AMRIS Rules and Policy

The Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (AMRIS) facility is a fee-for-service auxiliary of the McKnight Brain Institute (MBI) of the University of Florida. The AMRIS facility has state-of-the-art NMR instrumentation for solution state biomolecular NMR, solid-state biological NMR, microimaging, small animal imaging, large animal imaging, human brain imaging, and human whole-body imaging. Detailed protocols for human imaging systems can be found here. With the support of a P41 Resource Grant (Dr. Stephen Blackband, PI) from the NIH/NCRR and an NSF grant to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), AMRIS also provides a radio frequency (rf) lab for developing unique coils and capabilities for use with the magnets.

Click here for a complete list of available instrumentation.

AMRIS Tours:

Only authorized users who have completed the safety course are allowed in the AMRIS facility. The human imaging systems have additional safety requirements. However, AMRIS staff members are available to provide guided tours for small groups of people who are interested in seeing the facility. For personal safety, people with heart pace makers or other surgically implanted metal devices will not be allowed to participate in tours. Please contact the Coordinator to arrange a tour.

AMRIS Facility Access:

AMRIS is supported by user fees, the MBI, and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). The facilities are available to all qualified researchers from UF, other universities, and industry. Commercial clients are welcome to use the facility but the rates charged are higher. Please contact the AMRIS Director for details. Academic users have scheduling priority over commercial users.

All users must attend a 1 hour AMRIS safety course and pass a short written examination before using the facilities.

All users must provide the AMRIS Office Administrator a valid encumbrance number with which to pay the user fee before using the facilities.

Several mechanisms are available for using the facilities.

1. Instrument Operation by Experienced Users: Any experienced user who can demonstrate the ability to safely and properly operate the systems can independently operate most of the AMRIS instrumentation. This is the least expensive method to use the AMRIS facility. Details for approval vary with each system and are described under the particular instrument. Please contact the appropriate AMRIS application scientists for approval to use the facilities as an independent operator.

2. Data Collection by AMRIS Staff: With the exception of the 3T human systems, users will be charged for the total instrument fees plus an hourly consulting fee for this service. The staff scientist should be included as a co-author on publications resulting from the work, especially for extended studies involving considerable amount of AMRIS staff involvement (time and effort). Please contact the appropriate AMRIS application scientist or the AMRIS Director for details.

3. Data Collection and Analysis by AMRIS Staff: In a limited number of cases, data can be collected and analyzed by AMRIS staff for the full hourly consulting fee plus the hourly cost of NMR instruments. Due to a limited number of staff members, we discourage this choice and would prefer instead to help train a student to do the analysis. This is the most expensive method for using the AMRIS facility. In addition to full instrument time and consulting fees, AMRIS staff members involved at this level must be included as co-authors or primary authors of resulting publications.

4. NMR Imaging and Spectroscopy Classes: The Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Neuroscience offer annual NMR and MRI lecture and laboratory graduate level classes; these classes provide the theory and practical application of NMR and MRI. Contact Dr. Edison for further details.

5. Users Individually Trained by AMRIS Staff: The training can be tailored to meet individual needs. In addition to the instrument time, an hourly consulting fee will be charged for this service . Please contact the appropriate AMRIS application scientist for training.

AMRIS Safety Policy:

A summary of the safety issues follows:

The magnets in the AMRIS facility are always turned on. This poses several SERIOUS DANGERS:

1. Metallic objects should never be brought around the magnets. They can become flying projectiles and can severely damage the magnet and injure or kill a person.

2. Heart pacemakers will stop functioning and surgically implanted metallic devices can be dislodged around the magnets.

3. Magnets occasionally quench. A magnet quench is the rapid loss of liquid nitrogen and liquid helium into the room. People can die of asphyxiation, by freezing, or both if proper precautions are not taken during a magnet quench. In the event of a quench in the AMRIS facility, it is important to leave immediately.

   It is the responsibility of users to learn and follow safety guidelines. Serious or repeated violations of AMRIS safety policies will result in loss of access to the facility.

1. If the guest will need to enter the facility more than once, he or she will need to first take the 1 hour AMRIS safety class.

2. For a single visit, a guest must be approved and registered with AMRIS staff, supervised at all times by the authorized user and not allowed to visit other magnets. Staff members will be able to provide tours, if desired.

3. Guests are not allowed in the dangerous "red" zones painted on the floors around each magnet.

   It is the responsibility of the users to follow or guest policy. Violations of any of these rules may result in the loss of AMRIS privileges by the user.

1. Directly from a federal, state, local, or private research grant. This is the preferred and primary method for most users. It is the responsibility of users to include all necessary instrument and consulting fees in the budgets of grants which will utilize the AMRIS facility. The AMRIS Director or application scientists are available to help estimate instrument time and cost requirements.

2. Qualified researchers who are not at the University of Florida, Florida State University or Los Alamos National Laboratory are invited to submit short (less than 2 page) proposals for AMRIS instrument time and, in some cases, staff consulting time. This external user program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). Outside users who collaborate on projects with faculty at UF, FSU, or LANL also qualify for these funds. To maximize this important source of funds, we will limit the funding to 2 years. All researchers who use NHMFL funds are expected to secure external independent funding for the project no more than 2 years following the start of the NHMFL support. For further details, please contact the AMRIS Director.

1. Advanced reservation requests are made monthly and are due on the 15th of the month for the following month using the request form found on each systems web page.

2. Requests made more than month in advance will only be considered in special circumstances such as a long-term time-course study or to accomodate a visiting collaborators travel plans.

Lab Courtesy

Users must start and stop their experiments on time. If an experiment exceeds the scheduled time, we may be forced to stop the experiment.

Billing Policy:

Data Storage, Processing, and Analysis:

Users are responsible for their own data, and all data must be removed from the NMR computers within 4 weeks of collection.

Data older than 4 weeks can be deleted at the discretion of AMRIS staff without notification to the owner of the data.

All human research on AMRIS instrumentation must comply with HIPAA regulations. Data handling protocols on the 3T instruments have been implemented according to these regulations (University of Florida Privacy Office).

AMRIS Facility Acknowledgements:

"NMR (MRI) data were obtained at the Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (AMRIS) facility in the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida."

All publications resulting from NHMFL support should state:

"NMR (MRI) data were supported through the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and obtained at the Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (AMRIS) facility in the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida."

Please send the AMRIS Director references of all publications using the facility. We would also appreciate a report of awards, grants, and other honors related to the facility that you receive.