The overall goal of this P41 center is to disseminate optimal new hyperpolarized (HP) 13C MR technologies with requisite training/documentation to advance significantly this emerging molecular imaging method. Specialized training in this new field of hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI is required since it is still quite new and very different from conventional MRI and from other molecular imaging techniques. Training and dissemination through the Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center has been a major focus and highly successful over the past 4 years. In this renewal application, we will continue to utilize the unique instrumentation and personnel of this Biomedical Technology Resource Center to provide unprecedented training in this metabolic imaging technique. The website will continue to be a critical tool for the center to disseminate information on the BTRC's goals, accomplishments, open-source software, research data, how to establish Collaborative and Service Projects, recent news, and with links to other related NIH funded P41 centers and the NIBIB BTRC program web page. Also, there will be a major focus on the timely reporting of techniques and results generated by the BTRC through conference presentations and peer-reviewed journal articles (acknowledging NIH support of the HMTRC). Training will continue to be focused in the areas of polarizer instrumentation & operation, hyperpolarized agent preparation, optimizing 13C MRI acquisitions, and reconstruction/analysis using the 13C-SIVIC open-source software package. Since the establishment of HMTRC, the center has held two hands-on training workshops attracting 85 and 120 participants respectively from across the US, Canada, Europe and Asia; providing hands-on demonstrations, training and technology dissemination in DNP polarizer operation, MR sequence and acquisition methods, bioreactors, animals preps and analysis software. While the center is currently focused on preclinical studies, we will add presentations on clinical translation to enable new discussions/dissemination of the technical steps necessary for clinical trial studies of this HP carbon-13 MR. From TR&D1 research and development, diagrams and construction documentation of the DNP instrumentation and MR hardware developed through this project will be made available online on the HMTRC website as well as the high field MR sequences and imaging protocols. The ultimate goal of TR&D2 is the dissemination of the new NMR compatible cell and tissue culture bioreactor systems optimized for specific cell and tissue types, novel hyperpolarized probe preparations and methods, and the training of the biomedical community on the use of these new pre-clinical models, probes and techniques. TR&D3 will develop free open- source, DICOM compliant, cross-platform software tools for reconstruction, quantification and visualization of hyperpolarized MR data as driven by the needs of the Collaborative Projects. There are currently no other packages available for analysis of the results obtained using the fast imaging and spectroscopy pulse sequences associated with this new in vivo technology.
Dissemination of our techniques and findings continues to be a critical driving force in the renewal of the Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center. The ultimate goal of this center is to collaboratively develop methods that advance the emerging field of hyperpolarized carbon-13 MR and benefit other researchers and enable multi-site research studies.
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