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News & Notes
MIITT Group Uses Biomedical Engineering to Advance MRI Technology
By Nikolas Charles
Fall 2025
The Michigan Institute for Imaging Technology & Translation (MIITT) is on a mission to improve standard MRI methodologies utilizing cutting-edge research. Working within the radiology department gives MIITT researchers a first-hand look at the challenges radiologists are facing when reading MRI scans.
“When using standard MRI approaches, we are limited to brighter and darker shades of gray,” says MIITT co-director, Nicole Seiberlich, PhD, Research Professor of Cardiovascular Imaging and Associate Professor of Radiology. While radiologists are both skilled and experienced at reading and interpreting these images, introduction of a numerical measurement technique eliminates subjectivity, providing readers with specific data. “With our proprietary method, Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF), radiologists can acquire quantitative data on multiple important properties simultaneously, which improves the accuracy of the diagnostic information. These quantitative tissue property maps include actual numbers that give experts reproducible and actionable results. It has been evaluated in brain, prostate, liver, cardiac, and musculoskeletal imaging.”
“The goal is not only to solve immediate problems but also to develop long-term solutions for radiologists by converting technically feasible research methods into clinically useful tools,” adds Dr. Seiberlich, who co-founded MIITT in July 2019. In 2023, MIITT received the Dean’s Award for Technology and Innovation, recognizing their unique approach to technology development and translation. Positioning MIITT within radiology rather than the biomedical or electrical engineering departments kept the scientists both mentally and physically close to the end users.
“Our field of research takes place at the intersection of medicine and engineering,” says Principal Investigator, Gastao Lima da Cruz, PhD. One of the many benefits of the MIITT translational research group is in open collaboration between clinicians and engineers. Six medical doctors with MIITT primary affiliations are in active collaboration with the research scientists, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Working side by side in the Medical Science I building, investigators gain an understanding of real world clinical problems, then work together to solve them utilizing technology.
“This is a good example of a problem I’m having clinically that’s being solved by our research group,” says radiologist and scientist, Shane Wells, MD, Associate Professor of Radiology and Urology whose research focuses on improving diagnostic information to help urologists make more informed decisions. “I currently use ultrasound or CT to put needles into the liver to treat tumors. The needles get hot at the end and burn the tumor. It’s a minimally invasive procedure that can actually cure liver cancer and patients can go home the same day. However, one of the shortcomings of the current technology is that we can’t target tumors very well, which negatively affects patient outcomes. Now, the platform that we’ve developed at MIITT combines ultrasound and MRI to improve that tumor targeting.”
“One solution that we found is to use our Siemens MAGNETOM Free.Max 0.55T MRI Scanner,” says Dr. Seiberlich. As one of the few locations nationwide that owns and operates this “low field” machine, the MIITT team and UM Radiology have identified niche utilities, including the ability to conduct “in bore” biopsies--meaning the patient stays in the MRI scanner throughout the procedure. Now radiologists can clearly see the area that they want to biopsy, and accurately direct metallic needles without risk of damaging surrounding tissue. In addition to a wider bore, initially intended for larger patients or those with claustrophobia, the image quality of the scans is less affected by metal implants at low field strength. This is also advantageous when scanning patients with prior joint replacement surgery. “We can also capture MRI scans of parts of the body that are in motion, such as the heartbeat or blood flow,” she says. “Instead of a one second scan to make an image of a stationary body part, we can create a usable image in 20 milliseconds. We continue to discover special use cases that make this machine an exciting tool for us to have in radiology.”
Two of the Graduate Student Research Assistants in the Seiberlich Lab have made significant progress in their individual areas of interest with the aid of the MIITT scanners. One of the many benefits of utilizing the MRF method as opposed to traditional MRI techniques is that it can be applied across vendors and machines to enable quantitative comparisons. “Before MRF, the shades of gray you received depended on all sorts of factors,” says Tom Griesler, MS, third year BME PhD candidate, whose research interests include MRF sequence design and optimization for brain and abdominal imaging. Results varied based on the series, settings, and manufacturer. Using MR Fingerprinting, numerical physical parameters enable comparison across time and space.
“We’re also developing something called quantitative T1rho mapping, an MRI-based measurement technique for contrast-free myocardial fibrosis detection,” says Sydney Kaplan, MS, 4th year BME PhD candidate. “This is part of my research where we’re trying to avoid administering gadolinium based contrast agents to patients who may have kidney disease. With standard scanning technology, we can’t see fibrosis on an MRI image. However, by using T1rho or an alternative method, Magnetization Transfer (MT), both of which are sensitive to macromolecules like collagen or proteins, we can see subtle changes in heart tissue.”
Going forward, MIITT may be venturing into deep learning to improve the resolution of multiple parameter maps and decrease scanning time. Its goals will continue to revolve around solving the challenges that radiologists have on a daily basis using MRI to diagnose disease. “We will continue to look for collaborators who have questions that we can seek to answer with MRI technology,” says Dr. Seiberlich.