The requested equipment is a hardware upgrade for the BCM Bruker 9.4T/20 cm bore small animal MRI that includes: 1) updating the electronics from Avance I to Avance IIIHD; 2) updating the microgradients to allow for optimal imaging in mouse models and to interface with the new electronics and 3) to update the coils to interface with the upgraded electronics. The upgraded electronics will replace the Avance I electronics, which are out of date and starting to fail. This 9.4T MRI is now part of the Advanced Technology Core (ATC) at Baylor College of Medicine. BCM has turned to this model to centralize all advanced technologies to promote ease of access, multiple collaborations and a means to institute College support for all Advanced Technologies at BCM. This upgrade is essential for multiple reasons: 1) The current hardware (Avance I) for the BCM 9.4T is not ?state of the art? and is in fact three generations behind the current platform (Avance III-HD); 2) Bruker is halting production of replacement parts for the Avance I electronics; 3) The current hardware is starting to fail as evidenced by line artifacts in the images acquired on this magnet. 4) The latest version of the software, Paravision 6.0, that runs the MRI only interfaces with Avance II or higher electronics. Because we are currently operating on Avance I electronics, we are not able to use the latest version of the software. 5) In December 2015, we had some of the hardware fail and the system was down until February 2016, until Bruker could first help us identify the problem and then locate the Bruker site with the appropriate replacement parts. Again, the Avance I replacement parts are becoming fewer and far between. In this case, the replacement parts were located in France and it took several weeks to receive them. For this application, we have identified 17 PIs as major users as well as an additional 5 minor users specific to the BCM 9.4T MRI. We estimate that both major and minor users at the moment use the MRI at about 93% of its capacity, which also gives us opportunity to expand and allow for PIs to collect preliminary data for new projects and grant applications.
The proposed upgrade is relevant to public health because this resource assists a multitude of research projects that are geared towards a better understanding of disease mechanisms as well as evaluating therapeutic strategies. As a result, the proposed work is relevant to the component of NIH's mission of using novel and innovative methods to understand and evaluate therapeutics to improve human health.
