NEUROSPIN: From Physics to the Human Brain  

Each year, a growing percentage of the population in the developed countries suffers from neurological or psychiatric diseases.  Large amounts of money are spent for the treatment and rehabilitation of these patients.  Life expectancy is increasing and the potential benefits from research on the workings of the brain in an ageing population are obvious. 

A better understanding of how  the human brain works will have a direct impact on health care but also on society. This quest for an understanding of the brain is a major scientific and technical endehavior which requires close cooperation between a number of experts of many disciplines, such as physics, mathematics, data processing, neurosciences, human and social sciences, ...

 

The aim of NeuroSpin will be to push as far as possible the current limits of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy to study the central nervous system, from mice to humans. Benefiting from French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) know-how in the conception of magnets (DAPNIA) and NMR technology, this technical platform will be equipped with outstanding MRI/MRS equipment and related tools and an advanced computer platform. At this stage a feasibility study is underway for an ensemble of four MRI/MRS systems including a 3T and a 11.7T wide bore MR scanners for clinical studies, as well as a 11.7T wide bore system and a 17T small bore system for preclinical studies.

 

NeuroSpin will house a fully equipped clinical suit with beds and test/examination rooms (neuropsychology, electrophysiology, pharmacology) to accommodate protocols involving normal volunteers and patients. The center will also be equipped with an animal care facility, as well as several laboratories (electronics, chemistry, biology, histology, molecular imaging…). NeuroSpin architecture will be designed by Claude Vasconi. Author of the Corum (Montpellier), of the Palais des Congrès (Reims), of the Paris-Berlin Center (Berlin), of the Chamber of Commerce and the International Bank of Luxembourg,...


 

 

Large office spaces will be provided to accommodate external teams. Indeed, beside resident researcher teams, technicians and support teams, NeuroSpin has been conceived as an open, shared facility designed to welcome international teams of researchers on a temporary basis (weeks to months), giving them the opportunity to carry out their own studies. This concept, which has been in use for years in the physics community (accelerators, synchrotrons,….),  has proven very successful, allowing teams to share expensive or rare equipment they could not afford on an individual basis.

 

Located in Saint-Aubin/Saclay near Paris, this imaging platform will be unique in Europe. It will offer exceptional resources to the international scientific community with a strong multidisciplinary environment (mathematics, physics, computer sciences, signal and image processing, neurosciences, neuropsychology, neurology, brain development, molecular imaging, functional genomics,…).

 

Projects will be aimed either at methodological developments (MRI/MRS physics, instrumentation, image processing,  neuronal modeling, molecular imaging,….) or neuroscience applications (normal human volunteers or patients, animal models, neural modeling, biological effects of magnetic fields,…). Although the opening of NeuroSpin is scheduled for 2006, we are already collecting letters of intention from renown international teams (please download "Invitation to contribute a research project").

 

 

 

Contact information:

Mailing address:
Neurospin Project
Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot
Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (SHFJ/CEA)
4 place du Général Leclerc
F91401 ORSAY, FRANCE
Tel:  +33 (0)1 69 86 77 03
Fax: +33 (0)1 69 86 77 86

Email: SEUROT@dsvidf.cea.fr

 

Downloads:
- NeuroSpin brochure/flyer ( part1, part2), ( )
- Poster on NeuroSpin ( )
- Invitation to contribute a research project ( )
- Molecular Imaging Outlook article ( part1, part2, part3)

Links:
- CEA-DSV
- NeuroSpin URL: http://neurospin.org
- Molecular Imaging Outlook

   

NeuroSpin is proudly 

supported by: