MRI Platform

The MRI platform is made up of two key components: an Animal MRI platform (Director: Christoph Segebarth) and a Human MRI platform (Director: Jean-François Le Bas). Both are located on the premises of the University Hospital, the former at the new Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (GIN; Director: Claude Feuerstein), the latter in the immediate vicinity of the hospital but also adjacent to the clinical MR Unit.

A specialty of the MRI platform is that it is organized as a service-driven platform. Research teams using the MRI equipment and/or needing support from the platform staff are treated as "clients" of the platform. Services offered to clients cover a very broad spectrum. This can range from providing clients with access to the MR and/or biological equipment for the development of research contracts and subsequent research in areas specified by the client (i.e. the performance of MRI/MRS experiments and/or biological analyses, histology, immunohistochemistry, cell cultures, etc)

The Animal MRI platform is currently equipped with four small animal MRI systems (2.5T, 4.7T, and 7.0T horizontal bore MR imagers and a vertical bore 4.7T MR imager). These systems are installed at the GIN. The Human MRI platform runs a 3T whole-body MR imager. The latter is installed in the immediate vicinity of the two clinical 1.5T MR imagers. The Animal MRI platform will be extended this year with a 3T whole-body imager while the equipment (3T Bruker system) from the Human MRI platform will be replaced by a system identical to the one to be installed in the Animal MRI platform.

The general program developed by the research teams working on the MRI platform is in-vivo brain studies by means of nuclear magnetic resonance. Studies are performed on humans and on animals (from mice to non-human primates). An important part of the program focuses on acquisition and data processing methods in in-vivo MR brain imaging (e.g. rapid spiral imaging; k-space trajectory measurement; combined EEG/fMRI measurements; CMRO2 measurements by means of quantitative fMRI; safety aspects in MRI during deep brain stimulation; in vivo monitoring of cell therapy; brain tissue oxygenation mapping) and spectroscopy (eg: macro molecule detection by means of high field, short echo-time 1H MRS; nosologic imaging; 2D spectral/2D spatial spectroscopic imaging). Methods are developed in support of applicative studies on small animals (rats, mice), non-human primates (macaques) and humans (healthy volunteers and patients). Suitable projects for research include preclinical studies on animal models of brain pathologies (tumors, ischemia, trauma, epilepsy and Parkinson), clinical studies on patients and cognitive studies on healthy subjects. Developments are carried out in partnership with industry (Bruker, Philips, Guerbet). The very broad remit of the MRI platform is especially important both from an industrial and medical perspective.  The platform covers a very wide spectrum, ranging from the development and assessment of in vivo MRI and MRS methods to their application in the fields of the preclinical, clinical, biological and cognitive neurosciences.
The location of the MRI platform on the premises of the University Hospital has undoubtedly contributed to the ease with which preclinical and clinical projects have been set up in the past and as well as clinicians' and medical students' enthusiasm to get involved in research programs developed by the MRI Facility.

The proximity of the platform with the university campus and its Physics and Biology Departments guarantees access to a pool of students interested in MRI methodology and applications.

Furthermore,the Animal MRI Facility has now been moved into the Grenoble Institute for Neurosciences (GIN). Thus, animal and human MRI facilities are now located on the same premises. This highly beneficial environment should eventually enable the possibility of teams sharing both resources and common goals.

The GIN has provided space for all activities that are ancillary to in-vivo MRI (rooms for histochemical analysis, biochemical laboratories, cell culture laboratories, housing for rodents and for non-human primates, etc). Thus, the MRI platform is now in a position to also offer biological services in direct relation to the MRI experiments that are carried out

1. INSERM  (Institut Nationale de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale) - Institute for Health and Medical Research

Small Animal Optical Imaging (SAOI)

The SAOI platform was set up in 2001, in response to increasing demands from scientists to enable the imaging of deep tumors in mice and to enable the monitoring of the fate of large exogenous molecules injected into these animals (molecules such as plasmid DNA used in studies on gene therapy). In close collaboration with the CEA-LETI (Grenoble) and the chemistry lab headed by P Dumy (Grenoble), several imaging devices and optical probes were developed and commercialized (Hamamatsu, Fluoptics).

The platform includes its own dedicated staff (two engineers and one technician). This allows the platform to offer a “full-service” in non-invasive monitoring, in rodents, the expression of the most commonly used reporter genes (Luciferase, GFP or GFP-like, ß-gal, etc), the biodistribution of drugs, antigens, inflammation, or in cell tracking etc.

Located within the IAB (Albert Bonniot Institute) on the premises of the University Hospital the platform includes access to a variety of  ancillary equipment belonging to this Institute, including its animal house.

Small Animal in vivo Nuclear Imaging (SANI) platform

The SANI platform is a pre-clinical platform dedicated to in-vivo nuclear imaging in small animals. Presently, the platform is based around two key pieces of equipment: a small-animal SPECT imager (Gamma Imager) housed at the medical campus of the Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, and a small-animal TEP imaging device (YA-PET micro Imager) located on the premises of Archamps’ Biopark, at some 150 km from Grenoble. Research programs on this platform are developed along the following lines:

• Development of nuclear imaging tracers
• In-vivo pharmaco-kinetic studies of radioactive compounds
• Evaluation of therapeutic trials at pre-clinical levels
• Validation of new animal models in oncology, for the study of neurodegenerative diseases and of
metabolism

Throughout the the course of 2009, the platform will be further extended with three new, small-animal cameras: a microSPECT-CT and a microTEP-CT to be installed on the Grenoble site and a microSPECT-CT to be installed at the Archamps site.