[Brainmap]: Nicolas Boulant PhD- Plug and play parallel transmission with calibration-free (universal) pulses: recent progress

Abstract:

Parallel transmission is a promising technology to mitigate the RF inhomogeneity problem in MRI at ultra-high field. Despite successful demonstrations and numerous powerful developments, the community has suffered from a cumbersome workflow (field map measurements, data analysis and transfer, online pulse design), preventing the technology from being easily used in clinical routine. After a review of parallel transmission, its associated workflow and some important subject-based pulse design achievements, I will present the new concept of calibration-free (universal) pulses which allows sparing the user the full calibration procedure. First simulation and experimental results at 7T demonstrate a substantial improvement compared to the standard CP-mode of excitation and subject-based RF shims. Recent multi-sequence, multi-site and multi-coil validations for brain imaging finally will be presented with non-selective and selective pulses.

About the Speaker

After a PhD on NMR implementations of Quantum Computing at MIT, I moved to France to do a post-doc on solid-state physics at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) de Saclay. Since 2007 I have been working at NeuroSpin, a neuroimaging research institute of CEA Saclay, to control the nuclear spins in the human brain and tackle the RF inhomogeneity problem at ultra-high field, with and without parallel transmission.