Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research (UCAIR)

The goal of the Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research (UCAIR) is to advance medical imaging technology by applying the tools of physics, mathematics, and engineering. UCAIR achieves this goal by providing the following:

• Infrastructure and support for grant submittal and management to foster all aspects of medical imaging technology research
• Imaging expertise to all departments within the university campus. This includes instrumentation as well as physics and radiology support for university projects in areas of high-end human imaging

For more information about UCAIR.

UCAIR also oversees and manages other imaging resources available to the Molecular Imaging Program, including MRI and CT. Computer support is also available to the Molecular Imaging Program through UCAIR resources.

MRI Scanners

MRI is an important complimentary molecular technique for primary molecular imaging studies using new and novel MRI contrast agents that have a molecular basis for their distribution and action. This is why the Molecular Imaging Program has access to the highest quality MRI capabilities through UCAIR resources.

John Hoffman, MD, is medical director of UCAIR. He facilitates the interaction of the PhD scientific staff with the Molecular Imaging Program. Dennis Parker, PhD, directs the research MRI facilities. The University Recharge Center facilitates MRI research at a reasonable cost.

Current MRI capabilities include two 1.5 Tesla Siemens Avanto MRI scanners equipped with multi-coil capabilities. There is one at the University of Utah Hospital and one at Huntsman Cancer Hospital. There is a 1.5 Tesla Siemens Espree MRI scanner (wide bore and short design) equipped with multi-coil capabilities.

The Center for Advanced Medical Technologies (CAMT) currently houses two Siemens Trio 3T MR scanners. In addition there are two Siemens Trio 3T MR scanners in the Neuroscience Center. All scanners have an actively shielded water cooled high performance gradient system (45 mT/m amplitude, 200 T/m/s slew rate), 32 high speed RF receiver channels and RF body coil, head coils and several coils of variable numbers of elements designed for specific body parts. The coil development lab designed custom coils for unique geometries. These systems are also equipped with pulse sequences and appropriate software for spectroscopy, functional MRI, diffusion tensor MRI, and other high-end imaging capabilities. A user-friendly, yet highly flexible pulse sequence development platform is also included to allow research and development in novel techniques.

Computing Infrastructure

The UCAIR computing systems includes the following:

• One Sun Enterprise 450 (2-400MHz CPUs, 2GB RAM) with over 360 GB of RAID disk storage
• One ULTRAEnterprise 450 (1GB RAM, 4-300MHz UltraSPARC processors)
• One Sun Enterprise 250 (2-400MHz CPUs, 2GB RAM)
• One Sun Enterprise 250 (2-400MHz CPUs, 1GB RAM)
• One ULTRA 60 (1.5GB RAM)
• One ULTRA 80 (2GB RAM)
• One NETRA T1 (1-450MHz CPU, 1GB RAM)
• One dual Athalon (1.96Ghz, 2GB RAM) with 1.8 TB of RAID disk storage
• 14 ULTRA5s (1-333-360MHz, 128-750 MB RAM)
• 20 Sunray Network appliances
• One SPARCcenter 2000 (1GB RAM, 4-90 MHz SuperSPARC processors)
• One ULTRAEnterprise 3000 (1GB RAM, 4-250MHz UltraSPARC processors)
• One SPARCcenter 1000 (128 MB RAM, 2-40MHz SuperSPARC processors)
• Five SUN Ultra 143s
• One SUN Ultra 170
• One 6-node MPI Linux cluster
• Numerous MACs and PCs

The file servers currently contain more than 1 TB of storage. All computers are connected via local-area networks and to the Internet for international electronic communication and are managed and monitored by a systems administrator for security and data networking. Linux and SUN workstations, computer terminals, PCs, and MacIntosh computers are available throughout the lab.