Our primary resource is a Bruker Biospec 7T MRI scanner for NMR imaging and spectroscopy applications, designed specifically for studies on small experimental animals such as mice and rats, as well as ex vivo specimens.   .  For typical applications with a volume coil, a cylindrical space of 7 cm diameter is available to admit the subject, but the cylindrical clear space can be as large as 20 cm in diameter, depending on the hardware being used.  
 

• Actively shielded magnet (7.05 Tesla magnetic field at magnet isocentre)

• 4 receiver channels and parallel imaging capabilities

• Scan synchronization with respiration/ECG/external trigger signals

• Multi-nuclear NMR capability:  1H, 31P, 19F, 13C

• 3 interchangeable gradient sets

  • i.d. = 20 cm, max gradient = 200 mT/m (shielded)

  • i.d. = 12 cm, max gradient = 400 mT/m (shielded)

• i.d. = 6 cm, max gradient = 1000 mT/m (unshielded)Commercially available and custom-made RF coils

  
   

Experiments are supported by a comprehensive suite of equipment to monitor, maintain and manipulate the subject during scans:

• In-scan isofluorane anesthesia system and automatic body temperature control with air heater

• Scan gating using respiration and/or ECG signal

• Monitoring system for vital signs (temperature, respiration and ECG, blood oxygenation)

• Grass recorder/stimulatorSmall animal ventilator

• Remote injector

• Preparation room with surgical microscope and fume hood

• Custom MRI pulse sequence development

• Workshop for custom RF coil and experimental apparatus development

• Computing facilities for data analysis