Brain Imaging Centre Receives Royal Visit

Her Majesty The Queen has opened a £44m Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) at Cardiff University. The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, was also given a tour of the centre, which contains some of the best neuroimaging equipment in the world to help unravel the mysteries of the human brain.

Greeted by well-wishers, the royal visitors were also entertained by pupils from Grangetown Primary School, who took part in demonstrations of Brain Games – fun and interactive activities designed to teach children about the brain.

Three children from Llandaff City Church in Wales Primary School were also presented to The Queen after winning a science competition run by the University. The children drew pictures of how the brain works as part of an annual Brain Games competition.

During the tour the Queen and Prince Philip were shown the Centre’s specially adapted MRI scanner, the first of its kind in Europe and only second of its kind in the world which will offer scientists unprecedented images of the micro structural make-up of  tissues. The 7Tesla scanner is funded by a £3M grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and £1M from the Wolfson Foundation and will help establish Cardiff as a National Microstructural Imaging facility.The Centre, designed by global architecture and technology practice IBI Group and built by construction firm BAM, is four times larger than the University's existing brain research imaging facilities.

The new facility has been part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust, the Welsh Government and the Wolfson Foundation.

Together, these investments are supporting innovation in world-class brain imaging research, including the creation of highly-skilled research jobs in Wales. More than £27m of the cost has been provided by funders.

Her Majesty also met 40-year-old David Humphrey from Newport, who worked as design manager for construction firm BAM on the CUBRIC project. David has Multiple Sclerosis and has been taking part in an ongoing CUBRIC research study as a volunteer at the Helen Durham Centre for Neuroinflammatory Disease at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.