The Purdue MRI Facility represents a unique partnership among the Purdue University Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering (BME), General Electric Healthcare’s 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. YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER! This is your facility We are here to meet your needs We’ll 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 2 nd hour allocated (for set-up/tear-down) for each hour purchased Check out our webpage ( to learn more about the Purdue MRI Facility and the people involved! Contact Tom Charlie or Greg for assistance in piloting a study or for OVERVIEW RESOURCES RESEARCH RESOURCESOPERATIONAL PHILOSOPHY CONTACT INFORMATION Purdue MRI Facility Site of clinical/research partnership between the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering’s 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. General Electric 3.0T Signa HDx MRI sited at the Purdue MRI Faciliity. First operational October 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 HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Charlie Bouman (co-Director) TomTalavage (co-Director) Greg Tamer (Manager of Operations) 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 107:16-43, ACCESS, TRAINING, and QUALITY 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.