CCIR News
Case Center for Imaging Research Accepts Delivery of New Powerful Bio-Imaging Magnets
CLEVELAND (July 25, 2005) – Three powerful, extremely large bio-imaging instruments, or magnets, were delivered and installed in the Case Center for Imaging Research (CCIR) of the Case Western Reserve University (Case) School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) on July 23. One of the magnets weighs 40 tons and is eight feet in diameter and 10 feet long. The other two weigh four tons each and are six feet in diameter and five feet long. The magnets were lowered with a crane through a hole near the entrance to University Hospitals’ Lerner Tower, 11100 Euclid Ave.
A large construction crane performed the installation, which began around 7 a.m. and lasted most of the day.
According to Jeffrey Duerk, Ph.D., CCIR director, the center provides imaging technology to aid in areas of cancer, cardiovascular, orthopedic, neuroscience, genetics, drug addiction and other research. This ultimately will lead to numerous scientific discoveries that could translate to significant improvements in treatment of many diseases. The research opportunities dovetail well with Northeast Ohio’s strengths in cancer research through the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center that includes Case, UHC and the Cleveland Clinic, neuroscience (Case and UHC), cardiovascular diseases (UHC and Clinic), and other areas.
“These new instruments will make Cleveland one of the leading imaging centers for medical research in the nation,” said Duerk. “The center will have all of the latest medical imaging technologies available to researchers, providing them with capabilities to examine molecules in tissues and biological processes as they occur in humans as well as in living laboratory animals (such as mice). Case and UHC have created a unique imaging research center that is unlike any in the United States and perhaps world. In fact, there may be more magnetic field strength in the magnetic resonance imaging equipment in Cleveland than anywhere else in the world. This gives rise to Cleveland’s emergence as a leader in medical imaging research.”
The instruments were made by Bruker Biospin Corp. of Germany, a leading manufacturer in the field. The 40-ton instrument has a 4T magnet (T referring to Tesla, a measure of magnetic strength) and will be used for humans, primarily for functional imaging of the brain. It will allow non-invasive experiments that will tell researchers what areas of the brain are connected and active when patients are thinking, speaking and moving. This instrument can be used to study drug-addicted patients, for example, to allow researchers to assess why they became addicted and how their addicted brains have been affected in terms of ability to process information or connect to other areas that regulate desire. Researchers will be able to assess therapies and study diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and dyslexia, also.
The other instruments (7.0T and 9.4T Bruker Biospec in-vivo imaging/spectroscopy systems) allow for rapid and highly sensitive, non-invasive images of animal models of disease. Cross-sectional images of mice and rats will be possible. Further, with the spectroscopic capabilities, it will be possible to perform biochemical analysis in living animals in a spatially resolved way.
The instruments cost more than $7.2 million. The center is supported through Case and UHC and has secured approximately $24 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the state of Ohio’s Biomedical Research and Technology Trust Fund, the Ohio Wright Center of Innovation Awards and Ohio’s Hayes Investment Awards.
The new instruments are housed in a 9,000-sq.-ft. research center designed by Chris Flask, Ph.D., CCIR scientific director, within the Lerner Tower at UHC.
