Project Summary
Funding is requested for an upgrade of an existing 4.7 Tesla Bruker PET-MRI console. The proposed
instrument will be a crucial component in facilitating the development of novel PET and MR molecular imaging
contrast agents and for diffusion MRI studies of brain structure and neural pathway connectivity. The PET-MRI
scanner serves a large NIH-funded user community encompassing a wide variety of biomedical disciplines
including fibrosis, cancer, cardialogy, gene expression, and brain structure and function studies. We currently
serve users both within the MGH/Harvard/MIT system as well as from around the greater Boston/Cambridge
region.
The requested MRI console upgrade will replace an old Avance III Bruker console that is nearing the end of
its usefull lifetime. Starting in 2024 Bruker Biospin will no longer support or service the Avance III console. Due
to the age of the MRI console, we have had numerous equipment failures over the last few years which have
caused significant scanner downtime. In the future, such equipment failures will be difficult to address since
Bruker will no longer stock spare parts or service such old consoles. The requested console upgrade would
therefore allow us to continue to serve the large local NIH-funded user community and offer important molecular
imaging and brain structural imaging capabilities to the rapidly expanding user base with molecular and brain
imaging interests.
In particular, the proposed instrument would allow for integrated PET-MRI workflow with both PET and MRI
data acquired in the same software environment with seemless image reconstruction and registration. In
addition, the improved 3D dynamic shimming, EPI based diffusion sequences, and gradient coil performance
will greatly enhance the brain diffusion MRI studies. Projects requiring MR-PET include the development of
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) contrast agents for molecular
imaging of liver fibrogenesis, cardiac fibrosis, pulmnary fibrosis, metastatic breast cancer, gastric cancer,
pancreatic adenocarcinoma, inflammatory diseases, Huntington’s Disease, and epigenetic regulation of gene
expression. Projects requiring the enhanced MR imaging capabilities include high resolution studies of brain
neural tissue microstructure, multimodal studies of brain neurovacular coupling and neurotransmitter receptor
trafficking, cardiac fibrosis imaging, and Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) MRI studies of oncolytic
virotherapy.