Written; 2010-11-22, 03:26:53

    The 28th anniversary^? NMR**2  was a fun meeting as Prof. Eiichi Fukushima of ABQMR (one of the main organisers for this meeting) stated, and was indeed impressive because giant researchers attended. MRTe presented two posters for mouse MRI systems using 0.3 and 1.5-Tesla permanent magnets. The former was developed for visualizing anatomical foundation of the small animals in co-registered multi-modality molecular imaging, and the latter was to locate paramagnetic reagents functioning in specific tissues and organs of the animals.

     I attended to all lectures of professors, Jim Satterlee, Al Garroway, Bernhard Blumich, Larry Werbelow, and Bob London about theoretical, historical, and latest stories of NMR and MRI. Especially, I was very interested in a small magnet (100mm diameter x 200mm long) of ACT Inc., presented in the lecture of “NMR without Superconducting Magnets” by Prof. B. Blumich, (Eiichi introduced him as a leader in the mobile NMR world), which was deeply concerned with our works. Afterwards, in front of our posters, I discussed with him about spectra of phantoms and mice, and about B0 shimming of permanent magnets; Designs of magnets were continuously renewed day by day or made a change according to subjects; our 1.5-T magnets presented in the poster were recently developed and had the most homogenous magnetic fields ever made (homogeneity in B0 field was announced elsewhere too by NEOMAX Engineering Co., Ltd.); and it was difficult to reply to his question if the B0 high filed can be shimmed using only iron pellets.

     I also discussed with a researcher about a tree-MRI, in the case with a C-shaped open access permanent magnet and rf coil as well, that belonged to one of the oldest research subjects of MRTe and was still  continued. Many people asked me if the magnet’s temperature was controlled or not. In practise, the precise control of magnet temperature seemed essential to obtain good image quality. Dr. Jim Carolan known as the first constructor of Bruker’s superconducting magnet and Dr. Athol Gibson, a constructor of spectrometer, were gazing upon our mice images, I thought because the progress of permanent magnets exceeded their expectation.
     Eiichi gave me an oppoutunity for sponsor-talk as same as the other sponsors attended. I told the attendee that “the quality of MRI with the latest permanent magnets has achieved great improvements as shown in my posters, they are light weight, safe and stable, and makes good images. Thus it will soon become primary tools for molecular imaging or anatomical studies of small animals in SPF areas”.
     Finally, thank you Dr. Steve Altobelli, president of New Mexico Resonance for his kind help during the meeting.
                                                                                                                  T. Haishi, Ph.D.

記事作成；2010-11-22，02:51:08

米国 ニューメキシコ Albuquerque紀行(2010.11.12~14） この感動を皆様と共に。　

  ニューメキシコ大学、ニューメキシコ・テック大学、ロスアラモス国立研究所、サンディア国立研究所、ニュー・メキシコ・レゾナンス社、ABQMR社、ユタ大学らが主催しているNew Mexico Regional NMR meeting (略称NMR**2)に参加する機会に恵まれました。
　この会合には今迄に、Paul Lauterber, Richard Ernst, Kamil Ugurbil, Paul Callaghan, Seiji Ogawa, Peter van Ziel, Alex Pines 大先生がたが参加なさっています。今回はBernhard Bluemich教授がお越しでした。皆さんにとって、いつにもまして昔の仲間が大勢集まった楽しい会合であったようです。
　12日は、ニューメキシカンレストランにて歓迎の宴が催されました。賑やかにコミュニケーションを図っている様子は映画のシーンのようでした。
　13日の朝食はミーティング会場で振舞われたコーヒーとドーナツ。私は持参ポスターを貼り、クリスピードーナツとコーヒ半杯を頬張りスタンバイ。まず、Blumich教授の片側永久磁石を主に用いたNMR/MRIの講義。次に、Al Redfield 老教授の0.1秒の移動時間という荒業を使ったJ-couplingの話を拝聴しました。
　昼になり、Ann Smith教授のお気に入りのカップケーキのあるSlate street Cafeでビュッフェ式食事をとり、会場に戻ったところで、Blumich大先生からMRTeのポスターに関する質問を頂戴したので、頑張って答えましたが討論にまで至らなかったのは私の英語がヘタだったからでしょうか？また、Jim Carolan老博士（Nalorac元社長，最初の市販の超伝導磁石を作った方らしい）とAtholl Gibson老氏（初期分光計制作）のお二人がポスターを眺めながら「・・・・Jesus !」と呟いていたようですが、英語圏の人間ではない私にはこのニュアンスは解りません。
　午後一番に、ブルカー、Combrige-Isotope 社と我がMRTe 社の企業紹介があったので、「永久磁石のマウス用MRI 装置は、超伝導磁石に代わって、これから広く動物用施設で使われるようになる」とスピーチしましたが、反論はありませんでした。ヤッタネ**2！ 
　続いて、Larry Werbelow 先生のスピンについて、とBob London 先生のメチオニンの講義があり（この話は難しくて大変でした）会議は終了。
　夜、大量のケータリングで立食パーティが福島ラボで催されました。その席で、Jim Corolan 老博士から激励の言葉を頂戴でき、更に、Brian Saam 教授からも、「また、会いましょう」と声を掛けられてとても嬉しく、
再び先生方にお目にかかれるよう頑張らなければと思える会合でした。
　今回、T.Haishi(拝師)は図らずもメジャーデビューをしたようです。後日、今迄何度お願いしても戴けなかったミーティングの纏めの資料＆MRTeがリストアップされている次回の予定が送られて来ました◎。

  We performed NMR imaging for two pieces of hand-rolled sushi and a red rice ball using a 0.3T/14cm-gap magnet which had a 18cm diameter x 8cm height maximum imaging volume. The sushi and the rice ball were bought in a local super market. The imaging sequence was a 3D-gradinet echo method; the total time for acquisition was 11 minutes, imaging matrix was 512x256x64, TR/TE=40/6ms, matrix size = 0.4ｘ0.4ｘ0.8mm.
 The upper image set shows the slice position of an upper layer. The lower image set corresponds to the center layer of the 3D imaging data.
 The rightmost image is “Maguro-Akami-Nigiri-Sushi” (lean tuna). The center is “Ikura-Gunkan” (salmon roe topped on a battleship-style rolled rice). The left hand side is a red rice ball as an imaging reference. The red rice ball is made of glutinous rice and red beans. Sesame and salt are sprinkled on its surface for flavoring.
 Please see the difference of the rice density in the red rice ball in the upper/lower images in addition that there are random locations of the red beans in the same rice ball. The rice densities of the two different Sushi(s) (Nigiri/Gunkan) seem little different and lean tuna and salmon roe are simultaneously imaged. It is said that such the porosity made of rice surface-connection has a great effect to its texture and taste so that I hope we may be able to perform qualitative analysis for rise taste with an MR image’s statistical analysis of detecting rice’s long axis and porosity.
 These images are by courtesy of Dr. Shinya Handa.

アップロード日時　2010-11-10　02:10:53