In vivo imaging of small animals form the foundation for any translational research center. In recent years, microimaging devices have taken a quantum leap in terms of both their number in use at pharmaceutical or academic institutes and improvement in their sensitivity, resolution and other technical breakthroughs. MicroMRI may be the most versatile of these modalities with the ability to obtain superior soft tissue contrast, function and resolution. We propose to acquire a Bruker 7 T ClinScan MRI scanner, capable of obtaining in vivo high-resolution images of mice, other laboratory rodents, rabbits, and small primates. The purpose of this instrument is to allow researchers at our institute to study morphology of wild-type or genetically modified animals, study preclinical drug development or other treatment strategies, detect biomarkers of disease and to develop new MRI based contrast agents to various study disease mechanisms. Our research institute currently has one Bruker 9.4 T installed. This is a small bore magnet which only allow imaging of mice. In addition, this scanner is already used beyond its capacity by a large number of projects. Our institute has received several new grants that require microMRI which makes it critical that we enhance our capacity. The 7 T ClinScan will benefit several current PIs who are conducting microMRI studies as well new PIs with new animal models. The 7 T ClinScan complements our current 9.4 T in several ways: the 7 T has a much larger bore size which allows imaging of rats and small primates. It would also allow whole human brain specimen to be imaged. Our institute has a large brain bank and the 7 T would allow non-destructive documenting of these specimens. Several federally funded grants will benefit from this new scanner in terms of its expanded capabilities. Our current 9.4 T with a 30 mm inner diameter RF coil is only capable of imaging mice and is currently serving several R01, P01, and P50 projects as well as some pilot scans. It is currently already running 24/7. The 7 T ClinScan can accommodate RF coils with inner diameter of 15.4 cm which allows imaging of small primates as well as whole brain specimens. We also foresee that the 7 T field strength will become a standard in clinical practice in the near future, so it is important that mechanistic issues about disease processes be studied at this level to allow translation. Figure 1 shows currently installed 7 T systems. Research projects at our institution include white matter disruption in schizophrenia using genetically modified mouse models and diffusion tensor imaging, high resolution morphometric studies of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, development of MRI contrast agents both for in vivo imaging of certain brain receptors and other biomarkers as well as atherosclerotic plaque imaging.
MicroMRI is the superior imaging modality to visualize soft tissue structure as well as biological processes. A microMRI scanner will allow researchers to test efficiently animal models of disease and treatment strategies at much higher resolution and specificity than is possible with human scanners. Results can be translated conveniently to human MRI scanners in terms of diagnosis as well as to humans in terms of treatment methods.
