7T Small Animal MRI Upgrade - The University of Iowa is requesting funds to upgrade our small animal 7T MRI scanner. The existing scanner is now more than 10 years old and several of the hardware components provided are no longer supported with replacement parts scarce. We are proposing an upgrade of the scanner by MR Solutions, which will replace a majority of the scanner electronics while reusing the superconducting magnet, gradient amplifiers (IECO), RF amplifiers (CPC), and RF coils (RapidMRI). The upgraded scanner will provide a number of significant improvements for animal imaging including: 1) higher performance gradients for rodent imaging; 2) support for imaging larger animals; 3) support for additional MR visible nuclei (129Xe and 13C); 4) increase the number of multi-nuclear capable channels from 1 to 8; 5) provide a modern pulse sequence library; and 6) ability to carry a service contract and source replacement parts. The upgraded system would continue to evolve as MR Solutions continues to develop their pulse sequence library and scanner tools. Finally, the upgraded scanner will provide a more stable platform, which is currently being used more than 170 hours per month with a majority of scanner hours in support for NIH grants. The MRRF serves as a Core University Facility and houses the only small animal imaging facilities in the State of Iowa. The scanner supports 18 investigators with 20 NIH funded grants and the addition of a larger gradient coil would enable imaging in larger animal models. The MRRF supports the research program of investigators from 6 colleges and 15 departments across campus. The facility also supports the research efforts from other state institutions (e.g. Iowa State University). These investigators are a highly productive group, which study a variety of diseases including brain development, stroke, heart/lung disease, and cancer. The MRRF is an active research group who are undertaking the development of novel imaging sequences to support our large number of users. This includes novel imaging sequences to assess 1) tissue microstructure, 2) brain function, 3) cancer, 4) lung function, and 5) metabolism. These projects would significantly benefit from the proposed scanner and provide future imaging capabilities for users of the facility. There is strong institution commitment for this equipment. The 7T small animal scanner is located in the $120 million Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building (PBDB) and the Iowa Institute for Biomedical Imaging (IIBI) was allocated 31,000 square feet of space in this building for human and animal imaging. To help support the scanner, the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering have recently hired 3 additional faculty who are MR physicists. Finally, the Department of Radiology is providing more than $105,000 to cover the purchase of the upgrade and will provide financial support in case user fees are unable to cover expenses for the facility.
