Making imaging more accessible: PhD student advances a new kind of MRI

March 13, 2026 — Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners are the gold standard of medical testing, delivering detailed images of both organs and soft tissue without exposing patients to side effects such as harmful radiation.

However, MRI scanners are also large and prohibitively expensive, limiting their impact. In fact, because of the high costs and significant infrastructure requirements, only about 10% of the global population has adequate access to MRI technology.

Parker Jenkins, a PhD student at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, is part of a team that’s trying to change that.

And he and his advisor have just received a $100,000 grant to support a project that has the potential to dramatically expand access to life-saving MRI scanner technology.

A new kind of MRI

Jenkins is conducting the project, “Development of Clinical Grade RF Encoding MRI Methodologies,” in partnership with his advisor Michael Garwood, a Professor with the Department of Radiology and Associate Director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. Garwood is also a graduate faculty member with the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Together the two aim to address the challenges of availability and accessibility surrounding MRI by advancing a new kind of MRI technology: Radio frequency (RF) encoding.

Radio frequency encoding has the potential to eliminate approximately 25% of the hardware currently used in conventional MRI systems, while still producing clear, clinically meaningful images.

With less hardware involved in construction, radio frequency encoding could help reduce both the cost and complexity of MRIs without compromising the diagnostic quality of images produced. This in turn would make scanners a more viable, and potentially portable, option for healthcare providers.

And this could help make MRIs more widely available across the entire globe.

Smaller, quieter, more affordable technology

Current cost and infrastructure requirements for MRI scanners represent a significant challenge in medical imaging accessibility. Jenkins, Garwood, and other collaborators are reimagining both MRI system design and the underlying technologies that support it.

Their work focuses on developing MRI systems that are smaller, quieter, and more cost-effective, without sacrificing quality in the images they produce.

Part of this work is conducted on a custom 0.7-tesla human brain scanner designed and built by the research team and their collaborators. Support from this latest grant will enable them to use this new technology to generate preclinical brain images, an essential milestone for de-risking the technology and making the improved MRI clinically available.

Reaching clinical trials of more portable MRI scanners is crucial to improving accessibility to patients around the world, something Jenkins has always focused on.

“I wanted to work on important problems in medicine by developing translatable, high-impact technologies,” said Jenkins. “And the University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering gave me access to world-class leaders and facilities to make this endeavor possible.”

Together Jenkins, Garwood, and team are moving closer toward improving MRI cost and availability.

A funding program aimed at real-world impacts

The $100,000 grant was provided by the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics.

Funding is administered by a Clinical and Translational Science Institute team called the Office of Discovery and Translation, which aims to connect the dots between discovery and impact.

The office partners with innovators at the pivotal moment when their ideas are ready to move from research to development, equipping them with the funding and expertise they need to accelerate the path to patients.

For Jenkins and Garwood, the grant means more time, resources, and support around the translation and de-risking of radio frequency encoding technology, a crucial step along the path to one day bringing more affordable MRI scanners to more locations around the world.