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Our Facility

Bruker Pharmascan 70/16

A 7.0 Tesla small animal magnetic resonance (MR) scanner was installed at the Vivarium, University of Bergen, in December 2004.
This MR scanner can be used for non-invasive diagnostic studies on small laboratory animals (rats, mice, small fish).
Pathological as well as physiological processes can now be followed in a precise manner in the animal body, by utilizing a set of MR imaging techniques combining visualisation, diffusion, perfusion and spectroscopy sequences.

The MR machine is specifically suitable for performing longitudinal studies of disease development and possible effects of treatment strategies.

Lab Equipment

MRI system

• 7T horizontal scanner, Pharmascan, Bruker Biospin MRI HmpH

RF Resonators

• Mouse head linear volume resonator
  • Bruker Biospin MRI HmpH, item: Bio PRK 300, RES 089/023, Model No: 1 P T8119, Max peak power: 400 W, Max average power: 10 W
• Rat head/Mouse body linear volume resonator
  • Bruker Biospin MRI HmpH, item: Bio PRK 300 EPI, RES 089/038, Model No: 1 P T8121, Max peak power: 400 W, Max average power: 40 W
• Rat body linear volume resonator
  • Bruker Biospin MRI HmpH, item: Bio PRK 300, 1H 089/060, Model No: 1 P T8123, Peak power 1H: 400 W, 5 ms, Mean power 1H: 3 W

Animal Monitoring Equipment

• MRI compatible temperature probe
• Pressure sensor for respiration monitoring and triggering
• ECG electrodes for cardiac triggering
• Animal heating blankets with recirculating warm water

File:RatPreparedForScanning.jpg

People

• Frits Thorsen, Associate Professor
  • Frits is MIC platform leader and responsible for funding and policy issues
  • Frits received his PhD at the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Bergen, in 1998. He also did his postdoctoral work at the same institute. In the periods 1989-1995 and 2002-2004 he was working as a medical physicist at the Department of Oncology, Haukeland University Hospital. Since 2004 he has been working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedicine. In addition, he is Scientific Project Manager in an FP6-funded research project; Angiotargeting, co-ordinated by the University of Bergen.

• Tina Pavlin, Chief Engineer
  • Tina is responsible for general management of the MR facility and MR applications
  • Tina received her PhD in atomic physics from California Institute of Technologi in 2003. From 2003-2005 she worked at Harvard University researching and developing novel magnetic resonance (MR) applications of laser polarized gases. She worked as a post-doc between 2005-2008 at the Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging and the MR center of NTNU. During this time she gained competence in MRI of small animals aimed at various biomedical applications. At MIC she is responsible for the daily running of the small animal MRI system at Vivarium, training, supporting and advising users, running courses as well as participating in scientific projects.

• Kai Gunter Brandt, Staff Engineer
  • Kai is responsible for technical issues concerning both MR software and hardware

Research

Here you will find a description of some of the MRI research performed at our facility.

Talks

Here you can find talks from our users and facility management.

MRI Lunch Club

For schedule and topics see MRI lunch club.

Education

Here you find educational material on MRI.

Health, Safety and Regulations

All MRI users should read and sign the following document: Guidelines for use of MRI at MIC

UiB HMS Portalen

Useful Links

• MIC old webpage
• MIC new webpage (under construction)
• Booking the MR
• Prices for equipment use
• Vivarium-Dyreavdelingen ved UiB

Grants

See Grants

Contact us

Our contact information