Zero Cryogen Boiloff Technology Magnet: A Regional Animal MRI Resource

ABSTRACT This proposal requests support for a new animal MRI scanner magnet and gradients to replace the original equipment that was destroyed in a recent untimely and unexpected magnet quench. After replacing the magnet and gradients, the Animal MRI Core will again have a state-of-the-art system that supports research

from NIH-funded investigators representing four IDeA State institutions in the Midwest: University of Kansas Medical Center, University of Kansas-Lawrence, Kansas State University, and Pittsburg State University. The upgraded system will also support the research initiatives of seven NIH-funded centers: University of Kansas

Alzheimer’s Disease Center, University of Kansas Cancer Center, Kansas Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center, University of Kansas Polycystic Kidney Disease Research & Translation Core Center, Frontiers: University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and two CoBRE Centers

(Kansas State University Cognitive and Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity Center and Kansas Center for Metabolism and Obesity Research. Our user group includes >20 NIH-funded investigators who have adopted MRI methodology to answer complex biomedical questions in neurological, renal, pulmonary, and hepatic disease and through studies in

neurodegeneration, metabolism, obesity, pain, and developmental biology. With this scanner, these investigators will have access to high-performance electronics that will provide many new acquisition sequences for data acquisition and an intuitive graphical user interface based on clinical MRI scanner designs

which is more user-friendly to operators, thus opening access to a wider user group including graduate students and post-doctoral fellows since their training period will be dramatically shorter. Accordingly, we anticipate reduced imaging costs to investigators funds. This system will be installed in the University of Kansas Medical Center Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center. It

will be supported by strong institutional commitments to operating costs and an outstanding team of imaging scientists who will collaborate with our Major and Minor Users on study design, imaging protocol development, analysis of data and interpretation of results. We expect this system to quickly and dramatically increase in

research activity at the University of Kansas Medical Center as well as in the nearby region.