Upgrade of the Stanford GE-Varian Experimental MRI Scanner to the Current Model M

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is in response to the NCRR "SHARED INSTRUMENTATION PROGRAM S10" (RFA: PAR-09- 028) to reinforce our investment in improved instrumentation for the advancement of biomedical research in Stanford's interdisciplinary programs. Translational biomedical research is of the utmost importance today and with the rapid advances in molecular medicine and stem cells, plays a vital role in the relevance to public health. We are requesting funds for an upgrade of our General Electric Healthcare "MicroSigna" 7 Tesla/310mm animal MRI scanner to the recently-announced GE-Varian product, the MR901. The Stanford 7T MicroSigna was purchased in 2005 from a funded NCRR NIH High-End Shared Instrumentation Grant (1 S10 RR019887-01) entitled "High Field GE Experimental MR Scanner". The existing MicroSigna 7T purchased from the S10 mechanism was in essence a commercial prototype of the now product MR901. The acquisition of the proposed General Electric-Varian MR901 7Tesla High-Field Small-Bore MR scanner upgrade will complete our needs for an MR experimental scanner to support and drive the research of our community of basic and clinical scientists within the multimodality imaging facility, the Stanford Small Animal Imaging Center (SAIC). The SAIC is supported by the Stanford NCRR P41 (Glover, PI), the Stanford Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS, Contag, PI), and the Stanford In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center (ICMIC, Gambhir, PI). The MR upgrade to be acquired will permit us to better monitor both structural and functional changes in small animal models non-invasively. State of the art MR imaging within the SAIC is necessary to enhance detection sensitivity and resolution; our strong MR-oriented faculty within the P41 has helped us develop new MR applications to support a growing number of crucial biomedical experimental studies now being done on our 3T and 7T whole-body GE Signa LX scanners. The acquisition of this new experimental scanner upgrade will bring the best in clinical consoles (the Signa HDx 20x, multi-coil platform) and all Stanford-derived Signa pulse sequences together into the recently announced GE-Varian MR901 MR scanner commercial product line. The current GE 7T animal scanner (the "MicroSigna") has no doubt enhanced our MR program at Stanford by providing a route for translational research from the top down, that is, by bringing all the MR tools available on clinical research scanners to our routine animal scanning. The upgrade is needed to further improve our imaging technology and bring our MR scanner to a product fully supported by GE and Varian and thus greatly facilitate the introduction of researchers and young investigators to state-of-the-art MR imaging, and also support a strong multi-modality Stanford Small Animal Imaging Facility (SAIC). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This proposal seeks the acquisition of the General Electric-Varian MR901 7Tesla High-Field Small-Bore MR scanner upgrade for the Stanford Small Animal Imaging Facility (SAIC) and the Stanford research community. The current GE 7T animal scanner (the "MicroSigna") housed within the SAIC, while having allowed our many major and minor groups to initiate MR research programs, is limited by several factors which this upgrade will address. The MRI scanner and gradient coil upgrade will permit us to better monitor both structural and functional changes in our various experimental models non-invasively. The upgrade will also bring our MRI scanner to the current commercial product potential necessary for any and all future enhancements. State of the art MR imaging at Stanford is necessary to enhance detection sensitivity and resolution over what we can achieve today on our present system.