INDUSTRY NEWS
NIH funds Rice/THI research into MRI tracking of stem cells
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Written by Editorial Staff
November 13, 2009
FURTHER READINGPersonTopicSection     According to THI, the grant from NIH will be used to further develop cell-tracking nanotube technology that could make MRI up to 40 times more sensitive than existing MRI. The grant will be used to perfect a technology based on an ultrasensitive class of contrast agents invented at Rice University in 2005. The technology involves using nanotube-encased gadoliunim. The "gadonanotubes" are 40 times more effective at boosting MRI signals than traditional gadolinium contrast agents, according to THI. "There's a great deal of interest in using stem cells to regenerate damaged heart tissue, but there hasn't been a really effective way to track the cells in vivo and test their effectiveness," said gadonanotube inventor Lon Wilson, professor of chemistry at Rice. "Gadonanotubes may be what's needed because they are small enough to internally label individual cells with a large number of nanotubes and sensitive enough to track the cells in real time." The gadonanotubes make the labeled cells highly magnetic, which may make it possible to guide the cells in vivo with an external magnetic field. This could help keep these cells in a desired location for the several weeks it might take for them to differentiate into heart muscle cells, according to the researchers. The partnership between Rice and THI will label the stem cells with gadonanotubes and use them to try to regenerate damaged hear tissue. MRI will be used to track the cells and determine their effectiveness. The grant was awarded as part of $200 million distributed to the NIH from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. According to Rice, 20,000 grant proposals for ARRA funding were received by NIH and the gadonanotube research ranked in the highest top 2 percent.
Last updated on November 16, 2009 at 2:42 pm EST
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