In this S10 application, we are requesting funds to purchase a Bruker Avance III electronics console upgrade and accessories for an existing 11.7T/8.9cm vertical-bore micro imaging system. The existing instrument was installed in 2001 and funded in part by an NIH shared instrumentation grant (S10 RR15704). This magnet system has proved to be invaluable to the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research and runs over 100 hours a week. However, we now have an overwhelming and urgent need to replace the electronics console, software, and accessories because: (1) the major electronics systems, including items such as the gradient controller, RF/gradient amplifiers, digitizers, etc., are now three-generations behind current technologies. These components cannot run the most modern image acquisition schemes, and replacement parts will soon become unavailable, (2) the manufacturer (Bruker) no longer supports imaging software upgrades for our outdated console electronics. Without software upgrades, we are handicapped in our ability to apply new and emerging imaging methods that benefit our users, and (3) key hardware components have already failed, such as our X-nuclei high-power RF amplifier, or on the verge of failing, such as our gradient coil and several RF resonators. The existing 11.7T instrument is housed at the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research at Carnegie Mellon University. The NMR Center has been continuously funded as a Biomedical Resource Center by the NIH (P41 EB-001977) since 1988. The NMR Center is dedicated to advancing state-of-the-art applications MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to understand tissue and organ function using animal models and making these tools available to the larger biomedical research community. The NMR Center already has in place personnel and an extensive infrastructure to operate and maintain the instrument. The availability of upgraded MRI instrumentation will serve a large number of NIH-supported research projects across diverse areas of biomedical research, including cell tracking, immunology, psychiatry, cardiology, organ transplant rejection, cancer, head trauma, and cellular therapy. Overall, the proposed equipment upgrade is critical for maintaining the 11.7T instrument as a state-of-the-art system to support ongoing research for 5 Major and 12 Minor users.
