Facilities

The NMR RF lab primarily operates in a 500 sq ft lab space in the Emerging Technologies Building on the main campus of Texas A&M University. 
The lab houses  - state-of-the art Agilent network analyzers 
                          -  reflow soldering system 
                          -  printed circuit board prototyping capabilities 
                          -  small instrumentation for RF coil fabrication                           
                          -  3D printing capabilities
                          -  computing support for Remcom XFdtd®  

Scanner access is located off campus in the MRSL in 9000 sq ft of research space in the University Services Building. 
The lab houses   -  4.7T/33cm MRI scanner, supported by Varian Unity/Inova spectrometer 
                            -  4.7T/40cm scanner with RF screen room, supported by Varian Unity/Inova spectrometer  
                            -  1T/20cm Samsung extremity scanner
                            -  light machine shop 
                            -  small animal handling area, anesthesia, gating, and monitoring equipment 

High field imaging is performed off-site in collaboration with the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, which houses a Philips 7.0T Achieva System. 
 
Maps and Directions  

Example Projects

Hardware & software development for accessible NMR-based biomarker detection of diseases 
The full potential of NMR to access chemical information beyond 1H imaging is scarcely realized, largely due to the lack of sensitivity to nuclei other than hydrogen. In particular, more accessible low field and clinical field strengths are generally not used for non-1H imaging or spectroscopy, although a wealth of information regarding disease state is present in other nuclei such as 31P and 23Na. We develop hardware-based approaches to increase the sensitivity in detection of these potentially powerful biomarkers of disease and software approaches to ease processing challenges.  ​

Hardware development for high field imaging and spectroscopy
The NMR RF lab has worked in close collaboration with the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, which houses one of two 7T scanners in the state of Texas. RF design at high fields is challenging due to the interactions of the associated higher frequencies with the human body. We develop novel hardware approaches towards harnessing the potential of high field MR imaging and spectroscopy to help us characterize and understand disease.    

Optimization of small animal imaging
Animal imaging is a known challenge due to the smaller size and faster heart rate of the subject. There has been an ongoing effort in the lab to optimize this process overall and per-application-at-hand through the use of new coil designs and parallel imaging.   

Approaches to RF front end design to enable flexibility and portability 
Multiple-channel receivers are not commonly available for non-hydrogen frequencies. Our interest in the intersection of parallel imaging and non-proton spectroscopy drives work in new approaches to receiver design. 

Selected Publications

T. Carrell, M. Gu, J. C. Bosshard, C. Sun, M. P. Mcdougall and S. M. Wright, "Assessing the Feasibility of Dynamic 31P Spectroscopy for Metabolic Studies with a 1.0T Extremity Scanner," in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, doi: 10.1109, 2021.

Del Bosque R, Cui J, Ogier S, Cheshkov S, Dimitrov IE, Malloy C, Wright SM, McDougall M.P. A 32-channel receive array coil for bilateral breast imaging and spectroscopy at 7T. Magn Reson Med. 2021 Jan;85(1):551-559. doi: 10.1002/mrm.28425. PMID: 32820540; PMCID: PMC7869840. 

M. Wilcox, S. Ogier, S. Cheshkov, I. Dimitrov, C. Malloy, S.M. Wright, M.P. McDougall, “A 16-channel 13C array coil for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Breast at 7T”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, accepted 2/22/2021. id: TBME-00960-2020.

C. Sun, K. Patel, M. Wilcox, I. E. Dimitrov, S. Cheshkov, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, “A retrofit to enable dynamic B1+ steering for transmit arrays without multiple amplifiers,”Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2021 Jun;85(6):3497-3509. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.28632. PMID: 33314274.

M. Wilcox, S. M. Wright and M.P. McDougall, "A Review of Non-1H RF Receive Arrays in Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy," in IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, vol. 1, pp. 290-300, 2020, doi: 10.1109/OJEMB.2020.3030531.

G.K. Fletcher, L.D. Nash, L.M. Graul, L.K. Jang, S.M. Herting, M.D. Wilcox, T.J. Touchet, A.K. Sweatt, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, D.J. Maitland. “Chemical Modifications of Porous Shape Memory Polymers for Enhanced X-ray and MRI Visibility”. Molecules 2020, 25, 4660.
​
R. Del Bosque, J. Cui, S. Ogier, S. Cheshkov, I.E. Dimitrov, C.R. Malloy, S.M. Wright, M.P. McDougall, “A 32-Channel Receive Array Coil for Bilateral Breast Imaging and Spectroscopy at 7T”, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2020; DOI: 10.1002/mrm.28425.

M. Wilcox, S.M. Wright, M.P. McDougall, “Multi-tuned Cable Traps for Multinuclear MRI and MRS”, IEEE Transactions in Biomedical Engineering, vol. 67, no.4, pp. 1221-1228, April 2020. Published online August 2019. PMID: 31398104.

T. Carrell, M. Gu, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright. “Feasibility of using a 1T extremity scanner with a four-element array to detect 31P in the human calf”, Proceedings of the 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pp. 6806-6809. 2019. PMID: 31947403.

​Rispoli JV, Wright SM, Malloy CR, McDougall MP. “Automated modification and fusion of voxel models to construct body phantoms with heterogeneous breast tissue: Application to MRI simulations”. J Biomed Graph Comput. 2017;7(1):1-7. doi: 10.5430/jbgc.v7n1p1

Rispoli, J. V., Dimitrov, I. E., Cheshkov, S., Malloy, C., Wright, S. M. and McDougall, M. P., “Trap design and construction for high-power multinuclear magnetic resonance experiments.” Concepts Magn Reson. (2016) doi:10.1002/cmr.b.21345.

Wilcox MD, Del Bosque R, Parizek K, Sia J, Eigenbrodt ED, McDougall MP. “A Three-Element 1H-31P Dual-Tuned Array for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at 4.7T”, Proceedings of the 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, August 2016, pp. 6258-6261. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7592159. PMID: 28269681.

J.V. Rispoli, M.D. Wilcox, S. By, S.M. Wright, M.P. McDougall, “Effects of coplanar shielding for high field MRI,” Proceedings of the 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, August 2016, pp. 6250-6253. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7592157. PMID: 28269680.

J. Cui, J. Bosshard, J. Rispoli*, I. Dimitrov, S. Cheshkov, M. McDougall, C. Malloy, S. Wright, “A switched-mode breast coil for 7 tesla MRI using forced-current excitation”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 62(7): 1777-1783. Jul 2015. PMID: 25706501

S. By*, J.V. Rispoli*, S. Cheshkov, I. Dimitrov, J. Cui, S. Seiler, S. Goudreau, C. Malloy, S.M. Wright, M.P. McDougall, “A 16-Channel Receive, Forced Current Excitation Dual-Transmit Coil for Breast Imaging at 7T”, PLoS ONE 9(11): e113969. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113969. November 2014. PMID: 25420018.

​K.L. Moody, N.A. Hollingsworth, F. Zhao, J.F. Nielsen, D. Noll, S.M. Wright, M.P. McDougall, “An eight-channel T/R head coil for parallel transmit MRI at 3T using ultra-low output impedance amplifiers”, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2014;246(0):62-68.

M.P. McDougall, S. Cheshkov, J. Rispoli, C. Malloy, I. Dimitrov, S.M. Wright, “Quadrature Transmit Coil for Breast Imaging at 7 Tesla using Forced Current Excitation for Improved Homogeneity”, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, doi: 10.1002/jmri.24473, January 2014.

C. Koo, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, A. Han, “A Microfluidically Cryo-cooled Spiral Microcoil with Inductive Coupling for MR Microscopy”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 61, pp. 76-84, January 2014.

J. Bosshard, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, “An Insertable Non-Linear Gradient Coil for Phase Compensation in SEA Imaging”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 61, pp. 217-223, January 2014.

M.P. McDougall and S.M. Wright, “A Parallel Imaging Approach to Wide-field MR Microscopy”, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, vol. 68(3), pp. 850-6, September 2012..

K. Feng, N.A. Hollingsworth, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, “A 64 Channel 100 Watt Parallel Transmitter for Investigation of Parallel Transmit MRI,”  IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 59(8), pp. 2152-60, August, 2012.

C.W. Chang, K.L. Moody, M.P. McDougall, “An improved element design for 64-channel planar imaging,” Concepts in Magnetic Resonance Part B: Magnetic Resonance Engineering, vol. 39B, pp. 159-165, July, 2011.

C. Koo, R. Godley, J. Park, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, A. Han, “A Magnetic Resonance (MR) Microscopy System using a Microfluidically Cryo-Cooled Planar Coil,” Lab on a Chip, 11(13), 2197 – 2203, June 2011.

Y. Jiraraksopakun, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, and J. Ji, “A Flow Quantification Method Using Fluid Dynamics Regularization and MR Tagging,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 57(6), pp.1437-1445, June 2010.

S.M. Wright and M.P. McDougall, “Single Echo Acquisition Imaging using RF Encoding,” NMR in Biomedicine, vol. 22(9), pp. 982-993, 2009.

A. Dabirzadeh and M.P. McDougall, “Trap design for insertable second-nuclei RF coils for magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy,” Concepts in Magnetic Resonance Part B: Magnetic Resonance Engineering, vol. 35B(3), pp. 121-132, July, 2009.

Y. Liu, F. Ke, M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, and J. Ji, “Reducing SAR in Parallel Excitation Using Variable-Density Spirals: A Simulation-Based Study,” Magnetic Resonance Imaging, vol. 26(8), pp. 1122-1132, October, 2008.

M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, “Coil Phase Compensation in 3D Imaging at Very High Acceleration Factors,” Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Vol. 25,  pp. 1305-1311, 2007.

M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, “Phase Compensation in Single Echo Acquisition (SEA) Imaging: Phase Effects of Voxel-Sized Coils in Planar and Cylindrical Arrays,” IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Magazine, Nov./Dec. 2005; 24(6):17-22.

M.P. McDougall, S.M. Wright, “64-Channel Array Coil for Single Echo Acquisition (SEA) MRI,” Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2005;54(2):386-392.