• Question: why did working with an MRI scanner appeal to you so much?

    Asked by not the bacon!! to Andy on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Andrew Scott

      Andrew Scott answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      We can do loads of interesting things with the MRI scanner and it’s really safe so we can test stuff out very easily.

      Unlike CT scanners, PET scanners or normal x-ray, in MRI we don’t use ionising radiation, which can be dangerous, particularly if you have too many scans. MRI scanners use magnets and radiowaves. This means we can scan healthy people; I often have scans so that other scientists in my department can test out their new ideas.

      The other great thing is that we can easily change the way the pictures look. We can just look at pictures of fat or just of water, we can look at where blood is going in the tissue or we can just look at walls of the blood vessels. The techniques I’m working on at the moment can show how the cells are lined up and are often used to show connections in the brain. We are using them to show how the muscle cells in the heart are lined up.

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