Order placed for whole-body 7T MRI

Dear all,

On behalf of the Tender Review Panel, and co-investigators on the CFI8 funding application, I am pleased to announce that McGill has officially placed an order for a Siemens 7 tesla Magnetom Terra whole-body MRI system.

We anticipate delivery of the 22 tonne 7T magnet next July, which will allow completion of the MRI suite construction for the fall of 2018. This represents a key milestone in a project that has been evolving since the design phase of the MNI’s North Wing prior to 2010, and which has been made possible by Dr. Amir Shmuel’s coordination of the 2014 CFI application.

I would like to thank the many people and groups who have worked very hard in getting us to this point, including McGill Purchasing, McGill VP-RI, Facilities, and the Tender Panel (who also comprise the 7T Scientific Steering Committee). The support of Guy Rouleau and Julien Doyon during the final stages of this major purchase has been particularly appreciated, as well as the efforts and 7T expertise of David Rudko and Christine Tardif (recent new faculty hires in the BIC MRI Group).

This project represents an investment of over $15M by the CFI and Government of Quebec, augmented by cash allocations from MNI and McGill as well as substantial in-kind contributions generously provided by Siemens. I really feel that our success in obtaining such generous government funding and industry support is due, in a very large part, to the outstanding performance and reputation of the neuroimaging research community affiliated with the BIC and MNI (not to mention the depth of MRI expertise present throughout Quebec). I thus thank you all for your patience and support during this challenging project, and hope this news will be helpful to the many investigators planning their next cycle of grants.

We will provide further updates as the situation develops, and I will arrange a presentation this fall to discuss the timeline, planning, and anticipated opportunities in more detail. Getting this instrument into your hands is a very exciting prospect!

Sincerely,

Rick


Rick Hoge, Ph.D.
Program Director for MRI
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute
Associate Professor and Killam Scholar, Dept. of Neurology & Neurosurgery
Associate Member, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
McGill University
rick.hoge@mcgill.ca
514-398-1929