Briton shares Nobel Prize for medicine

Monday, 6 October 2003 12:00 AM

A British scientist who helped develop hospital scanners has been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Professor Sir Peter Mansfield, 70, from Nottingham University, played a lead role in bringing magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scanners into hospitals.

He shares the £775,000 prize with US researcher Professor Paul Lauterbur, 74.

The scanners use a strong magnetic field to measure water levels in the body and reproduce three-dimensional images of internal organs and other tissues.

MRIs replace painful invasive examinations and are particularly important in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

In its citation Sweden's Karolinska Institute said: "They have made seminal discoveries concerning the use of magnetic resonance."

"It represents a breakthrough in medical diagnostics and research," the citation added.

Nobel Prizes have been awarded every year since 1901. They were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896 and are presented at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on the anniversary of his death on December 10th.

This is the third year in a row in which Britons have won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

More than 60 million examinations using MRI scanners are performed worldwide each year.

MRI is believed to produce more detailed images that x-ray scanners and is thought to be completely harmless.

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