MRI: Acquisition of a Solids Probe for a 400 MHz NMR Spectrometer to Enhance Research and Training at Texas A&M International University

可以使用核磁共振设备来评估皮质骨孔隙度。生物组织中水分子中附着在氧上的氢原子可以用来评估水分子在特定测量时间内因随机运动而在骨骼中移动的距离。这些信息可以用来获得骨骼中毛孔大小的地图，因此在医学上有实际用途。类似的技术在评估富含石油的土壤样品的孔隙大小以评估石油含量方面也取得了成功。购买这项提案中要求的设备将使德克萨斯农工国际大学，一所少数族裔服务机构(93%的西班牙裔学生)，能够提高学生研究/教学的质量。建议的设备将帮助教职员工和学生：(1)学习和理解磁角旋转核磁共振和固态核磁共振的原理；(2)从事和发展与骨骼相关的研究；以及(3)学习固态核磁共振技术并将其应用于各种不同的应用。研究成果和成果将在期刊和专业会议上传播。每年将有几名研究生和40多名本科生参加与核磁共振相关的研讨会和项目。该设备还将有利于物理、化学和生物工程的研究，并将在每年20多名本科生的班级中用于批判性思维和研究方法的培训。这一光谱仪探头的加入将使TAMU的科学项目更具竞争力，有助于招聘新的教职员工和学生，并使更多主要是少数族裔的本科生和研究生能够在TAMIU的科学学位项目中进行高质量的研究。Pi目前的低场台式核磁共振系统使用由于流动相中的水而产生的核磁共振CPMG自旋-自旋(T2)弛豫时间信号来表征皮质骨孔率和孔径分布，并使用核磁共振自由感应衰变(FID)测量来确定结合相和流动相中的水成分。有了这个要求的仪器，PI可以对骨材料的1H环境进行进一步的研究，以确定骨矿物和骨结构的位置，包括水。具体地说，PI将表征水如何稳定矿物结构，以及它如何与矿物微晶耦合到周围的骨结构。我们假设低场核磁共振和高场磁角旋转(MAS)核磁共振将更全面地解释骨微结构中水分的分布，这些数据对于评估骨质量和预测骨的力学行为是重要的。此外，高场磁角旋转(MAS)技术可用于解耦和减小固-液相之间的偶极效应和磁化率效应。这项研究将为进一步的骨相关研究以及材料和医学应用提供更完整的骨微结构图景。所要求的仪器将为其他教员提供必要的工具，用于进行他们目前在TAMU校园中无法获得的研究方面的研究。

To evaluate cortical bone porosity Nuclear Magnetic Resonance equipment can be used. The hydrogen atom attached to oxygen in the water molecules in biological tissue can be used to assess how far a water molecule moves in the bone due to random motion during a specific time of measurement. This information can be used to obtain a map of the pore sizes in the bone and thus is of practical use in medicine. Similar techniques have been successful in assessing the pore sizes of oil rich earth samples to assess oil content. The acquisition of the equipment requested in this proposal will allow Texas A&M International University, a minority serving institution (93% Hispanic students), to enhance the quality of student research/instruction. The proposed equipment will help faculty and students to: (1) study and understand the principle of magnetic angle spinning NMR and solid state NMR; (2) pursue and develop bone related research; and (3) learn solid state NMR technology and apply it to a variety of different applications. Research findings and results will be disseminated in journals and at professional conferences. Several graduate and more than 40 undergraduate students will be involved in NMR related workshops and projects each year. This equipment will also be of benefit for the studies of physics, chemistry, and bioengineering, as well as will be used in classes of more than 20 undergraduates each year for the training of critical thinking and research methodology. The addition of this spectrometer probe will make the science program at TAMIU more competitive, aid the recruitment of new faculty and students, and enable more primarily minority undergraduate and graduate students to conduct high quality research in science degree programs at TAMIU.The PI's current low-field bench-top NMR system uses NMR CPMG spin-spin (T2) relaxation time signal due to water in mobile phase to characterize the cortical bone porosity and pore size distribution, and uses NMR free induction decay (FID) measurements to determine water components in bound and mobile phases. With this requested instrumentation the PI can conduct further research into the 1H environments of bone materials to identify the locations of bone minerals and bone architecture, including water. Specifically, the PI will characterize how water stabilizes the mineral structure and how it couples with mineral crystallites to the surrounding bone structure. We hypothesize that low-field NMR and high field with magnetic angle spinning (MAS) NMR will provide a more complete interpretation of water distribution in bone microstructure, and these data are important to assess bone quality and predict the mechanical behavior of bone. In addition, the high-field magnetic angle spinning (MAS) technique can be used to decouple and reduce the dipolar and susceptibility effect between the solid and the liquid-like phases. This research will provide a more complete picture of bone microstructure to be used as the basis for further bone related research, and material and edical applications. The requested instrumentation will provide other faculty with a necessary tool for use in pursuing aspects of their research that are presently not available on the TAMIU campus.