[unreadable] The Center for Molecular Medicine at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute received a COBRE award in 2000 in the area of Angiogenesis under the directorship of Thomas Maciag, Ph.D. This award funded the establishment of the Molecular Genetics Core (P.I.: L. Liaw, Ph.D.), which was formed with the primary goal of generating transgenic and gene-targeted mice. The demand for the Core facility has been high, and its services have been heavily utilized not only by all of the Projects in the COBRE in Angiogenesis, but also other NIH funded, and independent research projects, particularly for the generation of transgenic strains. The goal of the present application is to obtain the funds necessary for a dedicated magnetic resonance (MR) scanner that will allow non-invasive, non-destructive, comprehensive phenotypic analysis at the organ or animal level to assist in the phenotyping of these transgenic lines. Indeed, such a scanner would not only greatly enhance the ability of the facility to support investigator phenotyping of mouse strains generated within the Center for Molecular Medicine, but would also be a resource for the Northern New England research community, as there is not currently a small animal MR scanner located in the state of Maine. The ability to perform functional imaging, angiography, morphological analysis, and use non-radioactive tracers and molecular markers in living rodents will provide an excellent means to support the analysis of mouse models at a resolution not currently possible. Additionally, the ability to track changes serially within an individual over a lifetime will reduce the number of animals needed for studies while increasing the power of our analyses. We predict that MR imaging of unique rodent strains will become a cost effective, time efficient, and revealing component of the initial analyses of transgenic or mutant models currently being developed. The specific aims of this proposal are: Specific Aim 1: Obtain an animal magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy scanner, and Specific Aim 2: Utilize this resource for the high resolution imaging of rodent models for the phenotypic analysis of transgenic lines. We anticipate that this instrument would not only further the competitive nature of our science, but would also enable us to be more competitive for the submission of an NIH program project application in 2004. [unreadable] [unreadable]
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