Animal MRI Facility

The mission of the Biomedical Engineering Department in vivo high field Animal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Facility is to provide intellectual support and state of the art MRI facilities to researchers in the biomedical sciences and engineering who wish to image or collect nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra from small animals or biological samples with MRI.

This facility is not limited to in vivo imaging of small animals, but also supports MRI engineering development and other biomedical science projects that may require MRI or NMR spectroscopy.

Equipment

The Animal MRI Facility is equipped with a 7 Tesla MRI scanner from Agilent Technologies. The system was purchased using an NIH High-End Instrumentation award (1 S10 RR 22974-01). This system has a 31 cm bore and has a three gradient system for larger animals, rats and mice, respectively, and supports a full range of MRI pulse sequences, including echo planar imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. 

The system includes four transmit channels for parallel excitation, four receive channels, and a wide array of RF coils, including coil arrays for parallel imaging. 

Complete physiological monitoring, animal holders, rapid animal positioning systems, and an animal heater are available.

The control room to the scanner is outfitted with a surgical table and sink for animal preparation and an exhaust system for anesthesia gasses. All the equipment necessary for small animal surgery, including an isoflurane vaporizer, a Harvard Apparatus rodent ventilator, a stereotaxic frame, a warming table, surgical instruments and physiological monitoring, are available.

Use of the Facility

The facility is operated by the users in collaboration with our faculty and students.

Use of the facility can be arranged for any investigator on campus with a legitimate research project.

To be granted access, investigators will need to:

1. Successfully complete a training course on the operation of the scanner. This course is offered twice a year and consists of two afternoon sessions.
2. Sign up on the schedule.
3. Soon, users will set up a recharge sub-account to help defray the facility's operation and maintenance costs. This will take the form of an hourly recharge rate, but this is not implemented.  Please contact Luis Hernandez-Garcia to discuss this issue.

Managing Scan Data

Users will be responsible for transferring, archiving and removing their data from the scanner when the experiment is complete, as disk space is limited and we do not provide a formal data archival system.

Collaboration Opportunities

We strongly encourage collaboration among our users. To facilitate this collaboration, we hold weekly meetings at noon on Thursdays in the 1062 Conference Room in the BIRB Building. These meetings focus on technical and administrative issues related to the scanner's operation and are also intended to foster communication among researchers.

Facility Site

To encourage collaboration, we have developed a site where users can exchange tips and protocols for using the scanner. All users are encouraged to contribute their knowledge to this site as they gain proficiency. Information on how to access the site will be provided to those inquiring about facility access.