Professor Martyn Paley BSc PhD MEd FInstP

Professor of BioMedical Imaging

Academic Radiology Department of Cardiovascular Science University of Sheffield Medical School Beech Hill Road Sheffield S10 2RX Office:  Room CX20, Floor C, Royal Hallamshire Hospital. Telephone: +44 (0) 114 271 3208 Fax: +44 (0) 114 272 4760 Email: m.n.paley@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography:

I have been involved with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (MRI/S) since 1973 when I studied Physics as both an undergraduate and postgraduate at Nottingham University, where MRI was invented. I have worked in industry for a number of companies in physics and engineering research including Rolls-Royce Aero-Engines (Combustion Engineering), Kodak (Colour Physics) and Picker International (MRI/S) in both the UK and the USA where I helped develop the first ever commercial MRI scanners during the 1980’s.

I left industry for academia in 1991, establishing an MR physics research group at University College London to investigate Neurological MR Imaging and Spectroscopy as well as development of Interventional MRI. I joined the University of Sheffield in 1997 and have been involved in setting up Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (MRI/S) research in a wide range of topics from advanced functional MRI to neonatal and in-utero imaging and hyperpolarised gas and fluid enhanced MRI/S. I have a major interest in MR physics and engineering and have developed complete specialised MR scanners including all hardware, software and imaging sequences for orthopaedic and neonatal imaging which have been successfully commercialised.

I am currently Professor of BioMedical Imaging in Academic Radiology and my research has been extensively funded over the past two decades by awards from many organisations such as Medlink, DTI, DH, EPSRC, MRC, Royal Society, EU, TSB, BICS A*, Kurdish Government, CRUK and industrial companies such as Nycomed-Amersham, GE Healthcare, Siemens Medical Systems and Philips Healthcare.

Research Interests:

My main research interests are based around Magnetic Resonance Imaging Physics and Engineering linked to other imaging modalities for improving diagnosis and therapy of fetal and neonatal conditions as well as cancer and cardiac diseases in adults:

• New methods for in-utero fetal imaging including fetal ECG gating of MR scanners to enable measurement of cardiac parameters and umbilical cord blood flow.
• Engineering technology including design and evaluation of dedicated MR systems and research spectrometers for neonatal and orthopaedic imaging, interventional MR and MR compatible neonatal incubators.
• Advanced functional MR with correlated Electroencephalography (EEG) and Optical Spectroscopy including development of methods to directly stimulate and visualise axonal and neuronal firing within an MR system.
• Development of methods to radically improve signal to noise ratio for MR including cryogenic radiofrequency coil arrays, Overhauser enhanced MRI (O-MRI) at ultra-low magnetic fields and technology for massively increased MR sensitivity through hyperpolarisation of nuclei (gases and fluids).
• Novel hardware and acquisition sequences for high contrast and accelerated MRI/S (e.g. PRIME, GRACE, B1AC-MAMBA, SPIRIT, SPOKE).
• Image processing methods (e.g. CLASS tissue segmentation) for analysis of cardiac and oncological imaging.
• High field imaging and spectroscopy of cells, tissues and bio-fluids using a dedicated 9.4T micro-imaging and spectroscopy system.

Teaching Interests:

My teaching interests include running the FRCR part 1 MRI training lectures for Radiologists as well as supervision of BMedSci, MSc and PhD students. I have been an external lecturer and external examiner for MRI/S courses and PhD exams at other Universities within the UK (e.g. University College London, Imperial College London, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, Institute of Cancer Research, Bradford, Lancaster and others) over the past two decades. I am an academic mentor for seven undergraduate medical students. I completed a part-time Master of Education degree at the University of Sheffield in 2001. I am currently supervising three PhD students.

• Rebecca Collins (funded by a BioImaging Consortium of Singapore A* grant and jointly supervised by Dr Simon Jones in Chemistry) who is developing novel compounds for Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP) enhanced MRI for cancer and cardiac applications.
• Shwan Kaka (funded by the Kurdish Government) who is developing methods for correlated MR, EEG and Optical Spectroscopy of human nerve function.
• Jack Pearson (funded by EPSRC and jointly supervised by Dr Alan Pacey in Human Metabolism) who is researching biomarkers for male infertility using high field MR imaging and spectroscopy.

Professional Activities:

I am a reviewer for many international peer-reviewed journals including MRM, JMRI, MRI, IOP journals, Radiology and grant awarding bodies such as EPSRC, MRC, CRUK, NIHR, ERC and the Australian Research Council. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a member of the British Chapter of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine committee. I have organised two national meetings on MRI/S. I have chaired many scientific sessions at national and international scientific meetings and have given many invited talks and seminars. I am a Founder and Director of an SME, InnerVision MRI Ltd which produces FDA regulatory cleared dedicated MR systems and has won a British Design Council award for technology development.

Current Projects:

• CRUK/EPSRC/DH/MRC funded programme grant to investigate dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) enhanced MRI/S.
• Wellcome trust funded project to develop/evaluate a GE Healthcare 3T dedicated neonatal MRI system to be installed in the Jessop Wing.
• BimoImaging Consortium of Singapore A* funded project to design, synthesise and evaluate 13C labelled DNP agents for enhanced MR.
• EPSRC funded study to investigate male fertility using 9.4T high field MR imaging and spectroscopy.
• Kurdish government funded project to study advanced functional MR with correlated EEG and optical spectroscopy.
• Sheffield ECMC co-Investigator for development of imaging biomarkers.

Key Publications:

I have over 140 peer reviewed publications, 9 book chapters and 5 patents in the field of MRI/S with a current h-index of 30 (Web of Science).

1. Reynolds S, Kazan SM, Bluff JE, Port M, Wholey E, Tozer G, Paley MNJ. Fully MR-Compatible Syringe Pump for the Controllable Injection of Hyperpolarized Substrate in Animals. Appl Magn Reson (2012) 43:263–273. doi: 10.1007/s00723-012-0333-x


2. Paley MN, Hart AR, Lait M, Griffiths PD. An MR-compatible neonatal incubator. Br J Radiol. (2012) Jul;85(1015):952-8.


3. Cole LM, Djidja MC, Bluff J, Claude E, Carolan VA, Paley M, . . . Clench MR. Investigation of protein induction in tumour vascular targeted strategies by MALDI MSI.. Methods (2011) 54(4), 442-453. doi:10.1016/j.ymeth.2011.03.007


4. Reeves MJ, Brandreth M, Whitby EH, Hart AR, Paley MN, Griffiths PD, . . . Stevens JC. Neonatal cochlear function: measurement after exposure to acoustic noise during in utero MR imaging. Radiology (2010) 257(3), 802-809. doi:10.1148/radiol.10092366


5. Cheong HS, Wild J, Alford N, Valkov I, Randell C & Paley M. A High Temperature Superconducting Imaging Coil for Low-Field MRI. Concept Magn Reson B (2010) 37B(2), 56-64. doi:10.1002/cmr.b.20158


6. Paley MNJ, Kryukov E, Lamperth M & Young IR. An Independent Multichannel Imaging Research System for Ultrashort Echo Time Imaging on Clinical MR Systems. Concept Magn Reson B (2009) 35B(2), 80-88. doi:10.1002/cmr.b.20135


7. Paley MNJ, Chow LS, Whitby EH & Cook GG. Modelling of axonal fields in the optic nerve for direct MR detection studies. Image Vision Comput (2009) 27(4), 331-341. doi:10.1016/j.imavis.2008.05.001


8. Chow LS, Dagens A, Fu Y, Cook GG & Paley MN. Comparison of BOLD and direct-MR neuronal detection (DND) in the human visual cortex at 3T. Magn Reson Med (2008) 60(5), 1147-1154. doi:10.1002/mrm.21753


9. Paley MN, Wild JM, Lee KJ, Griffiths PD & Whitby EH. SNR phase order k-space encoding (SPOKE). Magn Reson Imaging (2007) 25(10), 1402-1408. doi:10.1016/j.mri.2007.03.033


10. Krjukov E, Fichele S, Wild JM & Paley MN. Design and evaluation of a low field system for hyperpolarized 3-He gas imaging of neonatal lungs. Concept Magn Reson B, (2007) 31B(4), 209-217. doi:10.1002/cmr.b.20096


11. Paley MN, Lee KJ, Wild JM, Griffiths PD & Whitby EH. SPIRIT: Simultaneous parallel inclined readout image technique. Magn Reson Imaging, (2006) 24(5), 557-562. doi:10.1016/j.mri.2005.12.019


12. Paley MN, Lee KJ, Wild JM, Fichele S, Whitby EH, Wilkinson ID, . . . Griffiths PD. B1AC-MAMBA: B1 array combined with multiple-acquisition micro B0 array parallel magnetic resonance imaging. Magn Reson Med, (2003) 49(6), 1196-1200. doi:10.1002/mrm.10464


13. Yang H, Cook GG & Paley MN. Mapping of periodic waveforms using the ghost reconstructed alternating current estimation (GRACE) magnetic resonance imaging technique. Magn Reson Med, (2003) 50(3), 633-637. doi:10.1002/mrm.10573


14. Roberts HRS, Paley M, Sams VR, Wilkinson ID, Lees WR, HallCraggs MA, . . . Bown SG. Magnetic resonance imaging control of laser destruction of hepatic metastases: Correlation with post-operative dynamic helical CT. Minim Invasiv Ther, (1997) 6(1), 53-64.


15. Miszkiel KA, Paley MN, Wilkinson ID, Hall-Craggs MA, Ordidge R, Kendall BE, . . . Harrison MJ. The measurement of R2, R2* and R2' in HIV-infected patients using the prime sequence as a measure of brain iron deposition. Magn Reson Imaging, (1997) 15(10), 1113-1119.


16. Paley, M., Cozzone, P. J., Alonso, J., Vion-Dury, J., Confort-Gouny, S., Wilkinson, I. D., . . . Sauter, R. A multicenter proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of neurological complications of AIDS. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses, (1996) 12(3), 213-222.


17. Paley, M. N., Chong, W. K., Wilkinson, I. D., Shepherd, J. K., Clews, A. M., Sweeney, B. J., . . . Harrison, M. J. Cerebrospinal fluid-intracranial volume ratio measurements in patients with HIV infection: CLASS image analysis technique. Radiology, (1994) 190(3), 879-886.


18. Dixon AK, Freer CEL, Hawkins TD, Hall LD, Gleave J, Paley M, . . . Randell C. Magnetic-Resonance Imaging of the Lumbar Spine at 0.5-T, 1.0-T and 1.5-T. Brit J Radiol, (1988) 61(728), 723.


19. Firmin DN, Klipstein RH, Hounsfield GL, Paley M & Longmore DB. Echo-Planar High-Resolution Flow Velocity Mapping. Magn Reson Med, (1989) 12(3), 316-327.


20. Clough S, Horsewill AJ & Paley MNJ. Dynamic nuclear polarisation by the cooling of tunnelling methyl groups. Journal of Physics C: Solid State Physics (1982) 15(17), 3803-3808.

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