With recent genetic and molecular advances, small animal (rat/mice) models of human disease have become increasingly important resources for the investigation of the underlying mechanisms of disease. Many traditional investigational approaches require sacrificing the animals for ex vivo tissue and molecular analysis. This prevents the researchers from observing in vivo the natural or perturbed evolution of the processes under study. Additionally, small animal models are becoming increasingly important test beds to investigate the ability of novel implantable miniaturized devices and biomaterials to repair, regenerate or replace the living system. Imaging on the scale of small animals offers an opportunity to noninvasively repeal investigations of biological processes in vivo in the same animal and efficiently test treatments for disease. One approach for bioimaging is to use nuclear magnetic resonance. The ability to perform in vivo imaging and spectroscopy in small animals or large tissue samples is absent at Arizona State University. The gap is further enhanced because of a lack of such a capability in the entire Metropolitan Phoenix Valley area that is home to several excellent clinical and research medical facilities The distance to the closest facility (120 miles) is not conducive to conducting longitudinal chronic studies on large numbers of small animals to support the needs of research in the Phoenix Valley. We request support for a PharmaScan 70116 7.0 Tesla, 90 cm clear bore system from Bruker-Biospin. This is a multipurpose research scanner for high resolution, fast speed, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 2D and 3D image reconstruction and in vivo spectroscopy. Several investigators would significantly benefit from utilizing this system in their research. The applications would range from assessing effects of chemotherapy for tumors, to developing, testing, and implementing noninvasive, brain-imaging indicators of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in double transgenic mice containing AD genes, to assessment of CNS neuroplasticity after spinal cord injury or stroke.
