DESIRE

Recent technological advances, such as high magnetic field MR imaging systems, high magnetic field gradient coils and specialized radiofrequency detectors brought the imaging of single biological cells within reach. The application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to the study of small biological systems, in particular single biological cells, requires the acquisition of images not only with very high spatial resolution and but also with adequate contrast to noise ratio. The overall goal of the work proposed here is to develop MR imaging techniques for use in ultra high field MRI systems. In particular, we propose to implement the diffusion enhancement of signal and resolution ("DESIRE") technique, a diffusion based technique which has the potential of highly increasing the contrast in imaging with very high spatial resolution. The DESIRE effect has been demonstrated experimentally in 1 dimension. Here, we propose to implement the DESIRE method in 2, and 3 dimensions. A major portion of this work involves the design and testing of pulse sequences to facilitate the implementation of the technique. In addition, we plan to investigate the contrast associated with diffusion enhanced images and measure diffusion properties in phantoms, single biological cells, and biological tissues at very high magnetic fields.