North Jersey NMR Topical Group

Speaker: Boyd M. Goodson, Associate Dean – Research, College of Agricultural, Life, & Physical Sciences at Southern Illinois University

Title: Parahydrogen-Based Hyperpolarization Techniques for Spectroscopy and Imaging with New Contrast Agents and ‘Point-of-Care’ MRI Scanners

Abstract: NMR and MRI enjoy wide applicability but suffer from poor detection sensitivity. For example, MRI can provide exquisite anatomical images of soft tissues, but the signal comes almost entirely from high-concentration 1H nuclei in the body’s water and fat molecules. It would be extremely informative to instead obtain MRI signals from various lower-concentration species. We are pursuing methods for generating high, non-equilibrium nuclear spin polarization—hyperpolarization—that can transiently increase the sensitivity by orders of magnitude. One family of approaches uses parahydrogen to create hyperpolarization. These methods use catalysts to facilitate the hyperpolarization process–either by giving rise to hydrogenation of a substrate’s unsaturated chemical bonds (PHIP), or by having the catalyst reversibly bind the substrate and parahydrogen to allow hyperpolarization transfer via scalar couplings (i.e. SABRE). We are studying PHIP and SABRE with homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, in aqueous environments, and in variable magnetic fields to create hyperpolarized agents for NMR and MRI. We are interested in approaches that enable efficient separation of hyperpolarized molecules (both liquids and gases) from PHIP/SABRE catalysts, and/or allow longer-lasting hyperpolarization—particularly in heteronuclei Finally, we are working to integrate parahydrogen-based hyperpolarization with a new type of portable low-field (64 mT) “point-of-care” clinical MRI scanner.

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