U24NS129949

NexGen 7T MRI Scanner for Mesoscale Brain Imaging: Integration and Dissemination - Summary

The "NexGen" 7 Tesla MRI scanner at UC Berkeley is a unique resource that we wish to make available for neuroscience collaborations across the globe. It was specifically designed for extremely high resolution structural and functional neuroimaging at the scale of cortical laminae and columnar neurocircuit organization ("meso-scale").

To achieve this, the NexGen scanner builds upon existing standard 7T scanners and integrates a number of technological advances, creating synergistic improvements and gains in speed, resolution, and signal. Such advances include: currently the highest performance one-of-a-kind head-only magnetic gradient coil designed to safely create more signal at faster time scales (higher gradient amplitudes and slew rates without peripheral nerve stimulation; PNS), high-density receiver array coils (e.g. up to 128 channel receive array integrated into a 7T) that enable unprecedented spatial resolution and image-forming accelerations.

As part of this collaborative endeavor, we will be creating novel advances in pulse sequences for novel neuroscientific applications imaging to take advantage of the scanner hardware’s higher performance. The scanner has been validated in reproducible mesoscale fMRI studies using GE-EPI and VASO fMRI at isotropic resolutions between 0.39 mm and 0.6 mm, that is a 4.6 to 23-fold higher volumetric resolution over typical 1 mm isotropic resolution in fMRI on conventional 7T scanners.

The stronger gradients offer considerable improvements in diffusion imaging reaching higher b-values with shortened TEs. These hardware advances also enable larger areas of brain coverage, higher temporal resolutions, and reduced distortions at mesoscale resolutions. Thus, with the NexGen 7T, meso-scale neuroscience experiments can be greatly expanded from traditional zoomed, small volume imaging approaches.

Such a one-of-a-kind instrument has great potential to continue to advance the field and will be optimally used by a diverse group of neuroscientists and clinician scientists. Funding of the current U24 proposal would facilitate engineering and scientific personnel to support and maintain the use of the scanner; enables efficient data transfer and analysis, as well as the subject recruitment, user training, and guidance of scientific collaborations nationally and internationally.

While the main goal of this project is to provide an innovative resource for higher granularity in functional and structural human brain research, the research resource also holds potential for better understanding neurological diseases, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and mental disorders.

Regents Of The University Of California

(1) TO SUPPORT EXTRAMURAL RESEARCH FUNDED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE (NINDS) INCLUDING: BASIC RESEARCH THAT EXPLORES THE FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, RESEARCH TO UNDERSTAND THE CAUSES AND ORIGINS OF PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM WITH THE GOAL OF PREVENTING THESE DISORDERS, RESEARCH ON THE NATURAL COURSE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, IMPROVED METHODS OF DISEASE PREVENTION, NEW METHODS OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT, DRUG DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT OF NEURAL DEVICES, CLINICAL TRIALS, AND RESEARCH TRAINING IN BASIC, TRANSLATIONAL AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE. THE INSTITUTE IS THE LARGEST FUNDER OF BASIC NEUROSCIENCE IN THE US AND SUPPORTS RESEARCH ON TOPICS INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: DEVELOPMENT OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, INCLUDING NEUROGENESIS AND PROGENITOR CELL BIOLOGY, SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION IN DEVELOPMENT AND PLASTICITY, AND PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH, SYNAPSE FORMATION, FUNCTION, AND PLASTICITY, LEARNING AND MEMORY, CHANNELS, TRANSPORTERS, AND PUMPS, CIRCUIT FORMATION AND MODULATION, BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, SENSORIMOTOR LEARNING, INTEGRATION AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION, NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEMS, SLEEP AND CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS, AND SENSORY AND MOTOR SYSTEMS. IN ADDITION, THE INSTITUTE SUPPORTS BASIC, TRANSLATIONAL AND CLINICAL STUDIES ON A NUMBER OF DISORDERS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO): STROKE, TRAUMATIC INJURY TO THE BRAIN, SPINAL CORD AND PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS, MOVEMENT DISORDERS, BRAIN TUMORS, CONVULSIVE DISORDERS, INFECTIOUS DISORDERS OF THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM, IMMUNE DISORDERS OF THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM, INCLUDING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, DISORDERS RELATED TO SLEEP, AND PAIN. PROGRAMMATIC AREAS, WHICH ARE PRIMARILY SUPPORTED BY THE DIVISION OF NEUROSCIENCE, ARE ALSO SUPPORTED BY THE DIVISION OF EXTRAMURAL ACTIVITIES, THE DIVISION OF TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH, THE DIVISION OF CLINICAL RESEARCH, THE OFFICE OF TRAINING AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, THE OFFICE OF PROGRAMS TO ENHANCE NEUROSCIENCE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, AND THE OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES. (2) TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE THE SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO INCREASE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. TO UTILIZE THE SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM, TO STIMULATE AND FOSTER SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

93.372 - 21st Century Cures Act - Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NNDS) [HHS - NIH]

California United States

State-Wide

BRAIN Initiative: Research Resource Grants for Technology Integration and Dissemination (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (RFA-NS-22-011)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 219% from $1,356,917 to $4,329,771.