Facility

The CCNI is a research laboratory of 3,000 sq-ft building located on the University of Massachusetts Medical School Campus in Worcester. The center is housed away from the main campus on the old grounds of the Worcester State Hospital, immediately adjacent to the Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, and is home to an MRI machine. A centralized 37,000 sq. ft. animal facility is designed, equipped and staffed to provide all aspects of contemporary lab animal care. There are 44 small animal rooms, including strict environmental control rooms and 21 rooms. CCNI itself has two temporary holding rooms for rats and monkeys. 140 sq. ft. faculty office.

The center is equipped with a 4.7T/ 40cm horizontal bore Bruker Biospec run by Paravision 3.0.2. It has 2 gradient sets, a 26cm ID set with 5 G/cm with a 250us rise time, and a 12cm ID set with 25 G/cm and a 120us rise time. There are a multitude of RF coils for 1H imaging and arterial spin labeling from Bruker and INSL. Most of the images collected use a dual coil system that was developed with CCNI input by a local MRI products company. Full subject life support and physiological monitoring is available for this system.