OHSU's new imaging research center to receive four MRI scanners
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| One of the AIRC's new 3T MRI scanners, weighing in at 15 tons, was lifted 30 feet by a crane and placed into the building via a wall opening that was left during construction. |
Four technological centerpieces of Oregon Health & Science University's (OHSU) new Advanced Imaging Research Center (AIRC of Portland, Ore) will be shipped, trucked, lifted, and eased into place during the upcoming weeks. The AIRC, which specializes in MRI, will eventually house high-performance MRI instruments: two 3T scanners, one 7T scanner, and one 12T scanner, all four of which are manufactured by Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, Pa).
Three of the MRI units, along with the AIRC offices and core staff, will be housed in OHSU's new Biomedical Research Building (BRB), which is nearing completion on OHSU's Marquam Hill Campus. The second 3T system will be housed in an AIRC satellite facility at the Oregon National Primate Research Center on OHSU's West Campus.
"The arrival of these high-field magnets is a momentous occasion for OHSU research," said Charles S. Springer, PhD, AIRC director and an adjunct professor of physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine. "While it will be many months before all three Marquam Hill instruments are operational, we are on the verge of becoming one of the top imaging-research centers in the nation, both technologically speaking and personnel-wise."
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| The AIRC's new 7T MRI scanner, weighing 30 tons, was transported by truck to Portland; the viaduct roadway leading to the facility was reinforced to handle the load. |
Only a handful of 7T MRI systems for human subjects are in use at this time, with six currently operating in the United States. Only three other US institutions house human-capable MRI systems featuring magnets with fields greater than 7T. The only other 12T system—which, at 12 tons, weighs less than the 7T—in the world is housed at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Md) and is designed for human-health studies in animals.
OHSU's AIRC was created through the Oregon Opportunity, a public/private partnership that was created to make Oregon more competitive nationally in biomedical research that leads to new treatments and cures for disease.
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