Saturday, December 13, 2025 12/13/2025

Development and Application of Muscle Diffusion Tensor MRI

Award Number: R01AR073831
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS & MUSCULOSKELETAL & SKIN DISEASES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/07/2019
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 12/31/2025

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Development and Application of Muscle Diffusion Tensor MRI - PROJECT SUMMARY We will advance the quantitative understanding of how human muscle structure impacts function, in health and disease; and we will share the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) resources used to generate this knowledge freely with the muscle research community. At every level of biological complexity, muscle structure significantly influences muscle function. These properties include the intermediate-scale relationships known as muscle architecture: the shape and orientation of a muscle’s fibers with respect to its mechanical line of action. Our understanding of how muscle architecture affects muscle function remains incomplete, however, and our tools for studying these relationships are insufficiently developed. As a result, there are critical gaps in our understanding of how pathologically altered muscle architecture in diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) impairs in vivo, whole-muscle function and exacerbates these muscles’ risk of further injury. To provide this knowledge, we will advance the technology and application of quantitative MRI techniques such as diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), overcoming several remaining technical challenges and developing an improved understanding of muscle architecture and function. Aim 1 is to validate MRI methods for quantifying muscle architecture in a broad range of states of muscle health and disease, at rest and during contraction. We will validate DTI fiber-tracking algorithms for quantifying the architecture of healthy, atrophied, inflamed, and fat-infiltrated muscles, and we will develop and validate methods that combine DTI fiber-tracking and rapidly acquired 3D images to quantify muscle architecture during contraction. Aim 2 is to advance the quantitative understanding of the functional impact of muscle architecture in healthy and dystrophic human muscle. We will quantify the relationships among muscle architecture and force generation, strain development, and the sufficiency of peripheral oxygen supply. The outcome of this work will be a newly identified physiologic mechanism of injury in DMD and the scientific foundation for using advanced structural and functional MR imaging to evaluate and guide therapy. Aim 3 is distribute data and software for MRI-based muscle structure-function analysis. A whole-body imaging dataset will be made publically available. Also, a software toolkit for processing these data will be made freely available and supported through collaborations. Overall, we will develop optimal methods for analyzing DTI data from healthy and diseased muscles and integrating these data with those available from other MRI sequences. We will create new knowledge about the relationships between muscle structure and function and how they are impacted by disease. By developing these advances into a freely available dataset and toolkit, we will enable musculoskeletal researchers worldwide to apply these methods in applied physiology and translational studies.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2025	2024	THE CARLE FOUNDATION	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	5	12/18/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $368,474 )
2024	2024	THE CARLE FOUNDATION	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	002	5	8/20/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2024	THE CARLE FOUNDATION	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	001	5	6/6/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$26,590
2024	2024	THE CARLE FOUNDATION	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	5	2/22/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$341,884
														Subtotal = $368,474

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $390,100 )
2023	2023	CARLE FOUNDATION, THE	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	4	12/16/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$351,091
2023	2023	CARLE FOUNDATION, THE	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	001	4	5/8/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$39,009
														Subtotal = $390,100

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2022	2021	CARLE FOUNDATION, THE	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	3	4/20/2022	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $388,851 )
2021	2021	CARLE FOUNDATION, THE	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	003	3	8/26/2021	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$336,667
2021	2021	CARLE FOUNDATION, THE	611 W PARK ST	URBANA	IL	61801	CHAMPAIGN	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	001	3	7/8/2021	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$388,851
2021	2020	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	2	7/7/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2021	2020	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	002	2	8/26/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$336,667
														Subtotal = $388,851

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $471,475 )
2020	2020	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	2	4/17/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$471,475
														Subtotal = $471,475

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $496,657 )
2019	2019	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	1	5/7/2019	NEW	$496,657
														Subtotal = $496,657

Grand Total All Awards = $2,115,557

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Development and Application of Muscle Diffusion Tensor MRI

Award Number: R01AR073831

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS & MUSCULOSKELETAL & SKIN DISEASES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/07/2019

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 12/31/2025

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer