Global COE Study Abroad Project
Ryota Mizushima（Biomedical Engineering Laboratories(Affiliates)）
| Date | 2009.10.6-13 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To participate in 7th Bi-annual workshop on high-field MR-imaging and spectroscopy and MR-imageing of brain function. |
|
|
|
* Click to Zoom
Report
(Title) Report on 7th Bi-Annual Minnesota Workshop on High-Field Imaging and Spectroscopy and MR-imaging of Brain Function
(Name) Ryota Mizushima
(Name of Laboratory) Laboratory of Structural Proteomics (Ikegami Lab),
(Destination) Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Minnesota University,
2021 6th St. S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
(Purpose) To Participate in the Workshop on High Field Imaging and Spectroscopy and MR-Imaging of Brain Function
(Result)
I attended the Bi-annual Minnesota Workshop on High-Field MR Imaging and Spectroscopy and MR-imaging of Brain Function, which was held from October 6th to October 11th at Minnesota University, Minneapolis. This bi-annual workshop was held by the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research of Minnesota University, which is one of the most prominent institutes in high-field MRI research. It holds seven MRI scanners for human and small animal subjects, including a 9.4 T Varian MRI scanner for human subjects, which is so far the highest field human MRI scanner in the world. The workshop was consisted of two parts: hands-on training courses and workshops on high field MRI research.
From October 7th to 8th, I participated in the MRS hands-on training course to learn the basic principles, measurement and data analyses of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) because I am interested in this technique in that it enables us to non-invasively quantify the neural metabolites in vivo in human or animal subjects and that for this feature of MRS, it can be applied to investigate the energy metabolism of neurons and grial cells accompanied by the electrical or synaptic activity of neurons. There were four participants from other institutions in the MRS training course and they have various backgrounds: a Korean Ph.D. student studying MRS in Pennsylvania State University, an Indian researcher working for Pfizer, a Canadian Ph.D. student in Montreal University and me. Ph.D. students of Minnesota University working for CMRR occasionally participated in the lectures.
I was so impressed by the fact that most of the Ph.D. students I met in CMRR are Chinese or Indian. In addition, I was also impressed that the lecturer of the course come from various countries, such as Poland, Slovakia, France and so on. When it comes to the contents of the training, they were so practical and well - designed. We first took lectures on the basic principles of NMR and MRS before noon and observed the experiment of MRS data acquisition on both human and rodent subjects in the afternoon on Oct 7th. As for me, I studied fMRI of the mouse brain with the high-field MRI scanner in the master degree's research, so that I am especially interested in the rodent experiment. Because earlier effort on rodent MRI with such a high field has been made in CMRR, The MRI scanner used in it was relatively old than the latest ones, so that the experimental set up took more efforts. In the second day of the training course, we took lectures on date analysis before noon and hands - on training of data analysis on the data sets acquired on Oct. 7th by the software named LCModel on SUN operating system. We were given a computer and processed the data sets by oneself with the help of TA.
After the training course, the workshop on high field MRI technology was held from Oct. 9th to Oct. 11th. Many famous researchers in high-field MRI were invited from USA, Europe and Asia. Engineers from MRI venders also took part in it. It was consisted of many sessions: RF coil/engineering, multiple transmit (parallel imaging), MRS, brain function, new frontiers, contrast and body imaging. I found only one Japanese researcher, Dr. Fumiyuki Mitsumori, in the speakers and no Japanese MRI vender, I am, therefore, keenly aware that Japan shows a relatively weak presence in the international research community of this field. As a whole, I reconfirm that inter-disciplinary approaches (combination of physiology, coil or other engineering development, pulse sequence design, information techniques, theoretical developments...) have brought this research field forward and that it is one of the most exciting and promising biomedical research fields. Moreover, I had the opportunity to discuss my research experiences in the master degree with the researcher who studies fMRI of the rodent brain with ultra high field (16.4T) preclinical MRI scanner in Max Planck Institute Tubingen in lunch-time.
Finally, I am really grateful to this financial assistance of the GCOE program for the trip, which gave me profitable information and occasions to interact with foreign researchers. In addition, I appreciate a great support of Dr. Noboru Nakajima, Ms. Eriko Chikaishi of Structural Proteomics Lab. and Ms. Morita of Yagi Lab. for taking care of the administrative matters.
