Car-Sized Magnet to be Parked at NYU

NEW YORK, May 20 -- The 30-ton, superconducting magnet that forms the center of a 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system developed by Siemens Medical Solutions will be uncrated and moved by crane from a truck into the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine's Center for Biomedical Imaging this Friday morning.

The 7-Tesla MRI will be the most powerful MRI machine in the New York metropolitan area and one of only a handful of such big magnets available for clinical research in the world. The magnet holds some 200 miles of superconducting wire and is 140,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field. The octagon-shaped steel shield that will surround the magnet at NYU will contain its stray magnetic field.

The MRI machine will allow collaborative researchers from NYU, Brookhaven National Labs, Johns Hopkins University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and the Nathan S. Kline Institute to obtain incredibly detailed snapshots of metabolic pathways in the living brain, leading to a better understanding of how the brain's metabolism is affected by disease, Siemens said in a statement. This information could lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of a variety of diseases, including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, and ultimately may help prevent the progression of these debilitating brain diseases, the company said.

A live Webcam will record Friday's unloading and move of the 7-Tesla; it can be viewed at: www.med.nyu.edu/cbi