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Life Science Div./ Technology platforms/ In vivo imaging platforms/ NeuroSpin/ NeuroSpin - A great instrument for the neurosciences

NeuroSpin - A great instrument for the neurosciences

An interface between physicians and neurobiologists 
About 150 researchers, physicians, clinicians, biologists, engineers and technicians will work together at NeuroSpin.

- The methodology teams will be in charge of pushing the current technical limits of imaging and create new approaches, from imaging methods to mathematical models and software for image analysis, to map the basic biological parameters needed to understand the brain.

- The neurosciencists, neuropsychologists, and clinicians will benefit from these methodological contributions for their own research programs, whether it consists of molecular or cellular biology, neurobiology of development and post-genomics, neurosciences or cognitive sciences. This specific interface between methodologists, neurobiologists and physicians creates an exceptional environment necessary to break the current limitations of neuroimaging in order to better understand the workings, development and dysfunction of the human brain.

  
 
NMR spectrum of the brain
revealing the presence of a great many chemical complexes involved in the workings of the brain (neurotransmitters, metabolites). Spectrum obtained in man with 7 T. (courtesy Dr Tkac, CMRR, Minneapolis).
A center with a national and international  profil
This center, with a national and international vocation, combining "avant-garde" methodology developments and applications in neurobiological areas of the highest interest, will update and complete the Paris region imaging platform network. These equipments, as well as that of nearby existing centers will comfortably position itself in Europe facing similar set-ups in other prestigious institutions, such as NIH or the Harvard- MIT complex in the U.S.A.

With this national and international profil, NeuroSpin will aim at becoming part of a European Excellence network. An integral part of the CEA Saclay center near the Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires, located in the village of Saint- Aubin (Essonne), NeuroSpin falls within the methodological complementarity of Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot (SHFJ) in Orsay where a technical platform for radio-isotopic imaging is already found. This platform is unique in Europe. Their geographic proximity and their management by the same agency are keys to success.

Photos: CEA, Inserm, CEA/C, Dupont, CEA/L, Médard, CEA/M, Grassi, Inserm/Lachapelle, AP-HP/Inserm/CEA