Partial funding is requested for the purchase of a Bruker Medspec 3T/60 Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Spectroscopy system to be used as a shared instrumention facility at the Medical College of Wisconsin. This instrument is suitable for animal and also certain human studies (particularly heads). It will be sited for convenient access both to the Animal Care facility and to our hospitals by overhead connectors. The magnet has a 52.5 cm clear bore with gradient and shim coils but without rf coils. Numerous self-built specialized rf coils will be built for a wide variety of animal and patient studies. The proposal emphasizes studies on both animals and humans using both imaging and spectroscopy. The user group has approximately equal weighting between the basic science and clinical faculties of the college. There are presently no small-bore high-field animal scanners in Wisconsin nor are there any human scanners that are fully dedicated to research. This instrument will create research opportunities not only for investigators in the College, but also in Milwaukee and throughout the state. It is argued that animal studies that can be extended to humans using the same instrument at the same field are particularly advantageous. It is further argued that 3T will give significantly improved spectroscopy compared to 1.5T. Modest improvements in image quality are also anticipated particularly in the head and extremities. The total cost of the requested instrument is 1.5 million dollars. The present proposal is in the amoilnt of $400,000. The additional cost has been guaranteed by the Dean of the College (see enclosed letter). The cost of operation of the spectrometer will be supported in the first year by the Department of Radiology (see enclosed letter) and in subsequent years by user charges. Currently, all MRI investigations at the College are carried out at night and weekends using a 1.5T clinical scanner. The circumstances are difficult, the instrument overloaded, and the spectroscopy capability very limited. The proposal demonstrates compliance with the first criterion for evaluation of a shared instrument proposal: that the requested instrument will """"""""enhance the planned research endeavors of the major users by providing an instrument that is unavailable or to which availability is highly limited."""""""" The requested instrument also will enhance our ability to train Ph.D. students who are in the Interdisciplinary Biophysics Program. Currently, there are 5 students who primarily use MRI in their research.
