PFI: BIC- Advancing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Design Discovery from Physics to the Emerging Imaging Marketplace

这种创新伙伴关系：凯斯西储大学（CWRU）的建设创新能力（PFI：BIC）项目是基于对未来磁共振成像（MRI）新设计的发现。这些设计使得MRI系统的开发能够显著减少氦气的使用。为了理解这一重要性，全球氦气短缺以及形势只会变得更糟的预测严重影响了工业和政府。美国国家科学院2010年的报告预测，到2017年，需求将超过世界供应。到目前为止，液氦已经被需要包围在一个足够冷的“浴”中的MRI主磁体周围，以使它们的导线“超导”。值得注意的是，超导性是至关重要的，因为它消除了电力损耗，实现了高磁场，并使MRI在高质量成像所需的超稳定条件下运行。0.5-3特斯拉磁场强度的设计突破证明了新的更高温度的超导材料可以用于MRI线束，并且可以取消大氦浴。其智力价值在于成功地对MRI机器进行建模，例如，找到线束的精确数学位置，从而用最少的超导体导线产生最均匀的磁场。CWRU三十年的工作已经产生了一个独特的和成熟的设计技术，用于优化MRI线圈磁体和硬件。这项研究的广泛影响是显着的。由于氦气价格上涨，世界上已经看到高磁场MRI机器的标准MRI主磁体制造的缩减。如果全球不减少核磁共振成像中氦气的使用，公众的核磁共振成像成本将上升。这可能会减少MRI的使用，因为人们表达了扩大人类医疗保健的愿望。由于氦气成本的增加，超导磁体研究的学术和工业预算受到了沉重打击。没有液氦浴槽的MRI主磁体，其性能可与标准屏蔽的1.5特斯拉超导MRI系统相媲美，将对全球市场产生重大影响。两家主要合作伙伴，Hyper Tech和Quality Electrodynamics，以及其他五家公司（ViewRay Inc.，AllTech Medical Systems、GE Healthcare、Philips Healthcare和Toshiba Medical Systems）已经准备了强烈的意向书，通过他们对项目目标的热情，提供了这种影响的证据。作为主要合作伙伴，Hyper Tech的直接收获是最终一套原型磁铁蓝图，具有高磁场和低磁场选项，以及其超导导线产品重要应用的可行商业化路径。对于另一个主要合作伙伴Quality Electrodynamics，我们的主要目标是从完整MRI系统的支持硬件设计开始，作为新的制造产品，并扩展到与Hyper Tech的内部主磁体制造的可能主要合作伙伴关系。此外，所有7家公司不仅寻求参与这一令人兴奋的技术风险，他们还希望有一个内部轨道，以招募下一代受过高等教育的成像人员在该计划的培训。超过60名本科生，研究生和研究生MRI校友，包括创业学位持有者，已经走出了CWRU物理组，其中许多人现在与十几家多年来与该集团合作的公司合作。未来的学生以及新的MRI磁体是目前MRI设计计划的关键成果。该项目的合作伙伴是领先的学术机构和两个主要的小企业合作伙伴。牵头机构的主要单位是CWRU物理系的俄亥俄州未来工业医学成像系统和设备平台（OPTIMISE）。OPTIMISE是与其他CWRU单位进行的研究和教育的悠久而丰富的历史的产物：生物医学工程，化学，数学和放射学部门，以及CWRU开创性的创业物理硕士学位课程。这两个基于技术的业务合作伙伴是Hyper Tech Inc.。（哥伦布，俄亥俄州）和Quality Electrodynamics（QED）LLC（Mayfield Village，俄亥俄州）。

This Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI: BIC) project from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is based on the discovery of new designs for tomorrow's magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These designs enable the development of MRI systems that reduce significantly the use of helium. To understand this significance, global shortages in helium and the predictions that the situation is only going to get worse have seriously affected both industry and government. The report by the National Academy of Science in 2010 predicted that demand would exceed world supply by 2017. Up to now, liquid helium has been necessary to surround the MRI main magnets in a sufficiently cold 'bath' for their wire to be 'superconducting'. It is noted that superconductivity is crucial as it eliminates electrical power losses, enables high magnetic fields, and keeps the MRI operating under the ultra-stable conditions needed for high-quality imaging. The design breakthroughs for 0.5-3 Tesla magnetic field strengths prove that new higher-temperature superconducting material can be used for the MRI wire bundles, and the large helium bath can be eliminated. The intellectual merit lies in successfully modeling the MRI machine in order, for example, to find the exact mathematical placement of wire bundles that leads to the most uniform magnetic field possible with the least amount of superconductor wire. Three decades of work at CWRU have resulted in a unique and proven design technology for optimizing MRI coil magnets and hardware.The broader impacts of this research are significant. The world has already seen curtailment in standard MRI main-magnet manufacturing of high magnetic field MRI machines because of higher helium prices. If the global use of helium for MRIs is not reduced, the cost of MRI imaging will go up for the public. This will likely reduce the usage of MRI at a time of expressed desire for the expansion of human healthcare. Academic and industrial budgets for superconducting magnet research have been hard hit by increased helium costs. A MRI main magnet with no liquid helium bath, yet with performance rivaling the standard shielded 1.5-Tesla superconducting MRI system, will have significant impact on the global market place. The two primary partners, Hyper Tech and Quality Electrodynamics, and five other companies (ViewRay Inc., AllTech Medical Systems, GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, and Toshiba Medical Systems) which have prepared strong letters of interest, provide evidence of this impact through their expressed enthusiasm for the project target. The immediate takeaway for Hyper Tech, as a primary partner, is a final set of prototype-ready magnet blueprints, with both high and low magnetic field options, and a viable commercialization path for an important application of its superconducting wire product. For Quality Electrodynamics, the other primary partner, the takeaways start with the support hardware designs for the complete MRI system, as new manufacturing products, and extend to a possible major partnership with Hyper Tech for in-house main magnet manufacturing. Additionally, all 7 firms not only seek to participate in this exciting technical venture, they also want an inside track to recruiting the next generation of highly educated imaging personnel trained in the program. Upwards of 60 undergraduates, graduate, and postgraduate MRI alumni, including the entrepreneurial degree holders, have come out of the CWRU physics group, many of whom now work with a dozen companies that have partnered with the group throughout the years. Future students as well as new MRI magnets are key outcomes of the present MRI design program.Partners at the inception of the project are the lead academic institution and the two primary small business partners. The principal unit of the lead institution is Ohio Platform for Tomorrow's Industrial Medical Imaging Systems and Equipment(OPTIMISE) in the CWRU physics department. OPTIMISE is an outgrowth of a long and rich history of research and education carried out with other CWRU units: the biomedical engineering, chemistry, mathematics, and radiology departments, and the CWRU pioneering entrepreneurial physics master's degree program. The two technology-based business partners are Hyper Tech Inc. (Columbus, Ohio) and Quality Electrodynamics (QED) LLC (Mayfield Village, Ohio).