The First Newsletter for the MR Research Initiative across
University of Illinois Campuses

As the new MR research initiative of the University of Illinois moves towards its goal of providing state-of-the-art whole body MR technology to investigators across multiple departments on both UIC and UIUC campuses, we wish to update all faculty on recent progress and future milestones.

Dr. Keith Thulborn has been appointed as the Director of the MR Research Program with primary appointment in Radiology and secondary appointments in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at UIC and the Department of Information Sciences and the Beckman Institute at UIUC. His appointment focuses a high level of visibility and support at every administrative level of the University of Illinois on magnetic resonance research in which this institution has already made major contributions and has considerable credibility. In order to facilitate involvement of all interested investigators irrespective of department or campus, we invite those interested to introduce themselves to Dr. Thulborn by email ( thulbornk@netscape.net ) so that we can assemble an email communication system for efficient distribution of future issues of this newsletter. Please pass this newsletter on to your colleagues who may not otherwise see it. The building of our imaging resources on the UIC campus, recruitment of faculty and staff and implementation of research policies and training/education programs are currently in progress. Given the need to communicate across departments, colleges and campuses, our Web page and newsletter will be vital links.

As an initial step, a small steering committee has been appointed. This committee consists of: Claude Desjardins (Associate Dean of Medicine for Research, UIC), Mahmood Mafee (Chairman of Radiology, UIC), Richard Magin (Chairman of Bioengineering, UIC), Andrew Webb (Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, UIUC), James Weyhenmeyer (Professor of Cell and Structural Biology, Associate Vice-President of Economic Development and Corporate Relations,UIUC), Brad Schwartz (Regional Dean of Medicine, UIUC) and Dr. Thulborn (Director of MR Research).

This committee is charged with the initial responsibility of assembling the faculty, technology and policies required to organize the research, educational and clinical MR program for investigators across both campuses in a fiscally sound and intellectually rewarding way. Participation by all interested faculty is encouraged at this early stage through contact with the members of the steering committee or via email with us. All constructive suggestions are welcome and will be presented to the steering committee for discussion.

The 3T whole body scanner in the new outpatient care clinic (OCC) building is at field and presently going through acceptance testing. Stability and SNR assurance, installation of supplementary physiological and visual equipment, and new software/hardware applications are soon to be completed; the system will then be available to researchers.

Training in the use of this instrument should be an objective of every investigator. We realize that this philosophy may be a departure from previous experiences where investigators were kept at a distance from clinical technology. Given the objective of this program is to promote research opportunities, hands-on experience is mandatory to maximize creativity. Such an open policy also entails responsibilities for investigators to maintain instrument functionality for other investigators. We plan to start this training as soon as acceptance testing is completed and policies are in place for allocation of time and safety assurance. Some investigators have already submitted proposals and other investigators are also welcome to do so. The format of written protocols (with IRB and IACUC approval where appropriate) should be concise with a testable hypothesis, valid acquisition and analysis methodologies for testing the hypothesis, along with an indication of the MRI time and resources being requested. A more formal process will evolve from these initial experiences. The goal of our steering committee will be to ensure fair access with minimal but adequate paperwork grounded on fiscal responsibility.

New senior and junior faculty are being recruited for participation as independent investigators to continue building on the intellectual resources already present at our institution. These people will be appointed in Colleges and Departments appropriate to their expertise which include the science departments of chemistry, engineering, physics, neuroscience, physiology and psychology and the clinical departments of cardiology, neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and radiology. We will attempt to involve as many faculty as possible in this recruitment process as is feasible and appropriate.

An exciting new resource is also on the way: a 9.4Tesla human scanner which will be the first of its type in the USA. The research opportunities with this machine promise to be immense as the signal-to-noise performance will give access to MR signals that were previously not feasible in routine human studies. We look forward with great excitement to participating in building this program within the University of Illinois. With state-of-the-art imaging technologies and a faculty interested in understanding human physiology and biochemistry, the scientific opportunities are enormous. Dr. Thulborn and the steering committee invite all faculty members at the University of Illinois to contribute and participate in this adventure.