Health Futures
Technological Futures
Societal Futures
See the Invisible. Heal the Impossible.
Every day, millions of Canadians wake up facing pain, vision loss, memory decline, or mobility challenges that steal their independence and joy. Behind each of those lives is the hope for a breakthrough — one that science at the University of Waterloo is ready to deliver.
The Advanced MRI and Neuromodulation Core Facility (AMRI) will transform that hope into reality. At its heart is a powerful 3T MRI with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a world-class instrument that can peer deep into the brain and body to reveal the hidden causes of disease and disability. This technology will help researchers uncover how we see, think, move, and heal, leading to life-changing discoveries in neuroscience, vision science, and rehabilitation.
Connected to the Waterloo Eye Institute, the Canadian Vision Imaging Centre, and the Waterloo Region Innovation Hospital, the AMRI will ignite collaboration and accelerate medical innovation across Canada.
By supporting this visionary facility, you are fuelling Waterloo’s Health and Well-being Global Future and creating a world where prevention is powerful, recovery is possible and lives are restored.
Together, we can see the invisible and heal the impossible.
We're not just applying existing methods, we're creating the ideas that lead to the next discovery.
Impacts of the 3T-MRI
Advancing Sensory Neuroscience
Our researchers are uncovering how vision disorders affect the developing brain and creating new interventions that help children read, learn, and thrive. At the same time, Dr. Ben Thompson’s groundbreaking work in neuroplasticity is showing that the adult brain, including in older age, can be retrained. His team is developing therapies that strengthen visual processing so an older adult with vision loss can once again enjoy the simple but profound joy of reading a bedtime story to a grandchild. With your support, we can help people at every age hold on to the connections and experiences that enrich their lives.
Help every child see their world clearly and give older adults the chance to keep sharing the moments that matter, like reading to their grandchildren.
Improving Brain Health Across the Lifespan
Millions of people face dementia, concussion, or long-term effects of illness, often without warning. By combining powerful brain imaging with new technologies, our team is striving to spot these changes early, when intervention can truly make a difference. This work has the potential to protect treasured memories, preserve independence, and ease the emotional and financial burden on families.
Give families hope by detecting cognitive decline before it steals memories and independence.
Developing and Translating Advanced Health Technologies
Imagine a future where kidney stones are removed without surgery, where arthritis is detected before the pain takes over, and where spinal injuries are treated with greater precision and fewer complications. Through high-resolution MRI and groundbreaking microrobotics, our researchers are building that future. Their work offers a path toward faster healing, less suffering, and renewed hope for people living with chronic pain or serious injury.
Provide life-changing care without the pain, fear, or trauma of invasive procedures.
Enabling Cross-Disciplinary Health Innovation
The AMRI will be more than a research facility. It will be a vibrant hub where scientists, clinicians, and engineers unite around a shared purpose: to improve human health in ways that matter deeply to individuals, families, and communities. This collaborative energy will spark breakthroughs that ripple far beyond our campus into homes, hospitals, and lives across the country.
Create a place where brilliant minds come together to change lives.
Read updates about the AMRI, and research from Dr. Ben Thompson
Advanced MRI and Neuromodulation Core Research Facility
The AMRI Facility will ignite Waterloo’s potential to drive the imaging field and accelerate research activity under the Health Global Future.
A robot friend for vision treatment
An interdisciplinary team of University of Waterloo researchers, including Dr. Ben Thompson, is trying to improve treatment adherence through use of a social robot that can educate and motivate children and their caregivers.
Together, we redefine possibility.
Your support for the AMRI will fill a gap in patient care in our community, creating a future where world-class medical treatment is truly local.