Upgrade of 3T MRI system to Siemens Vida for metabolism-related human biomedical research - Project Summary This is a proposal to purchase a new 3T Siemens Vida MRI machine for human clinical research studies at Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC). The new machine, with its 70cm bore, will replace two aging GE 3T systems, one at 60cm bore size, the other at 70cm, that have supported in vivo human metabolism related research at PBRC continually since 2007. The device is needed to address three primary goals: to increase the institution's capacity to perform MRI scans during its peak demand hours; to allow the institution to maintain the state of the art in MRI scanning technology; and to allow PBRC to push its scientific coverage in new directions. By addressing these goals with a 70cm system that is able to scan severely obese individuals that are of high scientific interest to PBRC metabolism researchers, the MRI purchase addresses the long-term PBRC objective of continuing to provide metabolism-related researchers with state-of-the-art measurement tools to comprehensively study risk factors, mechanisms, and consequences of health behaviors such as exercise and eating patterns, as well as metabolism-related clinical conditions including obesity, diabetes, cancer, aging, and Alzheimer's disease. The instrument was specifically selected due to its field-leading strengths in making these measurements in end organs of primary interest to PBRC, including the adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, and brain. This Siemens instrument will increase our capacity during peak demand hours by avoiding the long-term machine outages that plague our current systems, and through a variety of scan-shortening technologies (such as AI-enhanced image reconstruction, compressed sensing, and continuous-table-movement whole-body scanning with seamless coil handoff). It will allow us to maintain the technological state of the art by providing equipping us with the latest software and hardware platforms available, and therefore access to the most-recently-developed pulse sequences and post-processing software emerging from Siemens researchers and academic collaborators. Finally the device will push our science in new directions by enabling us for the first time to scan an entire range of individuals that were previously disqualified from MRI scanning due to their physical and psychological limitations. These advances will significantly enhance the research efforts of PBRC clinical researchers including our current Major and Minor users, whose science collectively covers topics as diverse as adipocyte turnover, cancer cachexia, brain responses to exercise training in aging, and gut-brain signaling in bariatric surgery. The MRI system will provide its enhancements in the context of a longstanding, extensive core services system at PBRC, which has been providing financial, regulatory, personnel, physical infrastructure, and technical support for the MRI machines of the PBRC Imaging Core continually since 2007.
