About Advanced Imaging Research Center

AIRC tour

Mission

The AIRC has three principal missions:

  • To develop novel in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) science
  • To facilitate biomedical research that uses in vivo MR
  • To educate and train researchers in MR science

     

AIRC history: phase 0

In the late 1990s the need for increased access to imaging technology became clear to the OHSU neuroscience community.  This effort was spearheaded by Drs. Jeri Janowsky and Alex Stevens. The completion of the OHSU Advanced Imaging Research Center was greatly facilitated by funding obtained from the for a grant submitted by Drs. John Crabbe and Jeri Janowsky. In 2003 Professor Charles Springer was recruited to serve as the Director of OHSU's Advanced Imaging Research Center.

AIRC history: phase I

With the leadership of the Director, Professor Charles S. Springer, Jr., Phase I of the AIRC plan culminated with occupancy of a 2500 ft2 building on the south side of OHSU’s Marquam Hill campus (745 S.W. Gaines Street) in the Fall of 2003. This building housed offices for the embryonic AIRC faculty and staff until January 2006. The building is now an AIRC satellite facility located at the OHSU West Campus in Hillsboro and houses the original 3T whole-body MR instrument. The facility features a fully configured Siemens Trio research instrument employing a whole-body, superconducting electromagnet with a field strength of 3 Tesla (T), a high-performance, whole-body field gradient coil set with maximum gradient strength of 40 mT/m, and a power RF amplifier (35 kW). Control and electronic rooms are adjacent to the magnet hall. The instrument is set up for functional MRI (fMRI) and multinuclear MR spectroscopy (MRS) studies as well as all forms of MRI.

AIRC history: phase II

Phase II of the AIRC plan began in January 2006 when the Center moved to the new multi-story Biomedical Research Building (BRB) on the north side of Marquam Hill. In the BRB, the AIRC now occupies approximately 7500 ft2 including space for the 3T Prisma suite and the fully-configured 7T whole-body and 12T MR Instruments with their associated control rooms and electronics areas. There are also (expanded) faculty and staff offices and additional office spaces for postdoctoral associates and graduate students. There is a conference room, a chemistry laboratory, and much larger spaces for the electronic shop and image processing laboratory. There is also a mock scanner for fMRI training and control studies.