Small Animal MRI Instrument Lab

The use of small animal models for the study of normal development, of progression of human disease, and of treatment of human disease, has become now more easier with availability of MRI imaging instrument. Our BIRC facility has recently acquired a 7 Tesla, 210 mm, Agilent MRI capable of achieving the high resolution images approximately 50 microns and several images per second.

Contact: TJ Hardy

How to use the facility?

Access for all users requires approval of the SAMMI operating committee. The approval process can be initiated by submission of a project proposal the lab’s contact.

Instruments and RF coils

Our 7T Agilent system is an actively shielded magnet with gradient field strength of 44 gauss/cm and rise time of 120 µsec and interfaced to Agilent DirectDrive console. The console is configured with broadband capability for low frequencies (ex. 23Na, 31P, 19F and 13C). A couple of quadrature birdcage volume coils (72/119 mm and 38/108 mm) suitable for imaging of rats and mice are also available. New devices/coils are under construction.

Imaging methods

Relaxometric measurements (T1, T2 and T2* mapping) Quantitative diffusion mapping (DWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) 1H Single voxel spectroscopic measurements using PRESS/STEAM/LASER methods Blood flow measurements using ASL (arterial spin labeling) technique BOLD EPI (blood oxygen level dependent contrast) measurements for fMRI studies.

Data Analysis

BIRC facility has both data and image analysis tools like NUTS, jMRUI, Image J (NIH), FSL, SPM, Stimulate and other MATLAB based software programs available.