MRI: Development of microXROMM for high-resolution X-ray motion imaging of small animals

布朗大学被授予开发一种新的生物成像技术“Micro-XROMM”的奖项。这台MicroXROMM仪器的精度将是目前XROMM(X射线运动形态重建)的十倍。更高的精度将为研究动物的骨骼、关节和肌肉开辟新的研究领域，这些动物对于目前的XROMM来说太小了，例如老鼠、青蛙、蝙蝠和鸟类。MicroXROMM将使人们能够发现，比如小青蛙如何跳到这么远，蝙蝠的肩膀如何在飞行中实现令人惊叹的翅膀运动范围。这些发现提供了对自然界生物力学的基本见解，也构成了以生物为灵感的工程设计的基础。该项目将包括微XROMM设计和测试方面的本科生和研究生，为下一代仪器手提供培训。学生将来自不同的社区，包括历史上代表性不足的群体，从而为科学和技术发展招募最好的可用人才。像这样的技术开发项目通过本土创新提高了美国的经济竞争力。在比较生物力学领域，XROMM开辟了动物运动(行走、咀嚼、游泳等)骨骼运动学研究的全新领域。然而，超过一半的脊椎动物物种对于目前的XROMM精度来说太小了。MicroXROMM仪器的空间精度将是目前XROMM的10倍(从0.1 mm改进到0.01 mm)，时间精度将至少为1ms(1000帧/秒)。MicroXROMM的加入将为XROMM对啮齿动物、蝙蝠、鸣禽、热带青蛙、石龙鱼、Anoles、珊瑚鱼、虾虎鱼和小鱼等特殊小体种群的研究打开大门。MicroXROMM将在更广泛的范围内丰富比较生物力学、生物灵感设计以及生物和进化生物学的基础研究。例如，microXROMM将适合于研究基因敲除小鼠的品系，这使得它对基因组表型组的研究特别强大。这一开发项目的产品将是：(1)布朗大学的多用户microXROMM仪器；(2)同行评议的出版物，描述该仪器的设计和验证，用于老鼠、鱼和鸣禽等物种的研究；(3)该系统的商业可用性，供其他研究人员从美国小企业合作伙伴处购买。该奖项由核磁共振计划资金支持，并由NSF-BIO整合组织系统分部的生理机制和生物力学计划共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An award is made to Brown University to develop a new biological imaging technology, “micro-XROMM.” This microXROMM instrument will have ten times the precision of current XROMM (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology). Greater precision will open up new research areas to study the bones, joints, and muscles of animals that are too small for current XROMM, such as mice, frogs, bats and birds. MicroXROMM will enable discoveries such as how small frogs can jump so far and how the shoulders of bats can allow the amazing range of wing movements in flight. Such discoveries offer fundamental insights into the biomechanics of the natural world, and also form the basis for biologically-inspired engineering designs. This project will provide training for the next generation of instrumentalists by including undergraduate and graduate students in microXROMM design and testing. Students will be drawn from diverse communities including historically under-represented groups, thus recruiting the best available talent into science and technology development. Technology development projects such as this one increase US economic competitiveness through home-grown innovation.In the field of Comparative Biomechanics, XROMM has opened up whole new areas of research on the skeletal kinematics of animal movements (walking, chewing, swimming, etc.). However, more than half of all vertebrate species are too small for current XROMM precision. The microXROMM instrument will have ten times the spatial precision of current XROMM (improved from 0.1 mm to 0.01 mm), and temporal precision will be at least 1 ms (1000 frames per second). The addition of microXROMM will open the door for XROMM research on speciose small-bodied groups such as rodents, bats, songbirds, tropical frogs, skinks, anoles, coral reef fish, gobies and minnows. MicroXROMM will enrich basic research in comparative biomechanics, bioinspired design and organismal and evolutionary biology more broadly. For example, microXROMM will be suitable for studying gene knockout mouse strains, making it particularly powerful for genome to phenome studies. The products of this development project will be: (1) a multi-user microXROMM instrument at Brown University; (2) peer-reviewed publications describing the design and validating the instrument for research on species such as mice, fish and songbirds; (3) commercial availability of the system for purchase by other researchers from a US small business partner. This award is supported by the MRI program funds, and by co-funding from the Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics program in the NSF-BIO Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.