The Purdue MRI Facility represents a unique partnership among the Purdue University Weldon School of

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Purdue MRI Facility
OVERVIEW
RESEARCH RESOURCES
OPERATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
RESOURCES

• YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER!
• This is your facility
• We are here to meet your needs
• Well help you get started
• We want to make it work for you
• EVERYDAY LOW PRICES!
• We want to reduce your costs
• We want to enhance your funding capacity
• Everyone pays the same LOW price 400 per
  hour, with a 2nd hour allocated (for
  set-up/tear-down) for each hour purchased

The Purdue MRI Facility represents a unique
partnership among the Purdue University Weldon
School of Biomedical Engineering (BME), General
Electric Healthcares Global Magnetic Resonance
(GEHC-MR) Business, and InnerVision Advanced
Medical Imaging, a division of Unity Healthcare
in Lafayette, IN. It is believed that the
partnership with local and national healthcare
entities may serve as a model for development of
high-impact, high-capital-expense facilities that
would otherwise be difficult for a non-medical
school to afford. This three-member partnership
is having a substantial impact on discovery,
education and local health care delivery.
Imaging and visualization research is a central
focus for faculty across departments and campuses
in Indiana. The low per usage hour costs of the
facility have been designed to enable researchers
who have not previously conducted MRI research to
initiate such a program without the necessity of
already having funding for this particular area.
Access to low-cost imaging time on
state-of-the-art clinical equipment should enable
researchers to greatly increase the percentage of
federal dollars (e.g., NIH) awarded to medical
imaging research within the state of Indiana.
It is anticipated that the Purdue MRI Facility
will also greatly increase engagement, with a
primary focus being interaction with the local
healthcare communities. The 3 Tesla system
located at InnerVision West in the Purdue
Research Park is the first system at this field
strength clinically available in Indiana, outside
of Indianapolis. The presence of this
high-field imager will improve local healthcare
delivery, by providing faster, higher-resolution
imaging of such structures such as knees,
shoulders, wrists and the brain, without
increasing the cost to the patient. It is hoped
that successful interaction with InnerVision,
Unity Healthcare, and St. Elizabeth Regional
Health in the Lafayette area will augment
opportunities already extant through
collaboration with the Indiana University School
of Medicine for outstanding researchers to affect
healthcare and healthcare delivery. The Purdue
MRI Facility provides a tremendous opportunity to
enhance learning. At Purdue University, the
Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, the
School of Health Sciences (HSCI), the Department
of Psychological Sciences (PSYCH) and the
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing
Sciences (SLHS) all have needs for students
(undergraduate or graduate) to learn, first-hand,
about the applications of Magnetic Resonance
Imaging. BME and HSCI have a primary interest in
training students to operate or work on (as a
research platform) MRI equipment. With the
development in the 1990s of functional
neuroimaging as a primary mechanism of study in
the neurosciences, researchers in PSYCH and SLHS
are now expected to have experience with
conducting functional MRI (fMRI) studies,
including operation of the system. Given these
new academic pressures, two graduate level
courses in MRI and fMRI have been initiated, a
theoretical lecture course (Fall 2008) and a
Research Experience Training module (Spring
2009). These courses will provide a focal point
around which faculty in the various departments
may initiate projects, both undergraduate and
graduate-driven, to take advantage of the
presence and access to this state-of-the-art MRI
facility. The theoretical lecture course was
broadcast to IUPUI this past Fall, and will
continue to be made available to remote campuses
in the future.
Site of clinical/research partnership between the
Weldon School of Biomedical Engineerings Purdue
MRI Facility and InnerVision West. The joint
Facility is located in the Purdue Research Park
at 3482 McClure Ave, West Lafayette, IN. The
Purdue MRI Facility is research-available 46
hours/week (evenings and weekends), at 400/hour.
ACCESS, TRAINING, and QUALITY

• General Electric 3.0T Signa HDx MRI sited at the
  Purdue MRI Faciliity. First operational October
  2007. Offers high-speed, high-resolution
  anatomical and functional imaging plus proton
  spectroscopy.
• NordicNeuroLab electrostatic audio system
• NordicNeuroLab LCD goggle visual system (800x600
  resolution)
• Current Designs bimanual button pads
• Nova Medical, Inc., 16-channel head array

• 46 schedulable research hours per week
• Weekdays 5 PM 2 AM
• Weekends 24 hours
• Simple authorization process
• Valid Purdue IRB (human subjects) or PACUC
  (animal subjects) approval
• Identify a Primary Operator to run the system
• Provide an account to which expenses may be
  charged
• Qualified Primary Operators are available to
  assist/advise in your experimental design, data
  collection and data analysis
• Spectroscopy Ulrike Dydak, Lauren Johnson,
  Jonathan Nixon
• Anatomical Imaging Tom Talavage, Greg Tamer
• Functional MRI Javier Gonzalez Castillo,
  Shuowen Hu, Minseok Kwon, Evgenia Malaia, Olumide
  Olulade, Ruwan Ranaweera, Tom Talavage, Greg
  Tamer
• Training is available for you or your research
  staff (post-docs, students) to become qualified
  Primary Operators who can run the MRI.

We want to help you do impactful
research! Figure from D Kemmerer et al.
Neuroanatomical distribution of five semantic
components of verbs evidence from fMRI, Brain
and Language 10716-43, 2008.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Check out our webpage (http//mri.ecn.purdue.edu)
to learn more about the Purdue MRI Facility and
the people involved! Contact Tom (tmt_at_purdue.edu)
, Charlie (bouman_at_purdue.edu) or Greg
(gtamer_at_purdue.edu) for assistance in piloting a
study or for training.
HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Charlie Bouman
(co-Director) TomTalavage (co-Director) Greg
Tamer (Manager of Operations)