The University of Maryland School of Medicine has won a $7.9 million federal grant to acquire an eight-ton, two-story imaging device that will help researchers in the region find new ways to treat cancer, AIDS and other diseases.
The device, a spectrometer, houses a superconducting magnet, and is a kind of MRI machine for researching molecules rather than diagnosing people. And once it's installed in November 2011, it will be only one of two in the country; the other is in North Carolina.
The giant Nuclear Magnetic Resonance magnet — strong enough to lift 50 cars — will be shared by researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and two other Maryland campuses in College Park and Baltimore County, which jointly applied for a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers will be able to see how diseases operate and develop drugs to treat them, said David J. Weber, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the NMR core facility at the university. He was a co-director of the grant.
He said researchers from across the Mid-Atlantic are expected to line up to use the 950-MHz magnet, which will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's many times larger than magnets already in use at Maryland.
Weber said researchers will put test tubes filled with proteins, or combinations of molecules, into the machine in much the same way that a doctor would put a patient in an MRI machine — only the researchers will get a much closer look.
The spectrometer works by creating a magnetic field. The nuclei of the atoms that make up the molecules placed inside are themselves like little magnets. This causes them to move, and that action, called resonance, can be mapped in 3-D.
"We will be able to see proteins at their very highest resolution," he said. "It's like a big puzzle, and we will be able to see exactly how to put the pieces together. In my research with cancer, we'll be able to make sure they fit perfectly, which means we can see that the drug works and has fewer or even no side effects."
Weber is seeking to develop a drug to treat melanoma. He's looking at proteins that are tumor markers for the disease and an agent that will inhibit the proteins. With the aid of the magnet in North Carolina, he's already seen the proteins in three-dimensional clarity and how different agents bind to it — and not to other proteins. That's where problems, and drug side effects, arise.
One possible drug he and other scientists have designed will soon go into clinical trial. If successful, the drug could be used for a large percentage of melanoma cases. In general, the magnet could improve the odds for drugs, most of which don't end up with government approval because they aren't effective or cause too many dangerous side effects.
When the spectrometer arrives, it will have a home ready on campus in Baltimore where other magnets are housed. A specially designed room shields the powerful magnets. Weber said some have likened the spectrometer's appearance to the R2D2 robot in "Star Wars," though he said it's more like a thermos. The magnet requires liquid helium around it to keep it cool.
The award came from the NIH High-End Instrumentation grant program at the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health. Normally, the cost of equipment applicants can seek is capped at $2 million, but the agency leveraged federal stimulus dollars to raise the ceiling one time to $8 million.
More than 830 applications came in for a few grants, said Marjorie A. Tingle, director of the grant program. Normally, the agency gets about 100 applications from scientists who typically have NIH funding already for their research and can demonstrate to a panel of experts in their field how the new equipment will contribute. The awards are still being made, but there will be no other magnets of this size.
"It's going to be key to advancing their biomedical research," Tingle said of Maryland's magnet. "They will, no doubt, advance research into many diseases."
Other researchers at Maryland said they will be able to put the magnet to good use.
"NMR spectroscopy plays a critical role in many areas of cancer research, and having a 950 MHz NMR spectrometer on our campus is a phenomenal resource for researchers at our cancer center," said Dr. Kevin J. Cullen, director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, in a statement. "It will greatly enhance and speed our efforts to uncover new information about cancer and design new drugs to treat it."
About the magnet
Use: Imaging at the molecular level for research into diseases and potential treatments
Strength: Superconducting 950 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance magnet is 23 Teslas (the unit of measure for magnets), compared with 1 or 2 for a common MRI machine. It can lift 50 cars.
Cost: $7.9 million paid for with federal stimulus dollars via the National Institutes of Health
Maker: Bruker BioSpin