Schedule equipment time using Calpendo Description:
Advances in imaging technology have the potential to revolutionize our understanding and facilitate our early recognition of human disease. However, widespread adoption of imaging modalities in clinical research has been slowed because nonimaging specialists can feel overwhelmed by the engineering challenges of setting up, maintaining and adapting complicated imaging technology to their research and by the daunting task of interpreting the data and images that result.
The mission of The Human Imaging Shared Resource is to speed the multidisciplinary adoption of imaging methodologies in clinical research and their translation into improved diagnostics in the clinic. It does so by providing the necessary infrastructure for biomedical imaging research, from optimally functioning state-of-the art equipment, to study groupsin the use of the equipment and its application to specific fields of research, help developing imaging methodologies or research protocols, and assistance interpreting complex data. Through regularly scheduled user group meetings, it offers investigators the opportunity to collaborate by sharing software, discussing problems encountered in research and proposing potential solutions.
In addition to these more informal learning opportunities, the Human Imaging Shared Resource is developing curricula toward the development of an advanced imaging degree, actively recruiting postdoctoral fellows, and undertaking collaborative research and educational projects with both Clemson University and the University of South Carolina.
Although open to investigators from any field of research, the Human Imaging Shared Resource has special interest and expertise in the use of imaging technologies to study addiction, neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiac anomalies.
Active projects include:
The application of diffusional kurtosis imaging, with its ability to chronicle subtle changes in the brain’s microarchitecture, to the study of Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury and to the earlier detection of these diseases
The use of functional MRI (fMRI) with the capacity to deliver visual and auditory cues, biofeedback and/or transcranial magnetic stimulation to better understand the areas of the brain and changes in brain function associated with addiction and autism
Development of improved arterial spin labeling as a way of measuring cerebral blood flow and comparing serial measurements
Projects in Development include:
Simultaneous fMRI and EEG, combining the spatial resolution of fMRI with the time sensitivity of EEG
Reduction of motion artifact, which has been a serious impediment to the use of MRI in research involving children or patients with Parkinson’s disease
Stroke rehabilitation studies using a split-belt treadmill in the MR scanner
The use of phosphorous metabolites to better understand muscle metabolism
