When you have an MRI system, one of the key ingredients to getting good data is having the magnetic field be homogenous inside the bore of the magnet (where the subject’s head is). Unfortunately elements of the local environment around the magnet (large filing cabinets for example) can adversely affect this uniformity of the field and so….when we install the MRI system, we either passively or actively counteract these effects–this is called shimming the magnet. From a passive standpoint, one can attach small metal plates to the magnet in such a way as to bring things back to uniformity. One can also actively shim the magnet, using small powered coils that produce shim current–also with the goal of making the field inside the bore perfectly uniform.

So here’s the tripper upper: once you shim an MRI, it’s really important not to move big metal objects that are within some threshold distance of the magnet. From what I’ve heard this is particularly true above the magnet, but I’ve got a lot more to learn about this.

All of this has implications for space utilization at Krasnow.

Now that the grant is out of the way, I’m going to try to take time to walk around the labs and common spaces some more. This doesn’t mean that I’m planning some complicated re-allocation of space. But I do want to learn more about how we are using the space we do have–so that we can do better in the Expansion Space, and also simply so that I can see a bit more of the really exciting science that we’re currently doing.

When I take visitors on a tour, it’s a very different process than what I’m talking about above–I’m focused on the visitor. I want to focus the other direction also.

Good morning. Today is grant submission day for our Howard Hughes Medical Institute proposal to support neuroengineering doctoral training at Mason. So this is going to be a short post.

Why neuroengineering? First, because it’s a natural extension of our current strengths in our neuroscience doctoral program. Second, because it brings us closer to a natural collaborator: the School of IT&E, which has made the strategic decision to move into bioengineering. And finally, because, at Krasnow, we’re becoming ever more instrumentation and modeling oriented in the way we do our interdisciplinary research.

Regarding the 3T Magnet: some considerations that were getting very good advice on:
Vibration–making sure that others in the building don’t have their experiments jostled.
Magnetic fields–the magnetic field stays in the magnet room, and large metal objects, such as filing cabinets in the building, don’t affect the homogeneity of the magnetic field–that’s called the shim BTW.
Sound–limiting the sound produced by the gradient coils so that we can still enjoy eachothers conversations.

Consultants and Siemens are going to play a key role here.

Well cheers…and wish me luck on the grant.

We’ll see how long it takes anyone at Krasnow to discover my blog this summer. I’m not going to publicize it at first–I want to see how things go and get some content up first. But eventually I’m hoping that this content will provide a “director’s seat” window into the various projects that are going on at the Institute this summer. Specifically, I’ll be writing (pretty much daily) about:
1) The Siemens 3T MRI scanner that we’re installing
2) The Krasnow Expansion Project
3) Space re-allocation decisions related to (1) and (2)
4) The Neuroscience Academic Research Organization project

among other items.

My goal is to disseminate useful news and my own views in a way that facilitates the science here, while at the same time giving myself some informal room to ruminate and editorialize without being overly top-down in my approach.