High-Field Animal Magnetic Resonance Imaging System

描述(由申请人提供)： 巴尔的摩马里兰大学目前有18个由美国国立卫生研究院资助的研究项目，这些项目可能会从共享的高场动物成像磁共振系统的可用性中受益匪浅。这些项目涵盖广泛的高影响力尖端生物医学研究，包括通过扩散张量成像了解大脑发育和疾病过程，了解白质疾病涉及的大脑新陈代谢，了解乳腺癌和前列腺癌的进展和研究治疗药物的疗效，人类疱疹病毒的致病机制，肿瘤发生，神经退行性疾病的进展和研究药物治疗的长期和短期后果，疼痛的神经机制，心脏动力学，精神发育迟缓的代谢和发育方面，有效治疗癌症的药物释放剂的开发，以及许多其他此类最先进的项目，推动我们的科学知识的界限。共享7特斯拉动物磁共振成像的提供将使研究人员能够通过使用多核光谱和成像来探索基本的生物过程，了解疾病的进展，并跟踪新的药物干预措施的效果。购买7.0特斯拉动物成像系统将是我们现有校园共享资源的重要组成部分，并将补充主要用于研究生物结构的高分辨率核磁共振光谱仪。这个成像资源将位于特别设计的空间中，靠近动物收容区，紧挨着两个动物外科套房。医学院、药学和牙科学院、Greenebaum研究中心和马里兰大学生物技术研究所共同参与了这一共享仪器的应用。支持其运作的费用和责任的机构承诺也将由该校园的不同学校和机构分担。在马里兰大学巴尔的摩校区进行的生物医学研究项目的数量和质量已经达到了保证对高场动物成像系统的持续和迫切需求的水平。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Maryland, Baltimore currently has 18 NIH funded research projects that could greatly benefit from the availability of a shared high-field animal imaging magnetic resonance system. The projects cover a wide array of high impact, cutting edge biomedical research including topics such as, brain development and disease processes through diffusion tensor imaging, understanding brain metabolism involved in white matter disease, understanding progression of breast and prostate cancer and studying the efficacy of therapeutic agents, the pathogenic mechanisms of human herpesvirus, tumorigenesis, the progression of neurodegenerative events and studying the long and short term consequences of pharmacological treatment, the neuronal mechanisms of pain, cardiac dynamics, metabolic and development aspects of mental retardation, development of drug delivery agents for effective treatment of cancer, and many other such projects that are state-of-the-art and push the envelope of our scientific knowledge. The availability of a shared 7 Tesla animal MRI would allow investigators to probe into basic biological processes, understand the progression of disease, and follow the effects of novel pharmacological interventions through the use of multi-nuclear spectroscopy and imaging. The purchase of a 7.0 Tesla animal imaging system will be an important component to our existing shared resources on campus and will complement the high resolution NMR spectrometers that are used primarily for studying biological structures. This imaging resource will be located in specially designed space, in close proximity to the animal holding area and right next to two animal surgical suites. The Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry, the Greenebaum Research Center, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute join together in this shared instrument application. Institutional commitment for supporting the expenses and responsibilities for its operations will also be shared by the different schools and institutes of this campus. The number and quality of biomedical research projects performed at the University of Maryland Baltimore campus has reached a level that will guarantee a continued and pressing need to a high-field animal imaging system.