New University of Alabama facility could transform brain research and more

The University of Alabama has opened its new $10 million, 9,700-square-foot MRI Research Facility, an addition to the University Medical Center. The move is a big step forward in furthering the university's capacity to conduct research across a number of academic disciplines.

The centerpiece of the addition to the University Medical Center complex at Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street is a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging machine. The unit is roughly twice as powerful as MRIs commonly used in clinical settings.

Sharlene Newman, executive director of the Alabama Life Research Institute, said, "It has a higher magnetic field strength, and it is the most widely used type of MRI for research in the world."

The unit has a 3 Tesla rating, which is a number that describes the strength of the magnetic field the machine produces. The 3 Tesla machine can operate faster at the same resolution as a 1.5 Tesla machine and it can produce higher resolution imagery with less interference so researchers can see more detail.

"Most of the research, at least initially, will be focused on neuroscience. Most of us who use the MRI scanner currently study the brain. We have faculty from across campus who study everything from education neuroscience, to substance abuse, to autism, to aging and dementia," Newman said.

The university is also adding a new undergraduate major in neuroscience that Newman said was recently approved by the UA trustees.

The new MRI facility is also opening the door for the study of the people of West Alabama, which Newman said is a sector of the population that is drastically understudied. She said that West Alabama children face a number of developmental challenges, from lead paint poisoning to environmental stress factors. Researchers hope to better understand those challenges by using the new MRI facility.

"We are sitting in the 'stroke belt.' We have high rates of everything. We want to understand the impact of the environment here, including the diet and the particular stressors of the environment on the brain," Newman said.

Rajesh Kana, director of the neuroscience team team at the Alabama Life Research Institute, said the machine can be used in innovate ways that help researchers understand the brain.

"You can look at the structure of the brain, how different parts of the brain are organized, you can look at the cable connections in the brain. You can also look at how the brain responds to a task, like if you are doing a math problem or reading a sentence or watching a move. You can see what part of your brain responds or does not respond," Kana said.

The new MRI facility will also be part of a national network comprised of 25 sites that are all studying brain development in a program known as Healthy Brain and Child Development Study. The program is recruiting pregnant women in their second trimester of pregnancy and will follow the child through 10 years of age to help find the answers to brain development questions.

Researcher Lea Yerby, associate professor in the department of community medicine and population health, said, "We are also looking for resiliency factors as well. If we find that there is stress or exposures to things that might negatively impact a child's brain development, yet the child has positive brain development, what helped them to have those positive outcomes?"

There is a great benefit for people who participate in the long-term study. Newman said that if they find some abnormality during their scans, the family will be notified and the researchers will direct the information to their health care provider so they can get treatment.

While the university's focus is on brain research, Newman does foresee clinical applications in the future. The Alabama Life Research Institute is already working with the sports medicine doctors who can use the facility for diagnostic work. The MRI is a full body scanner and is not limited to brain research.

Russell Mumper, vice president for research and economic development at the University of Alabama, said the new MRI Research Facility enhances UA's reputation as a research university, a focus of the university's growth and development in recent years.

"This facility was three years in the making. The proposal for having the facility came from six different colleges on campus," Mumper said. "It really has two important roles. One is to facilitate important research. Because we have never had such a facility on campus, faculty that was doing that had to go off-campus. Now we are able to recruit faculty because of this facility. The second thing that was a really compelling reason for this is that several undergraduate and graduate degree programs will benefit from this facility."

UA has spent nearly $10 million on the new facility and Mumper said the investment is part of a larger strategy to enhance the university's research efforts. UA was designated as an R1, or Very High Doctoral Research University, by the Carnegie Foundation in 2018. Mumper said the new facility is an important piece in the growing research reputation the university is enjoying. The new facility was constructed with space to add a second MRI machine in the future.

"In the last four years, we've doubled the size of the research enterprise. We are certainly one of the top fastest- growing enterprises in the United States," Mumper said.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: University of Alabama opens magnetic resonance imaging research facility