MRI: Acquisition of a High Resolution MicroCT System

该重大研究仪器（MRI）奖为收购高分辨率X射线microCT成像系统提供支持，以加强纽约市立学院（CUNY）的研究和教育。该仪器将实现从几毫米到亚微米的断层成像和建模-使纽约市立大学和附近机构的广泛领域的基础研究成为可能。从这项研究中获得的新知识可能会导致诊断和治疗方面的重大医学进步，提高美国公民的生活质量。该microCT系统将促进纽约市地区工程、科学和医学教师之间的协同合作。该仪器将用于培训研究生、本科生和高中生进行成像处理、数值建模、有限元分析和研究设计。 该仪器将能够对生物组织的机械行为进行各种基于图像的研究。 除了完整和受损组织的基本表征外，该仪器还将使研究人员能够映射炎症标记物和细胞因子的亚细胞标记物，以响应机械负荷，并在负荷期间生成组织图像。 这将促进对加载过程中发生的微观结构变形以及这如何改变这些组织的机械行为的基本理解。例如，研究人员将对由于微钙化导致的人类纤维粥样硬化破裂的成像和数值建模进行潜在的变革性基础研究，膝关节疲劳损伤和修复的多尺度成像和建模，骨小梁的结构-功能关系，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award provides support for the acquisition of a high-resolution X-Ray microCT imaging system to enhance research and education at the City College of New York (CUNY). This instrument will enable tomographic imaging and modeling that spans from a few millimeters to sub-micrometers—enabling fundamental research in a broad range of fields at CUNY and nearby institutions. New knowledge that will be gained from this research could lead to major medical advances in diagnosis and therapeutics—enhancing the quality of life for US citizens. This microCT system will foster synergistic collaboration between faculty in engineering, science, and medicine in the New York City area. The instrumentation will be used to enable training for graduate, undergraduate and high school students in imaging processing, numerical modeling, finite element analysis and research design. This instrument will enable a wide variety of image-based studies on the mechanical behavior of biological tissues. In addition to basic characterization of intact and damaged tissues, the instrumentation will enable the researchers to map subcellular markers of inflammation markers and cytokines in response to mechanical loading and to generate images of tissues during loading. This will advance fundamental understanding of the microstructural deformations that occur during loading, and how this alters mechanical behavior of these tissues. For example, the researchers will conduct potentially transformative fundamental research on the imaging and numerical modeling of the rupture of human fibroatheromas due to microcalcifications, multiscale imaging and modeling of knee fatigue damage and repair, the structure-function relationship in trabecular bone, the role of tissue damage in bone mechanotransduction and brain damage due to blunt impacts to the head.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.