Development of Ultra-High Field, Microscale Magnetic Resonance Imaging and In Vivo Spectroscopy Instrument

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This award will support the development of a nuclear magnetic resonance device for microscale three-dimensional spectroscopy and imaging of solid and liquid experimental samples from less than one millimeter up to ten millimeters in diameter. At 18.8 Tesla, with 340Gauss/cm gradient fields, this system will be the most powerful magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy instrument ever assembled. This design will achieve the world's highest resolution imaging and spectroscopy; the predicted image resolution limit is approximately one micron. This instrument will provide students and researchers with a robust system for rapidly acquiring structural and chemical composition data non-destructively in three dimensions for specimens ranging from materials research to single live cells and genetic model organisms, with unprecedented power and resolution. Feasibility experiments exploring the capabilities of extremely high field modalities leading up to the design of the proposed device were carried out using a system designed for NMR spectroscopic analysis of homogeneous liquid-phase samples. The construction of the proposed instrument will provide dramatic improvement in signal-to-noise, resolution, and in-vivo microspectroscopic capability. Existing equipment was not designed for these tasks and is inadequate for advancement beyond feasibility experiments, which have demonstrated the feasibility of applying conventional magnetic resonance imaging and three-dimensional spectroscopic techniques for very small samples with high magnetic field.This instrument will provide a tremendous and unique resource for researchers in electrical engineering and molecular imaging to explore new imaging and spectroscopic modalities. A wide range of experimental applications and precise measurement will become available to the scientific community once this instrument is built and hopefully replicated by other universities and institutions. The instrument is intended to aid in founding a new paradigm of research applications for microscale magnetic resonance research and education. The instrument will be a professional-grade device that is a readily transferable, robust piece of novel technology. It will provide a tremendously powerful and unprecedented opportunity for multi-disciplinary research and research training.