NCRR Funds Two New Biomedical Technology Centers, October 2008

The Northern California Institute for Research and Education, Inc.

San Francisco

Resource for MRI of Neurodegenerative Disorders
Award Amount: $6.04 million

Principal Investigator
Michael W. Weiner, M.D.
E-mail: michael.weiner@ucsf.edu

Description (provided by grantee):

The overall goal of this new resource is to develop, optimize and validate innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for better diagnosis, early detection, assessment of treatment interventions, monitoring progression, and investigations in to the causes of neurodegenerative diseases. These techniques, which include improved MRI/magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) acquisition, image reconstruction, and processing/analysis, will improve disease detection through brain imaging. This effort is a collaboration among MRI physicists, computer scientists and clinical investigators aimed at a single theme: neurodegenerative diseases.

Specific aims of the resource are to develop, improve and test:

1. New MR imaging methods, including structural, perfusion, diffusion and spectroscopic imaging to capture alterations of brain structure, physiology (blood flow), and metabolism with improved sensitivity and resolution and increased reliability and precision;

2. Novel image reconstruction methods for increasing speed, efficiency and accuracy of MRI through statistical image modeling that improves image quality, signal-to-noise and resolution; and

3. Novel image processing techniques for extraction of accurate and reproducible anatomical information by developing novel tissue segmentation techniques and brain mapping strategies.

Resource staff will implement these improvements in collaborative projects and provide training for investigators and staff. This project is significant, in that prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases is rapidly increasing due to aging of the population, and methods for early detection are urgently needed. Treatments for these diseases are under development, and sensitive methods to determine treatment response are required.

University of California, San Diego

LaJolla

Center for Computational Mass Spectrometry
Award Amount: $4.94 million

Principal Investigator
Pavel A. Pevzner, Ph.D.
E-mail: ppevzner@cs.ucsd.edu

Description (provided by grantee):

This center in computational mass spectrometry will be a national and international resource in proteomics. The current computational bottleneck in the proteomics community impairs interpretation of data in thousands of experimental laboratories. The center's goal is to bring modern algorithmic technologies to mass spectrometry and build a new generation of reliable open-access software tools to support new instrumentation development and emerging applications. The center will focus on:

1. Enabling complex mass spectrometry searches;

2. Analyzing unknown proteomes without protein databases;

3. Analyzing altered proteomes; and

4. Constructing proteogenomic annotations and analyzing pathways.

These four goals cover unexplored problems as well as well-studied but still inadequately addressed issues. Important collaborations already exist among the University of California, San Diego and the Burnham Institute; 16 other U.S. universities, hospitals, and biotechnology companies; and foreign research institutions. Further development of robust open-access mass spectrometry software will catalyze the exchanges between experimental and computational researchers in proteomics.

The biomedical applications addressed in these collaborative projects include:

1. Discovery of cancer biomarkers;

2. Elucidation of changes in aged cataractous lens;

3. Understanding how bacteria adjust to antibiotics and other harsh conditions;

4. Addressing the need to constantly reformulate the influenza vaccine to make it efficient; and

5. De novo protein sequencing of antibodies and snake venoms that proved instrumental in drug design.

Educational activities will also be developed, including short courses, a seminar program, and an annual conference.

Contact Information

For information on grant funding programs that support new research resources, refer to the Guidelines for Biomedical Technology Programs (82KB PDF file, requires free Acrobat Reader), or for additional information on existing biomedical technology resource centers, contact:

Michael T. Marron, Ph.D.
Director, Division of Biomedical Technology
National Center for Research Resources
National Institutes of Health
One Democracy Plaza, Room 962
6701 Democracy Boulevard, MSC 4874
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4874
Telephone: 301-435-0755
Fax: 301-480-3659
E-mail: BTADIR@ncrr.nih.gov