The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) awarded a $1,360,447.52 Project Grant under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) to The General Hospital Corporation, doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The funding supports the development and evaluation of an inexpensive, lightweight "brain monitor" device using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. The goal is...
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...
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), awarded a $380,375 Project Grant to Ceretype Neuromedicine Inc. to design and develop an advanced functional MRI (fMRI) software platform as a medical device for use in clinical trials and therapeutic applications in neuropsychiatry. The key objectives of this Fast-Track SBIR project are to: 1) Engineer an fMRI system for industry-backed trials that meets regulatory requirements...
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) awarded a $417,150 Project Grant under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) to the University of Maryland, Baltimore to develop and validate a novel motion correction technique for 2D T2-weighted structural MRI of the brain. The key goals are to: 1) Develop a fast MR-based "slice velocity" navigator to measure through-plane translational...
This Cooperative Agreement award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program provides $1,186,778 to Adialante L.L.C. to develop an affordable, compact, and silent head-only MRI scanner. The project focuses on commercializing a novel MRI platform that provides high-quality brain imaging at one-tenth the cost and footprint of traditional MRI systems. The innovative B1 encoding methodology enables the partial or complete...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), under CFDA Program 93.286 "Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health", supports the development of a fast, comprehensive brain MRI technique. The $884,573 award aims to create an 8-minute brain MRI exam that captures a variety of quantitative and qualitative MRI contrasts, as well as time-resolved gadolinium-based enhancement, in order to...
This federal Project Grant award from 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), provides $185,625 to The General Hospital Corporation (doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital) to develop a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) excitation technique. The project aims to address the flip angle inhomogeneity problem in high-field 7 Tesla MRI...
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) awarded a $1,336,000 Project Grant under CFDA 93.286, Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health, to The General Hospital Corporation (doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital) to develop rapid, motion-robust, and low-gadolinium MRI technologies for improved pediatric brain tumor imaging. The project aims to (1) develop cutting-edge technologies for rapid, motion-robust,...
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...
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), awarded a $1,596,935 Project Grant to Petcoil, Inc., a for-profit medical technology company based in Sunnyvale, California. The grant supports the commercialization of a portable, brain-dedicated positron emission tomography (PET) insert system that can be integrated with existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. This hybrid PET/MRI system aims to enable simultaneous brain...
COMMERCIALIZATION READINESS OF VISUAL BIOFEEDBACK TO REDUCE HEAD MOTION DURING MRI SCANS - PROJECT ABSTRACT/SUMMARY THE GOAL OF THIS CRP APPLICATION IS TO SUCCESSFULLY COMMERCIALIZE A BRAIN MRI TECHNOLOGY THAT FEEDS BACK HEAD MOTION MEASUREMENTS DERIVED FROM OUR FRAMEWISE INTEGRATED REAL-TIME MRI MONITORING (FIRMM) SOFTWARE TO MRI SCAN PARTICIPANTS IN ORDER TO REDUCE HEAD MOTION VIA BEHAVIORAL TRAINING. BECAUSE MRI SCANNING PRODUCES HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES AND DOES NOT EXPOSE PATIENTS TO RADIATION, IT HAS BECOME AN IMMENSELY VALUABLE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL, PARTICULARLY FOR IMAGING THE BRAIN. LAST YEAR, IN THE UNITED STATES ALONE, THERE WERE OVER 8 MILLION BRAIN MRIS, COSTING AN ESTIMATED $20-30 BILLION. UNFORTUNATELY, BRAIN MRIS ARE LIMITED BY THE FACT THAT HEAD MOTION DURING THE SCAN CAN CAUSE THE RESULTING IMAGES TO BE SUBOPTIMAL OR EVEN UNUSABLE. AN ESTIMATED 20% OF ALL BRAIN MRIS ARE RUINED BY MOTION, WASTING $2-4 BILLION ANNUALLY. CURRENTLY, THERE ARE TWO PREDOMINANT STRATEGIES TO COMBAT HEAD MOTION: REPEAT SCANNING AND ANESTHESIA, BOTH OF WHICH ARE INADEQUATE. REPEAT SCANNING, WHICH CONSISTS OF ACQUIRING EXTRA IMAGES (TO ENSURE ENOUGH USABLE ONES WERE ACQUIRED), INCREASES SCANNING TIME AND COST, AND CAN RESULT IN TOO FEW USABLE IMAGES OR UNNECESSARY EXTRA IMAGES. ANESTHESIA, WHICH IS GIVEN TO PATIENTS WHO ARE LIKELY TO MOVE (SUCH AS YOUNG CHILDREN), PRESENTS A SERIOUS SAFETY RISK AND IS SOMETIMES ADMINISTERED UNNECESSARILY (I.E. THE PATIENT COULD HOLD STILL WITHOUT ANESTHESIA). ANESTHESIA IS NEVER AN OPTION FOR FUNCTIONAL MRI (FMRI), WHICH REQUIRES PARTICIPANTS TO BE AWAKE. THE SOFTWARE-BASED FIRMM-BIOFEEDBACK SOLUTION WE DEVELOPED USES MR IMAGES (AS THEY ARE BEING COLLECTED) TO COMPUTE A PATIENT'S HEAD MOTION IN REAL TIME DURING AN MRI SCAN. THE AVAILABILITY OF REAL TIME MOTION INFORMATION ENABLES MORE INFORMED ANESTHESIA USE AND REDUCE EXCESS SCANNING, MAKING THESE METHODS SAFER AND MORE EFFICIENT. ARMED WITH REAL TIME MOTION INFORMATION, SCAN OPERATORS WILL KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY USABLE IMAGES HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED, PREVENTING THE ACQUISITION OF TOO MANY OR TOO FEW EXTRA IMAGES. ADDITIONALLY, PROVIDING PHYSICIANS WITH QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT PATIENT MOTION WILL ALLOW THEM TO MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION REGARDING ANESTHESIA, PREVENTING UNNECESSARY SEDATION. FIRMM TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES A COMPLETELY NEW BIOBEHAVIORAL METHOD FOR COMBATING HEAD MOTION: PATIENT BIOFEEDBACK. FIRMM CAN TRANSLATE THE HEAD MOTION INFORMATION INTO AGE-APPROPRIATE, VISUAL BIOFEEDBACK FOR THE SCAN PARTICIPANT. BY PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO PATIENTS AND RESEARCH SUBJECTS, THE FIRMM- BIOFEEDBACK TECHNOLOGY HELPS BOTH PEDIATRIC AND ADULT PATIENTS REMAIN MORE STILL, IMPROVING IMAGE QUALITY. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH FOCUSES ON COMPLETING LATE-STAGE DEVELOPMENT FOR FIRMM-BIOFEEDBACK GETTING READY FOR COMMERCIALIZATION, BY BUILDING A MARKETING AND REIMBURSEMENT STRATEGY. THE FIRMM-BIOFEEDBACK TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES PATIENTS AND RESEARCH SUBJECTS WITH REAL TIME HEAD MOTION INFORMATION, WITH THE GOAL OF MAKING MR SCANS SAFER, FASTER, MORE ENJOYABLE AND LESS EXPENSIVE.