



To better diagnose and monitor brain diseases, we need “non-invasive biopsies” to access the tissue cell-type composition and state without opening the skull. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research efforts attempt to tackle the challenge but often lack cellular specificity because of the ubiquitous nature of water. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRS) measures diffusion of intracellular and partly cell specific molecules in a region of interest, and forms a solid basis for resolving cell-types non-invasively. Among challenges, resolving signal contributions from the different cerebellar neurons could help monitor and understand neurodevelopmental and ataxic disorders. The cerebellum is a brain region representing 10% of the brain volume but containing more than half of the brain neurons, with the very large and complex Purkinje cells and the very small and round granule cells, both having very different functions and metabolism. The PhD project aims to disentangle these cells with complementary strategies: a classical dMRS approach and a quantum dMRS approach confronted to the state-of-the-art microstructure MRI methods.

