Ultra Low Field Neuroimaging in the Young

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation the UNITY network is a multinational collaboration between clinical, academic and industrial researchers to develop and deliver improved neuroimaging access globally. The project’s ultimate goal is to deliver improved tools for measuring infant neurodevelopment that are objective and predictive of current and future developmental outcomes. One of the tools includes the use of a low cost, portable, ultra-low field MRI scanner.


The project now extends to more than 20 global hospitals and clinical research centres, with support provided by engineering and data modelling hubs. It’s an extensive international collaboration that is already enabling previously under-served locations to engage in innovative infant brain scanning and assess its role as a tool in Global Health research.

The program is focused on the development of paediatric ultra low field neuroimaging in order to visualise healthy brain development and address the detrimental effects of conditions including maternal anaemia, malnutrition and infection on the baby brain.

This team is working in collaboration with Hyperfine, the pioneers of portable, point-of-care brain MRI to improve the acquisition, analysis and delineation of brain pathology, Flywheel to collate and automate analysis workflows in a transparent and reproducible way at scale, Collective Minds Radiology for training and The International Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ISMRM) for knowledge exchange and capacity building. 

Ensuring that women and newborns survive and remain healthy before, during, and after childbirth by identifying and addressing underlying biological vulnerabilities.

To promote the advancement of MRI/S research by catalyzing the exchange of scientific personnel; to build community amongst MRI/S scholars that fosters rapid and efficient transfer of knowledge and progress of the field.

Swoop, the world’s first FDA-cleared portable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system

Data discovery tool for exploration and analysis of imaging data

cloud-based collaboration platform for healthcare and research

Quality Assurance Phantoms

Shared codebase for analysis and tools

UNITY Network 

In blue are the primary clinical partner sites aiming to answer important global health questions

Yellow are physics and engineering sites working to improve acquisition sequences and hardware

Pink are specialist analyst sites

Strategy 

ROYAL VISIT

8th March 2024

King's College London welcomes The Princess Royal to the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences

UNITY: A Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Neuroimaging Initiative to Characterize Neurodevelopment in Low and Middle-Income Settings