Project Reference: ICS27-RAD-JK1

Project title: The Development of Dissolved Phase Hyperpolarised Xenon-129 MRI

Project outline

Standard MRI and CT scans are excellent at imaging tissue and bone, but they struggle to image air in the lungs or track its crucial movement into the bloodstream. However, a new technique called hyperpolarised xenon-129 MRI (XeMRI) makes this tracking possible. Patients simply breathe in a harmless gas (xenon), allowing us to clearly see air moving through the lungs and bloodstream. Addenbrooke’s Hospital has recently acquired a xenon hyperpolariser, enhancing the MRI signal of this gas by more than 10,000-fold.

While XeMRI is already used to image basic airway ventilation in diseases like asthma and COPD, this project aims to unlock the full diagnostic potential of XeMRI by focusing on ""dissolved phase"" imaging. After xenon dissolves into tissues, it produces chemical signals that can precisely measure how well gas transfers between the air spaces, into lung tissues, and into red blood cells.

The primary objective of this project is to develop methods for dissolved phase XeMRI. The student will develop and optimise data acquisition and reconstruction techniques for XeMRI. This includes investigating fast MRI scanning frameworks, such as spiral Chemical Shift Imaging (CSI). The project will compare various methodologies for reconstructing and analysing CSI data. This includes developing artificial intelligence tools—specifically physics-inspired unrolled neural networks—to learn spatial and spectral patterns. Standard anatomical images will also be used to structurally guide the network.

The techniques will be tested in pilot studies involving healthy volunteers. This will establish baseline reproducibility for measuring how xenon distributes between barrier tissues and red blood cells. Ultimately, this project will deliver a powerful, non-invasive imaging tool to map pulmonary gas exchange, paving the way for better monitoring and treatment of respiratory diseases.

Principal Supervisor

Dr Joshua Kaggie

Email address: jk636@cam.ac.uk

Department / Partner Institute: Radiology

Website: https://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/joshua-kaggie

Industrial Partner

GE Healthcare

BBSRC strategic theme

Transformative technologies