Translational research attracts funding when the path to human application is clear. Within the UK there is pressure to reduce, refine and ultimately replace animals in research. Non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) while expensive, is attractive for human studies because the person is not subjected to any radiation. This talk will explore how MRI can be used in animals and humans to study the role of glial cells in health and disease. The scientific questions we can ask are always limited by the tools available. It will describe some of the practical challenges and pitfalls in preclinical MRI application. For example how to find the expertise and MRI collaborators in the UK? How much will it cost in both time and money? How will you get the data analysed and how will you divide authorship between such a large interdisciplinary team? This talk will describe pitfalls around spatial resolution, choice of anaesthetic and species, imaging artefacts that can and cannot be avoided. This talk will take a deep dive into arterial spin labelling pCASL (pseudo-continuous) and FAIR (flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery) and the reproducibility of these measurements in different experimental conditions. It will explore how to use MRI to study glymphatic flow and clearance and how new MRI methods are being developed to study the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier function and gas exchange between the blood stream and the grey matter. Ultimately this talk will embolden you to embark on MRI research in the future. It will provide you with a greater understanding of potential UK collaborators, the opportunities and pitfalls you may encounter along the way, and it will help you identify a route to move your research from animal to human studies.