Dr Yuriko Suzuki - University of Oxford

The goal of Dr Suzuki’s research is to develop novel noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that could become an alternative option to more invasive imaging techniques. She aims to reduce the burden on patients and their families, physically as well as economically. In the current Academy Research Fellowship, she is developing time-resolved magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) methods using an arterial spin labelling technique that could visualise arterial blood vessels and flows in the brain, even in patients with narrowed vessels. This could support, and eventually replace, diagnostic X-ray angiography examinations. She also aims to make such noninvasive techniques more feasible in clinical examination and diagnosis, benefiting patients. For example, replacing X-ray angiography by MRA would be significant in terms of both cost and time. For patients of school-age, working-age, as well as for parents of sick children, it could also reduce a loss of productivity for the economy because an MRI examination takes only 20–40min, far shorter than X-ray angiography.