UQ’s Centre for Advanced Imaging officially opened

Science Minister Ian Walker officially opened the new Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) at The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus today.

The CAI brings together the skills of a critical mass of researchers and state-of-the-art research instruments to improve diagnostics of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy, as well as joint degeneration and injury.

The University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj said the flagship imaging facility was the only one of its type in Australia and one of only a handful of such centres in the world.

“The Centre has also allowed us to attract the world’s best and brightest minds and bring together the skills of a critical mass of researchers to tackle problems of global significance,” Professor Høj said.

 “Scientists in collaboration with partners such as Siemens and Global Medical Solutions can now conceive of and conduct experiments that were previously near impossible to reach.

“This is leading to new insights into some of the key issues facing Twenty-First century healthcare, from earlier diagnosis to a clearer understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.”

Since the Centre became operational in August 2013, researchers have gained significant insights into heart disease and liver disease, and CAI researchers have become leaders in brain atlas creation.

Science Minister Ian Walker said investing in research and converting it into innovative solutions was one of the top 10 priorities of The Queensland Plan: a 30-year vision for Queensland.

“We’re investing in Queensland science because it has the potential to improve our quality of life,” Mr Walker said.

“One example of UQ success is the electromagnetic noise compensation technology, which improves the quality of images, now used in more than 10,000 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems around the world.

“The Queensland Government provided $4.75 million towards stage one of the Centre for Advanced Imaging, which places us at the forefront of medical imaging in Australia.”

The 5,500m2, $55 million CAI building was funded by the Federal Education Investment Fund in 2010 and contains over $50 million of imaging and spectroscopy equipment.

The CAI also hosts the largest node for National Imaging Facility, which is an Australian government initiative that connects state-of-art imaging capabilities across all mainland states in Australia.

Media: Centre for Advanced Imaging, Rebecca Osborne, 07 3365 4235, Rebecca.osborne@cai.uq.edu.au.