New Fellowship aims for novel technologies to prevent heart disease and stroke

MRI pioneer visits Imperial to announce a new scholarship – News

By Colin Smith
Thursday 15 November 2007

A pioneer in the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) visited Imperial College London’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering to announce plans to sponsor a new research Fellow this month.

Professor Donald Longmore, founder of the heart research charity CORDA, visited Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, with Miss Jennifer Jenks, Executive Director of CORDA, to officially announce the establishment of the CORDA Donald Longmore Fellowship for research in advanced image analysis and computing techniques in cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

It is expected that the first Fellow will be chosen and announced by April 2008, with a new one chosen every 3 years. The Longmore Fellow will focus on developing MRI technology in an effort to prevent heart disease and stroke. The Fellow will share their time between Imperial and the Royal Brompton Hospital, which has a world-wide reputation for the diagnosis and treatment of heart and lung disease.

Professor Yang, who is the Director of Medical Imaging and Robotics of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, welcomed the creation of the new Fellowship saying:

“It is a great honour to have Professor Donald Longmore, who is a leader in the field of cardio magnetic imaging, here to announce this Fellowship. The generosity of CORDA will help foster the next wave of researchers who will take MRI technology to the next level.”

CORDA, the Latin word for ‘hearts’, was established in 1976 by Professor Longmore with the mission to advance the development of MRI techniques and provide high quality research into the prevention of heart disease and stroke using non-invasive diagnosis and treatment.

MRI shows organs functioning in real time. The first image was created in 1970 and Professor Donald Longmore was one of the first to seize the opportunity and apply this technology to the heart. He was also one of the first to build a mobile MRI unit which allowed him to take this technology to hospitals and medical centres throughout the country.

Professor Longmore says he hopes his early work in MRI can be taken to the next stage with this Fellowship:

“The impact of heart disease and stroke can be felt nationwide as these diseases account for nearly half of all deaths in the UK. Through the funding of this Fellowship, and other projects, CORDA plans to incubate ideas which will advance technologies to the next stage.”

Imaging science is a major field of research at Imperial. The unique position of Imperial College with its large Faculty of Medicine closely allied with a significant proportion of London's NHS facilities, and the many underpinning engineering and research groups associated with the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, help to sustain multidisciplinary imaging sciences research at a leading international level.