Institutional Center Cores for Advanced Neuroimaging

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The general aim of this proposal is to continue the successful NINDS Institutional Center Cores (P30 NS076408) at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR), University of Minnesota (UMN). These Cores offer state-of-the-art instrumentation, advanced technology, and unique expertise for biomedical imaging in CMRR so as to provide cutting edge resources and facilities to investigators who have existing NINDS-funded research projects serving the NINDS mission through “basic, translational, and clinical research on the normal and diseased nervous system”. In the last two and a half decades, magnetic resonance (MR) techniques have evolved to become indispensable in studies of the brain in health and disease by providing otherwise unavailable measurement capabilities in humans and animal models. The optimal use of these techniques requires advanced instrumentation, unique expertise, and complex auxiliary capabilities such as animal surgery, large-scale data and image processing, and complementary measurements employing classical techniques (e.g., electrophysiology and histology). Access to these facilities and methodologies, especially at the cutting-edge, is virtually impossible in individual labs. The proposed NINDS Center Cores will provide and encourage access to these advanced technologies and associated unique expertise to amplify NINDS funded neuroscience research. These aims will be accomplished through three scientific Cores: 1. MR Image Acquisition and Engineering Core (to provide application specific pulse sequences, and hardware, such as RF coils) (PI: Pierre-Francois van de Moortele; co-PI Gulin Oz) 2. MR Data Analysis and Visualization Core (to provide applications specific image and spectroscopic analysis tools and support) (PI: Christophe Lenglet; co-PI Noam Harel) 3. Multimodality Core (to support complementary non-imaging measurement capabilities) (PI: Geoff Ghose) The overall aim of this grant is to provide this access within the multidisciplinary, and interactive research environment of CMRR, so as to enrich the effectiveness of and promote new research directions in a large number of ongoing NINDS funded research projects.