Study the life sciences using the skills and tools of medical physics, and to develop new diagnostic tools to make the tests necessary for the prevention of neurological diseases more accessible and effective. These are the objectives of the collaboration signed between the Infn-National Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Public Research Body dedicated to the study of particles
and fundamental interactions, and the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation of Rome, first Italian research institute in neuroscience. Medical physics applies the principles and discoveries of physics to the world of medicine leading to developments that are fundamental to human care today, the researchers point out.
An innovation that more than others has accelerated neuroscience research is magnetic resonance imaging, apparently a known technology but which has immense possibilities for development thanks to the integration of new, increasingly performing equipment and new physical methodologies that allow access to more detailed and specific information. “The study of the applications of basic physics to the biomedical sector is of strategic importance for our Institute ” explains the vice president of Infn Diego Bettoni. “Through the collaboration with the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation it will be possible for the Infn to make a significant contribution to neuroscience, making available its capacity for innovation, its technological skills and the great experience in statistical analysis and in the management of big date “, concludes Bettoni.
The magnetic resonance apparatuses capture in a completely non-invasive way the vibrations that the single hydrogen nuclei, naturally present in every organism, undergo in a magnetic field. Currently research has focused on the study of atoms other than hydrogen, starting from sodium and fluorine, with possible extensions to potassium, chlorine, phosphorus, carbon and oxygen. Each new atom that can be analyzed with magnetic resonance opens the possibility of going into detail in physiological and biochemical mechanisms related to the generation and consumption of energy, neurotransmission and the properties of cell membranes.
“This type of technology – says Prof Carlo Caltagirone, neurologist and scientific director of the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation – will allow to develop non-invasive, safe and cost-effective diagnostic tools for identify the first signs of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other pathologies of the nervous system, so that the doctor can intervene even before the development of the first symptoms or the appearance of the lesions typical of the onset of these diseases “.
Furthermore, for neuroscience, the development of increasingly powerful machinery also means greater capacity for analyzing details. The Infn and the Foundation recall that even today, in the neurological field, the best diagnostic results are obtained with machines that operate at 3 tesla (the tesla is the unit of measurement of the magnetic field) as they allow us to see even those microscopic structures. that make up the nervous system.
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The Infn research together with the Santa Lucia Irccs will also include the use of very high-field magnetic resonance equipment (7 tesla) for the exclusive use of research, to develop, in close collaboration with clinical research, models that can help to understand the deeper dynamics of the nervous system, providing in perspective cognitive and technological tools that can be translated onto advanced clinical MRI instruments.