This $543,959 Project Grant was awarded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286). The grant aims to develop a Transcranial Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Ultrasound (US) Guided Histotripsy (TCMR-USGHT) system for non-invasive treatment of brain tumors. The key objectives are to: 1) develop MR-guided histotripsy for precise, non-invasive ablation of...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) to The Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc. (MCW) in the amount of $677,998 aims to externally validate and integrate radio-pathomic models to accurately delineate the full extent of glioma tumors. The 5-year project will refine these models by incorporating clinical data, deep learning approaches, and complete a multi-site prospective validation study. Key objectives are to: 1)...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) for $997,410 aims to develop MRI-based methods to detect and differentiate between the invasive neuronal (NEU) and glycolytic/plurimetabolic (GPM) subtypes of high-grade glioma (HGG) brain tumors. The goal is to leverage advanced diffusion MRI and deuterium MRI techniques to spatially resolve clusters of these invasive HGG subtypes, which have divergent microstructural,...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) program, provides $353,942 to Microstructure Imaging Inc. for the period of September 10, 2024 to August 31, 2026. The project aims to develop a software platform to automate the analysis of quantitative diffusion MRI (dMRI) biomarkers, known as the "standard model of white...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant award of $275,000 to Adialante L.L.C. focuses on the development of techniques to facilitate the design and fabrication of affordable, compact, and patient-friendly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, particularly for pediatric applications. The project aims to innovate novel B1 imaging approaches, such as Frequency-Encoded and Phase-Encoded Frequency-Modulated Rabi-Encoded Echoes (FREE), that...
This $830,409 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (CFDA 93.242 - Mental Health Research Grants) will fund the development of novel software and computational techniques that integrate real-time electric field mapping, electroencephalogram (EEG) source imaging, and subject-specific targeting to improve the accuracy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) treatment for brain diseases such as major depressive disorder. The funded work will leverage the SlicerTMS...
HYQ Research Solutions, LLC was awarded a $998,104 Cooperative Agreement from the National Science Foundation under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program to develop high dielectric constant materials for accelerating 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging. The two-year award will support the company's efforts to increase MRI signal-to-noise ratio by over 50% and cut scan times in half through incorporating high dielectric constant materials into clinical imaging coils. This novel...
This $399,358 Project Grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) to Cordance Medical Inc. aims to optimize a non-invasive focused ultrasound system, called the "NeuroAccess System," to enable liquid biopsies for brain tumor patients. The key objectives are to demonstrate the safety of repeatedly opening the blood-brain barrier, optimize the opening volume and technique in a rat glioma model, and confirm the system's ability to...
This $619,470 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) program supports research on the neural activity signatures of tumor infiltration in the human brain. The overarching goal is to provide a high-resolution physiological map of the tumor and its boundary to better understand tumor infiltration in the intact human brain. The key products and...
This $381,100 Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) supports the development and evaluation of tumor-targeting polymeric micelles carrying a near-infrared (NIR) imaging agent. The goal is to provide real-time optical image guidance during brain cancer surgery to improve tumor resection and surgical outcomes. The project aims to: 1) develop and characterize the tumor-targeting polymeric...
NON-INVASIVE NEUROSURGICAL PLANNING WITH RANDOM MATRIX THEORY MRI - PROJECT SUMMARY THIS APPLICATION IS INTENDED FOR I-CORPS AT NIH. SUMMARY OF THE ASSOCIATED NIH NCI STTR PHASE I ABOUT 23,830 PEOPLE IN THE US ARE DIAGNOSED PER YEAR WITH PRIMARY MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS, AND 200,000- 300,000 WITH METASTATIC BRAIN TUMORS (10-30% OF ALL CANCERS). MAXIMIZING SURGICAL RESECTION OF TUMOR IS A MAJOR PREDICTOR OF SURVIVAL, BUT MUST BE BALANCED AGAINST THE RISK OF INJURING ELOQUENT WHITE MATTER AND CORTICAL REGIONS. TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES, THE UNMET NEED IS TO RADICALLY INCREASE QUALITY OF NONINVASIVE PREOPERATIVE BRAIN MAPPING. AS THE BRAIN MAPPING GOLD STANDARD, MRI OFFERS UNIQUE SOFT-TISSUE CONTRAST, ANATOMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL INFORMATION OF THE BRAIN, YET IS INHERENTLY SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO (SNR)-STARVED. THE MAJORITY OF BRAIN MAPPING RELIES ON DIFFUSION (DMRI) AND FUNCTIONAL (FMRI), WHICH ARE BOTH ESPECIALLY SEVERELY LIMITED BY SNR. THE MRI SIGNAL CAN BE INCREASED WITH HIGHER-FIELD; HOWEVER, SCANNER PRICES SCALE WITH THE FIELD STRENGTH: 1.5T ~ $1.5M, 7T ~ $7M, AS DO INSTALLATION AND SERVICE COSTS. SINCE 90% OF THE MRIS IN THE US ARE 1.5T OR BELOW, IT APPEARS THAT THE MAJORITY OF HOSPITALS CANNOT JUSTIFY OR AFFORD HIGH FIELD MRI. SNR INCREASE BY THE SIGNAL AVERAGING IS IMPRACTICAL FROM THE SCAN TIME PERSPECTIVE, AS BRAIN TUMOR PATIENTS RARELY TOLERATE SCAN TIMES ABOVE 45 MIN. OUR COMPANY, MICROSTRUCTURE IMAGING (MICSI), IS AN AWARD-WINNING NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (NYU) SPINOFF THAT OFFERS A SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE FOR MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING. OUR PRODUCT DRAMATICALLY ENHANCES THE SNR OF MRI BRAIN MAPPING, WHICH TRANSLATES INTO INCREASED RESOLUTION, IMAGE QUALITY, SENSITIVITY AND SPECIFICITY. HERE WE EMPLOY RANDOM MATRIX THEORY (RMT) TO ACHIEVE AN ORDER-OF-MAGNITUDE GAIN IN SNR PURELY IN SOFTWARE AT THE IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION LEVEL, BY UTILIZING THE INFORMATION ACROSS MULTIPLE RADIOFREQUENCY COILS AND MRI CONTRASTS WITHIN A SINGLE PROTOCOL. OUR OVERARCHING GOAL IS TO OPTIMIZE OUR RMT/MP-PCA IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION ALGORITHM FOR THE CLINICAL TRANSLATION IN BRAIN MAPPING PREOPERATIVE STUDIES. OUR SPECIFIC AIMS ARE: AIM 1: ENABLING LOWER FIELD / HIGHER RESOLUTION. WE WILL DEVELOP AND EVALUATE A MULTIMODAL (DMRI/FMRI) RMT DENOISING AND RECONSTRUCTION PROTOCOL IN 6 VOLUNTEERS ON 1.5T AND 3T WITH DIFFERENT IMAGE RESOLUTIONS, AND RETROSPECTIVELY IN 30 PREOPERATIVE BRAIN MAPPING MRI PATIENTS. THIS DATA WILL BE USED TO JUSTIFY PROSPECTIVELY ALTERING CLINICAL MRI PROTOCOLS DURING THE ANTICIPATED PHASE II OF THE STTR. AIM 2: CLINICAL FEASIBILITY STUDY. 15 MINUTES OF ADDITIONAL SCAN TIME FOR DMRI AND 2 FMRI TASKS AT 1.2 MM ISOTROPIC RESOLUTION WILL BE PROSPECTIVELY ADDED TO 10 BRAIN MAPPING CASES AT 3T. THE IMAGE QUALITY WITH AND WITHOUT DENOISING WILL BE ASSESSED QUANTITATIVELY, AND QUALITATIVELY BY RADIOLOGISTS AND NEUROSURGEONS. WHILE THE PHASE-I STTR WILL OPTIMIZE RMT IN PREOPERATIVE PLANNING FOR BRAIN TUMORS, IN THE FUTURE WE WILL OPTIMIZE PROTOCOLS FOR ANY TUMOR TYPE OR LOCATION BY JOINT RMT RECONSTRUCTION OF VARIETY OF MRI MODALITIES (PERFUSION, T1/T2, DMRI, FMRI) TO HELP THEM DENOISE EACH OTHER AND MAXIMIZE THE OVERALL INFORMATION CONTENT. RMT IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION WILL OPEN MRI TO THE DEVELOPING WORLD BY BRINGING HIGH-FIELD QUALITY TO INEXPENSIVE LOW-FIELD MRI.