The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently announced it will provide $20.65 million for 14 High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grants that will fund cutting-edge equipment required to advance biomedical research. Awarded to research institutions around the country, the one-time grants support the purchase of sophisticated instruments costing more than $750,000.

"These high-performance imaging instruments and other advanced technologies enable both basic discoveries that shed light on the underlying causes of disease and the development of novel therapies to treat them," said Barbara Alving, M.D., NCRR Director. "The value of this investment in advanced equipment is greatly leveraged because each of these rare tools is used by a number of investigators, advancing a broad range of research projects."

The 14 awards in this round of funding will enable the purchase of a variety of sophisticated instrumentation at institutions nationwide. For example, Nashville's Vanderbilt University will acquire a 7 Tesla human magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy system, which provides the highest magnetic imaging available for humans and is one of only several such instruments in the country. The instrument will enable researchers to generate images down to the molecular level for use in brain imaging and other studies, according to the institution.
With its award, the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio will obtain a high-field 7 Tesla MRI scanner capable of performing such demanding studies as functional brain and cardiac imaging in a variety of animal species.

Meanwhile, the purchase of several 3 Tesla MRI scanners will be used to develop minimally invasive therapies at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; and for psychiatric applications at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research in Orangeburg, N.Y. In addition, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers will be supported to probe intermolecular interactions at Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, Calif.; and to research protein structure, function, and folding at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Dentistry in Farmington.

Three high-performance, hybrid linear ion trap-Fourier transform mass spectrometers will be funded. One will be located at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., to benefit researchers investigating ischemia and hypoxia, among other projects; another at the University of Arizona at Tucson will enable structural studies of proteins; and the third at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center will facilitate cancer research and other studies.

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