achieve first-in-man studies with it; iv) use it to study perfusion, blood-brain-barrier, microglial activation and models of neurological disease; v) trai n a new generation of interdisciplinary post-doctoral researchers; vi) produce an internationally recognized hub facilitating worldwide uptake of these methods. In this programme we target the development of specific high sensitivity spin-hyperpolarised compounds that produce signals that encode their spatial distribution and simultaneously their role in biochemical and physiological mechanisms. These probes will test hypotheses regarding the blood-brain-barrier, microglial activation, neuro nal function and metabolism in models of neuroinflammatory conditions.