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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core Facility
MRI Facility

Our biomedical research interests include, but are not limited to, cancer biology, neurological disorders and cardiovascular pathologies. These themes are addressed with techniques such as basic morphological MRI (e.g. T₁, T₂ imaging), dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE) to establish location and extent of pathological lesions, MR angiography (MRA) to visualize vascularization, functional MRI (fMRI) to monitor tissue/organ response given a challenge function, and MR spectroscopy (MRS) to follow metabolic changes during a disease processes.

The Oklahoma INBRE, OMRF COBRE, and OCAST (Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology) funding provides the facility with infrastructure funds for investigators to obtain in vivo non-invasive functional, morphological and molecular information on various disease models focusing on neurological diseases and cancer detection and therapeutic agent assessments, and cardiovascular disease.

11.7 Tesla - available now

“This new magnet is about six times as strong as the ones found in hospitals,” said Yasvir Tesiram, Ph.D., whose research hinges on the medical applications of ultra high magnetic fields. Using super-cooled liquid helium that circulates continuously through its coils, the magnet generates a magnetic field that is 200,000 times stronger than the Earth’s.

“This allows scientists to study the cells and organs of genetically engineered living mice and rats at microscopic levels,” said Tesiram. “And, it does not harm the animals.”

The new machine, which had a price tag of slightly more than $1 million, brings new capabilities, including microimaging and high-resolution spectroscopy. More importantly, it will give OMRF another MRI to fulfill the needs of state, national and international scientists, Tesiram said.

“We have people who want to use the facility the whole working day and then some,” he said. “The only hours that are free are when everybody is sleeping.”

In the four years OMRF’s facility has been open, scientists have used the MRI to run studies on more than 3,000 subjects. Projects have included:

• studying models of neuroblastoma, a brain cancer that primarily strikes children;

• Examining hypertension and its involvement in type I and type II diabetes; and

• developing new ways to diagnose and clinically intervene against liver and brain cancers.

“Our scientists are discovering things that wouldn’t have been remotely possible without this high-resolution equipment,” said Rheal Towner, Ph.D., OMRF’s Advanced Magnetic Resonance Center director. “This new machine will further speed the process of developing tests to diagnose deadly diseases at earlier, more treatable stages. It will also accelerate our ability to create drugs to treat those diseases.”