Magnetic resonance imaging MRI is a non-invasive technology that generates high-resolution images of tissues and organs.
Since its first use on a human being over 40 years ago, it has become instrumental in the diagnosis and monitoring of disease and injury. Functional MRI, invented in , is based on the same principles but images metabolic activity indirectly via changes in blood flow. Its use has led to remarkable discoveries in biomedical research. Enzymes play critical roles in cellular metabolism and are already valuable biomarkers of pathology in blood tests. Now, their high-resolution spatial localisation in tissues will significantly enhance disease detection and monitoring.
The Horizon project GLINT aims to develop a potentially disruptive new diagnostic tool and a set of technologies for cancer imaging which will allow for earlier, more accurate and more reliable cancer diagnosis. Cancer is one of the most devastating diseases the world is currently facing. It is usually detected through advanced medical imaging, and early detection remains a decisive factor for increasing the chances of survival and the potential for full recovery.
The GLINT project addresses the current global lack of safe, cheap, easily accessible and accurate image-based metabolic evaluation techniques to detect cancer and will develop an innovative diagnostic tool and a set of technologies for in vivo cancer imaging which can characterise and image glucose delivery, uptake and metabolism in cancer. Once the GLINT project is successful, patients will be able to benefit from a non-invasive, radiation-free method for cancer assessment.
Euro-BioImaging offers life scientists open access to imaging instruments, expertise, training opportunities and data management services that they do not find at their home institutions or among their collaboration partners. All scientists, regardless of affiliation, area of expertise or field of activity, can benefit from these pan-European open access services. Euro-BioImaging will ensure excellent research and development across the life sciences in Europe by offering state-of-the-art imaging services through its internationally renowned facilities, called Nodes.
