7T MRI Scanner for Small Animal Imaging

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的广泛、长期目标是通过加强临床前和临床研究之间的联系，改善患有神经系统疾病、心血管疾病、I型糖尿病和癌症的患者的治疗。西北大学范伯格医学院的研究人员建议购买一台7T水平30厘米口径的磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪系统，对小动物进行成像。本提案中要研究的疾病是主要的公共卫生问题，所要求的7T磁体将提供与目标疾病（如前列腺、结肠、大脑、心脏、胰腺）有关的器官的高分辨率成像。该成像将a)有助于量化阿尔茨海默病、多发性硬化症、1型糖尿病、冠状动脉疾病和癌症动物模型的疾病进展；b)确定对这些疾病的新疗法（如染料木素、小分子蛋白激酶抑制剂、t细胞调节、胰岛细胞移植、心肌祖细胞）的反应。7T MRI系统的可用性将支持目前资助的这些疾病机制的研究，并使这些动物模型的结果测量与临床实践中使用的结果测量相联系。与该机构现有的小型现场临床MRI相比，所要求的新系统将提供更好的信噪比，从而缩短扫描时间并提高空间分辨率。所要求的仪器的主要用户将包括专门研究神经疾病、心血管疾病、胰岛细胞移植和肿瘤学的高度成就的科学家。提出了一项全面的技术、科学和管理计划，以管理该机构对该仪器的使用。由于类似的操作系统，在这种小型动物扫描仪上进行的研究可以潜在地转化为医学院现有的临床扫描仪。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad, long-term objective of this proposal is to improve treatments for patients suffering from neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, type I diabetes, and cancer by strengthening the linkage between pre-clinical and clinical studies. Investigators at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine propose to purchase a 7T horizontal 30 cm bore magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner system to image small animals. The diseases to be studied in this proposal represent major public health problems and the requested 7T magnet will provide high resolution imaging of organs involved in target diseases (e.g. prostate, colon, brain, heart, pancreas). This imaging will a) help quantify disease progression in animal models of Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, coronary artery disease, and cancer; and b) determine response to novel therapies for these diseases (e.g. Genistein, small molecule protein kinase inhibitors, T-cell modulation, islet cell transplantation, myocardial progenitor cells). The availability of a 7T MRI system will support current funded studies of mechanisms of these diseases and enable linkage of outcome measures in these animal models with outcome measures used in clinical practice. The requested new system will provide improved signal to noise ratio, resulting in shorter scan times and improved spatial resolution, compared to existing smaller field clinical MRI already present at this institution. Major users of the requested instrument will include highly accomplished scientists who specialize in neurological diseases, cardiovascular disease, islet cell transplantation, and oncology. A comprehensive technical, scientific, and administrative plan is proposed to govern usage of this instrument at the institution. Because of similar operating systems, studies performed on this small animal scanner can potentially be translated to existing clinical scanners already present at the Medical School. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: research performed on this requested equipment is to eludicate the mechanisms underlying neurological diseases, cardiovascular disease, Type I diabetes, and cancer and to test potential therapies. The long-term goal of initially performing such research in small animals is to translate potential therapies that are developed into future clinical use.