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Ed Yeates ReportingInstead of a small laboratory animal giving up its life in the name of science, many now will be spared, thanks to a 1.7 million dollar investment at the University of Utah.
Most of us know what an mri machine is, with tremendous magnetic power for diagnosing ailments. Imagine a machine like it, only much, much smaller, for mice.
Laboratory mice and rats are bred so scientists can study human diseases and then try new treatments that just might cure those ailments; but in that process of learning how it happens and what to do, the animal gives up its life.
For many mice, Dr. Edward Hsu says that won't be necessary anymore, once the University of Utah installs a new small animal MRI. Though only five feet high and five feet wide, it's actually more powerful than the human version.
Dr. Hsu: "In terms of field strength, it's more than twice as more powerful."
It's also 15 times stronger in detailing pictures of tiny soft tissue and organs in these animals. Instead of looking for detail in the autopsy, researchers now see it a new way.
Dr. Edward Hsu, University of Utah Biomedical Engineering: "It allows us, gives us the ability to study the animal while it's alive, keep it alive and survive the examination."
The high resolution pictures of a living, breathing animal could open all kinds of doors in studying diseases, from Alzheimer's to cancer. At the new Brain Institute it could give insight into neurological disorders like Autism and M.S. Maybe even diabetes and epilepsy. The list goes on.
The U is buying the MRI through a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
