Andrew Webb. Ph.D
Professor of MR Physics
Leiden University Medical Center
Title: Engineering developments to realize the full potential of ultra high field and ultra low field MRI applications
Abstract: Magnetic resonance imaging is an inherently non-invasive technique with biological applications from the cellular to human size-scales. A major technological push has been towards stronger magnetic fields, which can be >20 Tesla for preclinical studies and >10 Tesla for humans, since these increase the signal strength and ultimate imaging resolution. Such systems, however, require advances in hardware design, acquisition sequences and image processing algorithms to achieve optimal performance. The first part of this talk will concentrate on technical challenges and practical approaches for human scanning at 7 Tesla and above. The challenges include B1 and B0 inhomogeneities, increased specific absorption rate, and high sensitivity to movement. Neurological and neuroscience applications discussed include ocular and neurological tumours, epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, glymphatic clearance and mechanistic studies of lithium for bipolar disorders. The second part will discuss the opposite end of the MRI spectrum, ultra-low field systems at ~50 mT which have been designed to address the challenges of global healthcare accessibility. The challenges here are diametrically opposite to those at high field, and topics of system design, characterization and in vivo applications will be highlighted.
Bio: Professor Andrew Webb is the Professor of MR Physics in the Department of Radiology at the Leiden University Medical center in the Netherlands. He is also a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. He graduated from the University of Bristol in Chemistry in 1986 and obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1989. After a postdoc in the Department of Radiology at the University of Florida, he joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and was also appointed to the Beckman Institute where he had his laboratory. He was appointed full professor in 2001, and worked for three years in the Department of Physics at the University of Wurzburg with a Wolfgang Paul Prize from the Humboldt Foundation. In 2008 he was appointed to run the newly-formed C.J.Gorter Centre in the Department of Radiology at Leiden University Medical Center. His research concentrates on the translation of new engineering concepts into the clinic. This work initially concentrated on high field MRI, supported by an ERC Advanced Grant from 2015-2020, but recently his lab moved more into the area of sustainable open-source low field MRI for developing countries, funded by the Simon Stevin Preis and a second ERC Advanced Grant 2021-2026. He has authored/co-authored five academic text books on medical imaging and biomedical instrumentation, and authored more than 400 journal publications. In 2020 he was the President of the European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology and co-formed the Committee for Advancement of MRI Education and Research in Africa. In 2023 he was elected to the Royal Dutch National Academy of Sciences, and received the Huibregtsenprijs for societal scientific research. In 2010 he founded the Nadine Barrie Smith trust which has provided financial support for over 150 female undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering.