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.

Grant Number: 1S10OD038267-01
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: OWEN CARMICHAEL