Brainy students create world first

A 3D brain model is at the centre of a project created by a group of postgraduate students based at Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute.

The team, known as BRAINYak, scanned a fellow member's brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to construct its model. Their brains have literally become their entry in this year's Biotechnology Entrepreneur Program, an initiative of Young Achievement Australia.

The BRAINYak team wanted to design a unique way to understand where regions are in the brain and how they interrelate.

"Powerful new neuroimaging technologies such as magnetic resonance have opened up a new window in understanding the organisation and inner workings of the body's most mysterious organ, the brain," said Scott Kolbe, the BRAINYak member who donated his brain for the scan.

"Using this technology we have created the perfect tool to understand neuroanatomy as easily and as efficiently as possible so we can instead focus on curing brain diseases and disorders that impact enormously on society."

Their product, the NeuroSlice model consists of MR images of Kolbe's brain, which have been colour-coded so different areas of the brain can be easily identified. The model will be of use to students and postgraduates new to the neuroscience field and to clinicians as a prop for diagnostic explanations to patients.

The invention claims to be the first 3D brain model that uses MRI images and provides a representation of the brain in space, something not found when using software programs and brain atlases.

Participants in the Biotechnology Entrepreneur Program are guided through a 24-week intensive program during which they develop a product, sell shares to raise capital, manufacture, market and sell to the industry with the hope to return a profit to shareholders at the end of the program.

For further information on BRAINYak and their invention visit www.hfi.unimelb.edu.au/BRAINYak.

22/09/06