newsletter issue 06-2015
Introducing our new Chief Executive Officer
Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund
About Research: Smartscan
ISO Certification
Equipment update
News Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl
Thank you and goodbye A theme for this newsletter could be a Bob Dylan lyric: "The Times They Are a-Changin'"! Not only do the following pages describe some of the recent successes and changes that will support the future growth of Scannexus, but this will also be the last newsletter of my tenure as CEO. After four years full of challenge, opportunity, development and a great deal of fun; in June I will be leaving to take on a new position in Australia – a fabulous new adventure for my family and me. There have been many highlights since I arrived in Maastricht in 2011, including: seeing the construction and technical set-up of the scannerlab; supporting over 200 projects on our state-of-the-art systems; welcoming King Willem-Alexander to open the facility, plus many distinguished guests, and over 2.000 visitors to our annual Open Days; witnessing the first scientific papers incorporating data generated with our technology; and too many others to mention. However, my time in Maastricht would not have been so enjoyable, and we would not have achieved as much, without the many excellent collaborators, advisors, supporters and other stakeholders that contribute to the success of Scannexus. I will miss you all; in particular, the wonderful team within Scannexus – I could not have asked for better colleagues – I am sure that in the capable hands of them and Wim, there will be many more exciting successes in the future. With very best wishes, until we meet again, Ross McLennan Welcome: Introducing our new Chief Executive Officer It’s a pleasure to introduce myself through this newsletter in this new role for me. With many of you I will meet in person, but please feel free to contact me in person when you like. If you would like to know my background, have a look at my website or through LinkedIn. Since the beginning of Scannexus, I was already involved as a member of the Supervisory Board. Sitting in the back seat of this highly advanced Rolls Royce in the world of imaging and imaging research I already got to know this company and a lot of the relevant people and stakeholders. Now I will be in the driving seat for a while and sometimes even under the hood I assume. The company enters a new phase after the first few years of building it up and getting things up and running. Our next step will be to grow further and expand our business and services. Crossing new borders together and discover and grab new opportunities is the main role, as I would define it. But we have to do this together, the team, the researchers, the stakeholders and the shareholders, all of you! I look forward to an interesting, inspiring and challenging period with all of you. We will meet! Wim Bens CEO, Scannexus Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl
Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund In the beginning of this year a third call of the Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund was opened. After a great interested and many applications, the Advisory Board has approved 8 new exciting projects! We would like to congratulate the scientist with the allocation of the Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund. You can read the summaries of these 8 projects on the following page. In the previous two rounds of applications that were approved, many projects are currently working hard on their studies or already finalizing their projects. The Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund supports research, carried out by UM researchers in the Scannexus MRI facility. The Pioneer Fund makes money available for innovative pilot studies which have a collaborative nature. These studies aim to generate a proof-of-evidence that substantiates an idea and increases the likelihood of further grant funding for follow-up research. For more information on the Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund and the application form, you can contact Nadine Reijnders (contact person to the advisory committee) at n.reijnders@scannexus.nl. The Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund has been made possible by the University Fund Limburg/SWOL. If you would like to support the good cause that is served by this specific fund, please contact Jos Kievits, director University Fund Limburg for the possibilities (jos.kievits@maastrichtuniversity.nl).
Approved Brains Unlimited Pioneer Fund applications P. Janssen: Brain activation in faecal storage, defaecation and faecal incontinence: a fMRI study in healthy volunteers and incontinent patients with an implanted neurostimulato (7T). The main goals of this study are to characterize brain activity patterns supporting the sensation of a normal desire to defecate in healthy persons versus the sensation in faecal incontinent patient, and to identify brain structures involved in the beneficiary effect of chronic sacral neuromodulation in patients with faecal incontinence. D. Hernaus: Noradrenergic Manipulations of the acute stress response (7T). The aim of this study is to provide pioneering evidence that acute stress impairs cognitive functions in humans by impacting brain noradrenalin levels. D. Tse: Imaging amyloid-beta plaques in Alzheimer's disease using T2* and quantitative susceptibility mappings at 7T The aim os this study is to utilize recent technical developments to set up a B0 and B1 homogenised ME-GRE protocol that will aid a clinical pilot study on iron accumulation in the amyloid-beta plaque, as well as its effect on the T2* relaxation in AD patients. Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl
H. Jacobs: Optimizing Neuromelanin imaging at 7T: relevance for cognition and neurodegeneration The goal of this project is to investigate which sequence has the highest sensitivity to detect the locus coeruleus in the brainstem, an neuromelanin-containing area, by using high-field MRI. A. Masclee: New insights into viscero-percep on: a novel method using high-resolu on fMRI and intes nal chemo s mula on The main study aim is to explore regions of brain and brainstem activation following chemical nociceptive stimulation of the duodenum by means of duodenal capsaicin infusion in healthy volunteers. A. KÜke: Tactile acuity: the key to optimize chronic pain treatment? A pilot study relating tactile thresholds and acuity measures to the somatosensory hand representations in S1(7T). The main aim of this study is to investigate how behavioural measures of tactile sensitivity and acuity relate to fMRI-based measures of S1 representations in healthy participants and patients with upper extremity pain? Further the study focuses on how duration and intensity of chronic pain affect these behavioural and fMRI-based measures and the relationship between them? H. Seelen: Brain Plasticity and functional recovery in low-functioning stroke patients trained with a dynamic hand orthosis: an MRI pilot study (7T). The study aims to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the effects of orthosis-supported rehabilitation training to help optimize and fine-tune treatment regimes for low-functioning stroke patients, for whom, up until now, treatment options are very limited. B. Jansma: Grid-registration and 7 Tesla fMRI in patients with refractory epilepsy – an integrative analysis of signals in response to cognitive stimuli (7T). Overall aim of the project is to receive a more extensive and detailed mapping of cognitive functions in the temporal lobe to support the decision of safe surgery in epileptic patients. Further, to optimize validity of decision criteria by combining several biomarkers for certain target cognitive functions.
Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl
About research
About research: SmartScan Young people under the age of 25 make up 25% percent of the world population, and it is in this period of life that psychiatric disorders 1) are usually revealed for the first time, and 2) cause the greatest "years lost because of disability". However, the mechanisms of the transition from healthy to having symptoms are unknown and interventions to prevent this change are still not available. The aim of the "Smartscan" project is to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the vulnerability to developing a psychiatric disorder, and to evaluate the effect of interventions focused on reducing that vulnerability. There are two groups participating in this study; a group with mild depressive and/or psychotic characteristics, and a group that exhibits anxiety. In addition there is a healthy control group. All participants are aged between 16 and 25 years and offered training that is aimed to reduce their specific "symptoms". This training includes, amongst others, the use of Psymate, a device or app which can control the intervention and measure its effect. Before and after the training, participants will be scanned in the 3T scanner of the Scannexus facility. During the scan sessions, participants have to perform tasks that mimic the processes that are thought to underlie the effect of the training. These interventions are, like all forms of psychological therapy, a learning process. The tasks that the participants have to fulfill are therefore mainly learning tasks. Specifically, this will involve fearconditioning and reward-learning. Furthermore, the researchers will also look at the structure of the brains and the strength of the connections between certain brain centers. The researchers expect that this project will ultimately lead to the development of interventions to prevent psychiatric symptoms, which are based on a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying these conditions. For more information about SmartScan visit www.smartscanonderzoek.nl
Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl
ISO Certification We are delighted to announce that we recently passed an external audit and have been granted certification for the international quality standards ISO 9001 and 13485. Not only does this mean that Scannexus has a set of working practices that pass scrutiny and will enable us to work efficiently; but it also provides a clear demonstration to our (existing and potential) customers that our activities are well thought out, reproducible and based on robust procedures. Receiving this external validation is a reflection of the hard work and expertise of the entire Scannexus team; who have also received support in this process from Quadra Consulting Netherlands BV.
A short summary of the most important new equipment The range of equipment available at Scannexus continues to expand. Notable new hardware that has been (or is about to be) installed includes: An upgrade of the 7T system to allow 8 channel parallel transmission (pTx) with a corresponding head coil. This will allow for improved image homogeneity in the brain. An upgrade of the existing 8 channel pTx system on the 9.4 T to provide a total of 16 channels (to be completed in July 2015). This will be a unique system worldwide. Binocular eye tracking on the 3T Prisma Fit Binocular stimulation and eye tracking on the 7 T. 256 channel MR compatible EEG system from EGI with quickly applicable sponge cap on the 3T Prisma Fit
Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl
News Last March we had our annual user meeting. In which an open forum was created where current and potential users of the Scannexus facility could hear about recent and planned developments, and make suggestions for future directions. A technical newsletter was introduced and sent to users every quarter, to keep users informed about updates and technical issues. Last February Brains Unlimited held her third Open Day. We believe this Open Day was a very successful event; the facility was full of people all day. Approximately 1000 people took the red carpet to walk through the doors of the Brains Unlimited building. They were truly interested in learning about the facility, in the technology, and how Ultra-High-Field imaging provides new levels of insights into human anatomy and function. Scannexus, and the research that is enabled by the facility have been mentioned in the media several times. Also many tv-crews recorded at Scannexus over the past few months for example Katja Schuurman for her program Katja’s Bodyscan. in 2014 the MBIC/Scannexus Scientific Opening Symposium: Neuroscience and ultra-high-field imaging was organized and filmed. The films of all speaker can be found on our website. Scannexus has completed the volunteer database. Are you interested is this and would you like to sign in, please sent an email to information@scannexus.nl.
Scannexus | Oxfordlaan 55 l 6229 EV Maastricht l The Netherlands
www.scannexus.nl l information@scannexus.nl